MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. 31 



lend a steam-tug for the first dredging expedition of the 

 Committee, Sir James Poole followed soon after with a 

 similar offer, and the Liverpool Salvage Association gave 

 the services of one or other of their steamers on several 

 occasions during the next few years. Many other 

 friends of science in Liverpool, Manchester, Southport, 

 Birkenhead, Chester, and the Isle of Man, have helped by 

 subscribing to the funds and in other ways, and, either 

 in the field or in the laboratory, over fifty of our local 

 naturalists have taken part in practical work, which has 

 resulted in published papers — a notable instance of 

 co-operation in science. The Committee has published 

 eighteen Annual Reports, five volumes on the " Fauna 

 and Flora of Liverpool Bay," and more recently a series of 

 twelve " Memoirs " for the use of students in laboratories. 

 " Probably the most important outcome of this 

 exploring work has been the establishment of a Marine 

 Biological Station, the only one on the west coast of 

 England. Any plan by which the conveniences and exact 

 methods of a laboratory can be combined with actual work 

 on or close to the sea, where the animals may be examined 

 alive and in their natural surroundings, is obviously a 

 great advantage, and that is precisely what a Biological 

 Station offers. It is a seaside laboratory where the 

 observer can apply the refinements of modern apparatus 

 and re-agents to the work of the field-naturalist. After 

 five years' use of an old Dock Board observatory on Puffin 

 Island, off Anglesey, the Committee moved their marine 

 station to Port Erin, at the south end of the Isle of Man, 

 where they have now, thanks to the enlightened action 

 of the Manx Government, a substantial, two-storeyed 

 building, measuring ninety-five feet by forty-five feet, 

 containing laboratories, an aquarium, and a fish-hatchery, 

 and provided with a large, open-air, sea- water pond for 



