WORK OF THE ^INVESTIGATOR. 
95 
Giles in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal between 
1885 and 1890 Apart from their zoological value, these pa¬ 
pers are of interest as they constitute the beginning of a long 
series of papers and monographs dealing with the group Crusta¬ 
cea, the study of which has been carried on continuously in the 
Indian Museum for over forty years and, indeed, has become 
a tradition of the institution. In 1888 Giles resigned the 
post of Surgeon-Naturalist and, during the interregnum before 
the next officer was appointed, the vacancy was, for the time 
being, filled by Mr. J.‘Wood-Mason, then Superintendent of 
the Indian Museum. At the end of the year Lt.-Col. (then 
Captain) A. Alcock was appointed, and since that date the 
post has been continuously held by officers of the Indian 
Medical Service. 
During the last season for which Giles was in charge, not 
only had extensive biological collections been made, but consi¬ 
derable attention had also been paid to the sea-bed and the 
nature of the various deposits, a large number of observations 
being made and each sample reported on in considerable 
detail. This work was continued by his successor during his 
first year or two of office, but in later years Alcock’s interests 
were too much occupied with the study of the bathymetric 
fauna to permit of such work, except in so far as it related 
directly to his zoological researches ; and consequently the 
sea-bed received but little attention, a condition of affairs that 
has unfortunately continued to exist down to the present 
time. 
During Alcock’s tenure of the appointment several im¬ 
portant changes took place, the first of which consisted of 
the substitution for the old ' Blake ’ trawl of the type known 
as the “ Agassiz” and a continuous wire warp. Owing to 
this change it became possible to carry out a complete 
trawling operation in a very much shorter time, and in 
consequence the number of trawls per season show a marked 
increase. 
Alcock first joined the ^Investigator’ at Port Blair 
in the Andamans, and within a few days he gained his first 
view of a growing coral reef. The ship still continued to 
visit a number of widely distant areas, though during the 
