SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. 95 



of tlie considerable differences that they present to the 

 hauls made with the Hensen, Nansen and other forms of 

 net off Port Erin and elsewhere round the South end of 

 the Isle of Man. 



As Mr. Scott points out, we have during this last 

 year collected and examined more than twice as many 

 gatherings as in any previous year. The Plankton 

 discussed in last year's report amounted to 400 samples; 

 this year it has run up to nearly 900. The increase is, 

 however, due not so much to work in the Lancashire 

 district as to the very large number of samples which I 

 took with various kinds of experimental nets from the 

 S.Y. " Ladybird " during the spring, summer and autumn 

 of the past year. The results of these experimental hauls 

 are recorded on 126 sheets, many containing records of 

 from five to ten hauls each. The total number of hauls 

 by means of which we have sampled in this manner the 

 water round the South end of the Isle of Man amounts to 

 about 650. This large series has enabled Mr. Scott and 

 myself to discuss the succession of organisms in the 

 Plankton throughout the year in a limited area, and also 

 the distribution, and relative numbers at different times 

 and places, in a manner which had not been previously 

 possible to us. This is only the beginning of such an 

 intensive study of small areas as will be necessary before 

 we can arrive at any correct estimate of the value and 

 representative nature of such samples. 



Mr. Buchanan-Wollaston, who has been carrying on 

 fishery work in the University Laboratories, under a 

 grant from the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, 

 contributes a couple of short papers to this report as the 

 result of his examination of the statistics we have 

 accumulated during the last fifteen years. Although 

 these statistics seem, at first sight, to be large in quantity, 



H 



