SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 153 



(4) Examination (microscopic and chemical) of the 



samples of sea bottoms. 



(5) Physical and chemical work on the sea water. 



Determination of the densities and salinities of the 

 water samples, and gas analyses of same. 



(6) Co-relating* results of the drift-bottle experiments. 



(7) Preparation of charts, tables, and reports showing 



the distribution of animals, and other results. 



Conclusion. 



The northern area of the Irish Sea, from Liverpool to 

 Holyhead and round the Isle of Man to Cumberland, has 

 probably been more thoroughly worked, 



(1) Topographically (as to bottom deposits, currents, 



etc.), 



(2) Zoologically (by the Liverpool Marine Biology 



Committee), 



(3) As to its Fisheries (by the Lancashire Sea Fisheries 

 Committee)^ and is consequently probably better 



known in its details than any other area of similar 

 size in British Seas. 

 It has, moreover, on its borders the marine laboratories 

 mentioned above, with their staff of workers accustomed 

 to the work of the locality, and hence seems, both from 

 these circumstances and from its physical features, to 

 be marked out as an area in which, with comparatively 

 little new organisation, the proposed scheme of statistical 

 and observational fisheries investigations could be carried 

 out, in order to test : — 



(1) How far it is possible to obtain an accurate statis- 



tical knowledge of the populations of a sea area ; 

 and 



(2) Whether such knowledge leads to conclusions of 

 importance in connection with the fishing industries. 



