MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. 55 
and where dredges and other implements can be stored. 
The Committee purposely did not arrange for any larger 
fixed aquaria or tanks in the laboratory as they desired to 
have the experience of a summer’s work before deciding 
whether any such were necessary, and if so where they 
should be placed. It is now generally agreed that the 
station 1s so near to the sea, and pure water is so easily 
obtained when required, that it does not seem worth while 
to introduce pipes and a pump; while all the space in the 
laboratory is so useful that we can ill afford to occupy any 
of it with fixed tanks. There is, however, a small plot of 
eround alongside, on the western side of the steps leading 
to the beach, and just opposite the front door of the 
station, which might be used for the erection of a small 
aquarium and tank house. ‘There is also, on the beach 
close to, a large rock pool placed in such a position between 
two reefs and the shore above that by the erection of three 
comparatively small concrete walls of no great height, 
and lying in a sheltered position, a pool having a length 
of about 40 feet and a breadth of from 12 to 18 feet and 
about 6 feet deep in the centre could readily be formed 
(see Pl. V.). Such a pool as this, into which the sea could 
be admitted or not as required at each tide through a 
sluice in one of the walls, would be of great service for 
keeping larger animals in, and might be made use of for 
spawning fish if the Lancashire Sea-Fisheries Committee 
decide to establish a small fish-hatchery alongside our 
biological station. 
THE INAUGURATION OF THE STATION. 
Towards the end of May when the building was nearly 
completed, it was decided by the Committee that it was 
due as well to their supporters in Liverpool as to the 
inhabitants of the Isle of Man, amongs whom they were 
