34 TRANSACTIONS L1VEEPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



scarceness is difficult to account for, as the previous 

 winter had been mild and the spring favourable for an 

 early fauna. 



" The temperature of the sea was 48 Q F. at the beginning 

 of April, two degrees higher than in 1894, when the 

 temperature did not reach 48° until 26th of April. The 

 fauna, nevertheless, was more like that usually recorded 

 for February than for April. Diatoms throughout the 

 month were exceedingly abundant and aided by the 

 gelatinous algae quickly clogged the meshes of the tow- 

 net. Often when the can at the end of the net was 

 emptied into a glass bottle, the contents had the appear- 

 ance of thick pea-soup, so great was the abundance of 

 diatoms. 



" The medusae showed a decrease in the number of 

 species compared with 1894, and a great decrease in 

 quantity, especially in the case of Margellium octopunc- 

 tatum, which swarmed in the Bay in 1894, but of which 

 only four specimens were taken in 1896. Another notice- 

 able feature was that all the medusae, except Obelia, were 

 young forms and usually belonged to the earliest free- 

 swimming stage. 



" The ctenophores usually plentiful in Port Erin Bay in 

 the spring w T ere entirely absent. A species of Fritillaria 

 made its first appearance on 21st of April, and a single 

 specimen of the larval Magelona on 29th of April. 



"Agah?iopsis elegans, Sars (recorded as Halistemma, sp.? 

 Fauna, iv. p. 279), first taken in April 1894, did not make 

 its appearance in 1896." 



Mr. Browne will communicate this session to the 

 Biological Society a revised list of the L.M.B.C. Medusae. 



The Committee have lately purchased from Mr. M. 

 Treleaven Beade, the inventor, one of his folding 

 " Shell-bend " boats for the use of the Biological Station. 



