208 



The Irish Naiiiralisi 



October, 



You need not take out a change of clothing with you or a 

 suit of oil-skins. If you are really in earnest with your 

 dredging you will probably be wet through from the hips 

 downward by the time your third haul has been dealt with, 

 for you have already handled some 150 fathoms of dripping 

 rope, and sat down once or twice in a puddle where the 

 streaming dredge net rested as it came on board half filled. 

 But it is warm summer weather, salt water is preservative, 

 and, unless it is your first day's dredging, you will not find it 

 necessary when you reach home to attend to the comfort 

 of your marine spoils in the matter of fresh sea-water and 

 roomier quarters, until after you have changed into dry 

 clothes. 



As a large proportion of the species dredged around 

 Skerries were quite common for East Ireland, space will not 

 be occupied here by a complete list. Onl}^ the more interest- 

 ing species will be treated of in some detail, and before doing 

 so a specimen *' log" will be given showing the precise results 

 of one ot the more successful hauls. The living and dead 

 species of Molluscs are arranged separately, a species found 

 both living and dead being entered only in the living list, 

 and except where otherwise stated the dead bivalve species 

 may be taken as having occurred only in the form of single 

 valves. Of the Zoophytes, only the more conspicuous were 

 attended to, the microscopical species being passed over from 

 lack of time, or of appliances for their examination in a 

 living state. No attempt was made at preserving all the Polyzoa 

 included in the dredgings, and little or no attention was given 

 to the Worms or Sponges. The lists, in fact, aim at complete- 

 ness only as regards the MoUusca and Kchinodermata. The 

 nomenclature adopted throughout these notes is Jeffreys' 

 ' British Conchology ' for the Mollusca, Forbes' ' History of the 

 British Starfishes ' for the Echinoderms, Bell's ' British Stalk- 

 eyed Crustacea' for the Crabs, Hincks' 'British Hydroid Zoo- 

 phytes ' for the Zoophytes, and the same author's * British 

 Marine Polyzoa ' for the Polyzoa. 



Log 6. — Jtily iSth, 1905. — 14 fathoms ; about one mile N. by 

 E. of Church Island. Coarse gravel and sand. A haul of 

 very varied contents, though yielding nothing of great rarity. 



