WORK OF THE ‘ INVESTIGATOR.’ 
101 
Naturalist from 1907 to 1910. During the whole of this time 
the survey of the Burma coast was in progress, but from a 
variety of causes, very little time was spent by the 
Surgeon Naturalist on board the ship and, as a natural 
result, the amount of biological work done was compara- V' 
tively small. 
In September, 1910, Lieutenant R. B. Seymour Sewell 
was appointed to the post and he joined the ship in October, 
prior to her sailing for Rangoon. Up till the present time, 
with the exception of a short period in March and April, 1912, 
when the ^ Investigator ’ visited Nankouri harbour in the 
Nicobar Islands, the survey of the Burma coast has gradually 
been extended to the southward. During the season 1910-11 
owing to the fact that trawling was for the most part im¬ 
possible, the Surgeon-Naturalist turned his attention to 
shore-collecting and a systematic survey of some of the 
organisms of the ‘^plankton” and more especially of the 
surface-living copepoda. 
During the recess a new form of net was constructed 
in the Royal Indian Marine Dockyard in Bombay, designed 
to fish in the mid-water. Hitherto this region had been 
entirely neglected, and the only knowledge of its fauna that 
we possessed was obtained from a few individuals that had 
been captured during the ascent or descent of the bottom- 
trawl. During the season 1911-12, this net was tried on four 
occasions and the results obtained show that we have here 
an exceedingly promising field for biological research in the 
future. 
In December, 1911, Captain Sewell was recalled to Cal¬ 
cutta to officiate as Professor of Biology in the Medical 
College and Lieutenant T. L. Bomford, I.MS., was subse¬ 
quently appointed to officiate as Surgeon-Naturalist during 
the season 1912-13, Owing to the exigencies of the service 
the R.I.M.S.S. ^Investigator’ was detailed to act as station- 
ship at Port Blair during the early part of the season and 
was, therefore, not available for survey work until January, 
1913. The survey of the Burma coast was then continued, 
and had so far progressed that the ship was once again work¬ 
ing in the Mergui Archipelago. Captain Bomford continued 
