36 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
who had much to do with the original negotiations 
between the L.M.B.C. and the Manx Government and 
with the erection of the present combined Biological 
Station and Fish Hatchery in 1901-2. His official visits, 
as Secretary to the Fishery Board, were frequent and 
helpful, and he will be greatly missed by all connected 
with the institution. 
The dredging, tow-netting and other investigations 
at sea, started during the previous year with the yacht 
“Ladybird,” have been carried on vigorously during the 
Easter and Summer vacations of 1908. Over 550 samples 
of plankton have been collected with various nets in the 
seas around Port Erin and have been sent to Mr. Andrew 
Scott for microscopic investigation. Some account of the 
results of these observations, so far as yet ascertained, will 
be found further on in this Report. 
The fish hatching and the lobster hatching and 
rearing have gone on very much as usual this year, and 
about the same numbers of larve as before have been set 
free in the open waters around the Isle of Man. The 
details of this work are given below. 
The number of visitors to the Aquarium is again 
between fifteen and sixteen thousand, and but for bad 
weather in the latter part of the season would probably 
have been much larger, as at the end of July the numbers 
were over a thousand in advance of the corresponding 
date in 1907. 
As on previous occasions, Mr. Chadwick has supplied 
a ‘“ Curator’s Report,’ which will be found below, but, 
in addition, I am indebted to him for some of the 
information given here, 
