1886 .] 
Chairman’ s Address. 
11 
continent. We have at present no knowledge of the condition of 
the Antarctic regions except during the summer months of January. 
February, and March, and, although the first endeavour to pass a 
winter in these regions would doubtless he accompanied with con- 
siderable risk, still it must be attempted, and the duty of attempt- 
ing it lies heavier on Great Britain than any other nation. If Great 
Britain is to hold her proper position among the family of nations 
she must explore the Antarctic, and it is to be hoped that the 
numerous learned Societies of the United Kingdom will before long 
press the matter on the attention of the Government. 
During the past few years there has been great activity in the 
examination of the biological conditions of the coasts, lochs, and 
estuaries of Scotland, and some of the more important results have 
appeared, or are about to appear, in the Transactions and Proceedings 
of the Society. 
In connection with the Scottish Marine Station, carried on under 
the auspices of the Scottish Meteorological Society, there has been 
conducted during the past three years a very valuable series of in- 
vestigations into the physical and chemical conditions of the Firths 
of Forth and Clyde, and various rivers and estuaries, which are of 
great importance to a right understanding of the general meteor- 
ology of the country. 
The little steamer of the Station, fitted with the most approved 
apparatus, has been constantly at work at all times of the year. 
Three years’ observations on the Forth have given the general 
conditions with regard to temperature and salinity for all seasons, 
with the laws of their changes. 
About the time of the vernal equinox all the water of the Firth 
is of a uniform temperature ; there is a gradient of temperature 
from river to sea and from surface to bottom in summer, the 
warmest water being on the surface and towards the land. In 
winter this state of matters is entirely reversed, at the autumnal 
equinox there being again a uniform distribution of temperature. 
Nearly a year’s observations have been completed on the much 
more complicated and varied region of the Clyde. Here a vast 
amount of heat is stored up in the waters of the deep lochs during 
summer, and slowly given out again to the air during the winter 
months, thus greatly modifying the climate of the West Coast of 
