MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT TORT ERIN. 57 



At the very first meetings of the Committee in 1885 

 the intensive study of small areas was put forward as one 

 of our aims, and Hilbre Island was then chosen as the 

 locality to be systematically and minutely examined 

 and recorded. Some progress was made, specimens were 

 collected and observations recorded; but in a very few 

 years, for what seemed then to be very good and sufficient 

 reasons, the scene of our work was shifted to Puffin 

 Island, and again after a period of years to Port Erin. 

 In each case, and in each successive year, records were 

 kept and some advance was made; but other objects 

 which seemed at the moment more pressing, if not 

 ultimately more important, ^uch as sea-fisheries investi- 

 gations, students' classes, and the preparation of L.M.B.C. 

 Memoirs, from time to time intervened. Still the object 

 was always kept in view, and occasional contributions to 

 it were made. In the fourteenth of these Annual 

 Reports (1900) I discussed some aspects of the matter 

 under the headings " Distributional Charts " (p. 23), and 

 " A ' Census ' of the Sea," (p. 26). We had then recorded 

 over 2,000 species of marine animals from Port Erin, and 

 in that report six distributional charts were published 

 giving some information as to the occurrence of these 

 animals. This was a beginning of such a detailed 

 biological survey of our district as we have often put 

 before us as one of our primary objects. Much, however, 

 remains to be done, and it is work that ought to be 

 undertaken by many observers, who will divide up the 

 groups and the localities between them. I hope to induce 

 students and others working at the station during the 

 coming year to co-operate with us, and I re-print here 

 the plan of Port Erin Bay (fig. 3), which was drawn up 

 seven years ago, in the expectation that the squares into 



