78 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



observations at the present time. ITe ends his paper with 

 the following paragraph : — 



kk I have drawn up these observations chiefly in the 

 hope of inducing others to present us with similar reviews 

 of the shell-banks of our coast. Geology and zoology will 

 gain as much by inquiring how our marine animals are 

 associated together as by investigating genera and species, 

 though the former subject has, as yet, been but little 

 attended to in comparison with the latter." 



That sentiment is in thorough accord with the views 

 of nature expressed in these L.M.B.C. reports, and it is in 

 the same spirit that we now examine, and hope to add to 

 Forbes' observations of seventy years ago ; we are only 

 continuing., and I hope extending, the work that he began 

 so well. 



As yet we have had only a few days' work on the 

 Ballaugh bank, and if we have already found more species 

 than Forbes records, that does not necessarily lead us to 

 the conclusion that the fauna is now more abundant, since 

 we have dealt with some groups of animals that were not 

 given in the older list, and possibly our modern methods 

 with a convenient steamer, an Agassiz-trawl and wire-rope 

 enable us to work more rapidly and effectively. But look- 

 ing merely at the groups recorded by Forbes we find that 

 we have not found quite so many Mollusca, but a great 

 many more Zoophytes and Polyzoa. The bank seems to be 

 particularly rich in Nudibranchiata and in Ooelenterata ; 

 in one haul we counted 200 beautiful colonies of Alcyonium 

 digitatum, including both white and orange forms. 



There is no object in making a detailed comparison or 

 attempting to draw any conclusions until we have done 

 more work on the bank, and accumulated a greater number 

 of records. It occurred to me, however, that it would be 

 interesting to extend the range of the observations by 



