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NOTE ON SALT-WATER POND AT AMBLE. 
By A. MEEK. 
The pond lies near to the south pier of Warkworth Harbour, 
Amble. The following facts with regard to it were related to 
Fishery Officer Taylor by the Amble fishermen. 
About seven or eight years ago, they observed herring rising in 
the pond, and a herring net used by them was found to have 
meshed 15 herrings, which were thin, and had the appearance of 
spent herrings. Some two years later, using half a piece of line 
(30 hooks) they caught 15 dabs and flounders, and a few eels which 
they said were about 2£ feet long. 
I visited the pond with Fishery Officer Taylor on 16th November, 
and arranged that a half length of line should be shot early the 
same morning. The latter when pulled in was found to have 
caught a flounder, a dab, and an eel. A slight quantity of material 
was obtained by the use of a bottom net and a small otter trawl by 
which a flounder and a dab were captured. The material yielded 
Macromysis flexuosa, Pleurobrachia, and minute Crustacea, which 
I handed to Professor Brady. 
Small as the material was in quantity, it proved to be interesting 
for it contained, amongst other rare forms, an ostracod, which Dr. 
Brady says is almost if not quite morphologically identical with a 
fresh water species, but instead of being parthenogenetic like the 
latter it is bisexual. Dr. Brady has written a paper on the 
material he has examined from the pond and it will be published in 
the Transactions of the Natural History Society of Newcastle. 
The pond was made, as the present owner Mr. B. G. M'Innes 
has informed me, by the quarrying of the stone required for the 
building of the piers at Amble, and for other purposes. When the 
Harbour Commissioners ceased working the quarry about 50 years 
ago, pumping was discontinued, and salt water from the sea 
entered. A pipe which was run through the wall allows of tin 
water passing out and in. 
The rise and fall of the water in the pond is very slight however. 
The area is If acres, but it could easily be enlarged on the land- 
ward side. The bottom slopes from an extreme depth of about 30 
feet at the South East corner to the shore on the South West side 
and consists evidently of sand, mud, and stones. 
