396 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
have collected, and have printed in this Report, a good 
deal of evidence from which we have as yet drawn no 
conclusions; and we have made out many lists, curves 
and other diagrams which we have kept back for fuller 
consideration in the light of further experiments. We 
have placed on record what we have been able to ascertain 
in regard to the local winds, tides and sea-temperatures, 
in the hope that these facts may be of use in further 
discussion of the occurrence and distribution of plankton 
in the Irish Sea. 
Although this second year (1908) has differed a good 
deal in details from 1907, still certain broad series of facts 
are common to the two years. 
(1) We again find that the Diatoms predominate in 
spring and, to a less extent, in late autumn, and are 
practically absent in summer. 
(2) We again find that while fish eggs and many 
uther organisms (when present) occur in units and tens in 
an average haul of our nets, Copepoda generally run to 
hundreds, Dinoflagellates to a few thousands, and Diatoms 
into tens of thousands, or anything between that and 
millions. 
(3) From the inspection of the Forms recording the 
catches we again get the impression that much the same 
organisms are present in the different nets at the one time 
of year in somewhat similar proportions, so that although 
it 1s possible to discuss the general character of the fauna 
and the relative abundance of different groups, it is not 
possible to use the numbers as the basis of calculations as 
to the quantity of any group, or of living things as a 
whole, in any large area of the sea at a particular time— 
the results arrived at might easily be 50 per cent. wrong 
in either direction. , 
(4) We again find that the shear net, or any larger 
