126 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
weak Gulf Stream Drift and wet and gloomy summer 
months. 
It must also be mentioned that the gloomy summer 
of 1910 had not otherwise been foreseen—nay, rather 
the contrary, for as the result of 21 years’ experience, 
meteorologists had become accustomed to expect one wet 
year to follow two dry ones.* According to this rule 
the year 1910 should have had a rainfall considerably 
below the average. Instead of this, however, the rainfall 
was a good deal in excess. 
The maximum salinities at those of our stations 
(V, VI and VII) which are affected by the Gulf Stream 
Drift, occurred in May or June, 1910, and were slightly . 
lower than in 1909. The water temperatures, however, 
were normal, and this can easily be explained. The 
unusually cold autumnal water from 1909 moving slowly 
northwards caused the water filling the north-eastern 
portion of the Irish Sea in the spring of 1910 to have 
just the normal temperature, in spite of the weaker Gulf 
Stream Drift, whereas for a somewhat similar reason the 
water in the spring of 1909 was warmer than usual since 
the Gulf Stream Drift of the preceding year had been of 
a more normal type. 
As the salinities for October, 1910, appeared to 
indicate that the Gulf Stream Drift was gathering 
strength again, we collected samples at Stations V, VI 
and VII during December. There cannot be the slightest 
doubt, from the high salinities of these samples, that 
the Drift in 1911 has recovered what I, regard as its 
normal value, and this is fully borne out by the results 
for February, 1911 (Station V, 34°27; Station VI, 34:36; 
Station VII, 34:07). 
*See an article by Dr. H. R. Mill, on the rainfall of 1910, in 
‘‘The Times ’’ of Jan. 17,1911, ° 
