This work is a continuation of my preliminary paper on the same subject, which was published in a former number of the Journal of the Association (vol. vi., p. 373, January, 1902).

It is always an unsatisfactory task to attempt to summarize the results of an extensive piece of scientific work while this is still in progress. The conclusions made during the course of a series of researches are necessarily tentative ones, and subject to more or less modification when the work comes to an end. Even the main facts elicited during the investigation do not at the time present themselves in their real proportions. One fails to appreciate the importance of some, and may be tempted to give emphasis to others which do not possess the significance assigned to them. Such considerations apply with special force to the following sketch of the main results apparent so far from the work of the International Fishery Investigations in the Northern European seas. Nine countries—Britain, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, The Netherlands, Norway, Russia, and Sweden—are engaged in these researches. Each country has its own staff of scientific men (and women); its own exploring vessels and laboratories; and its own publications. Controlling and supervising all this work is the International Council, operating through the Bureau at Copenhagen, and the Central Laboratory at Christiania.

The following notes are the result partly of an examination of various living specimens at Plymouth in the spring of 1905, and partly of the study of preserved material most kindly placed at my disposal by Mr. E. J. Allen and Mr. W. I. Beaumont, of the Laboratory, Plymouth, Mr. W. E. Hoyle, of the Manchester University Museum, and the Council of the Hancock Museum at Newcastle. I must also express my thanks and obligations to Mr. T. J. Evans, lecturer in Biology at the University of Sheffield, who has prepared for me sections of the smaller specimens and embodied the results in drawings which will add very materially to any value which this paper may have.

In a previous notice in this Journal, voL vi, p. 344, January, 1902, a brief description of the plan of work undertaken by the writer was given. This comprised cruises across the cold-water area of the laroe Channel during 1900, 1901, and 1902, during the course of which tow-nettings were made at each station with Garstang's net, or Fowler's net, down to 500 to 600 fathoms, simultaneously with hydrographical observations (temperature, collection of water, etc.), which have already been partly reported upon by Mr. H. N. Dickson (GeograpMcal Journal, April, 1903).

After the publication in this Journal in 1899 of the paper “On the Fauna and Bottom-Deposits near the Thirty-Fathom Line from the Eddystone Grounds to Start Point” (Journ. Mar. Biol. Assoc., vol. v. pp. 365–542), observations were undertaken for the purpose of preparing a similar account of the fauna of the inshore grounds in the neighbourhood of Plymouth. As the work proceeded, however, it was realised that, owing to the great damage which has been caused to the grounds within easy reach of the harbour by the constant discharge of mud and refuse from barges working in connection with the new dockyard extension at Devonport and other harbour works, any attempt to prepare a consecutive account of the fauna and bottom-deposits over the whole area, such as was given for the grounds from Eddystone to Start, would be a matter of extreme difficulty and of little use.

Fragments of a large tube built of pieces of coarse gravel and shell, evidently the work of some Polychæte, have been constantly dredged for many years on the grounds in the neighbourhood of the Mewstone and Stoke Point, to the eastward of Plymouth Sound. Not until June 4th, 1903, was the worm first discovered to whose skill as a mason these tubes are due. On that day the Laboratory fisherman captured and drew attention to a tube which was occupied by a living worm. The specimen, along with a number of fragments of empty tube, was obtained on a patch of coarse gravel off Stoke Point.

Pending the publication, in a paper now in preparation, of an account of the Holothuria of the Plymouth district, and an attempt at a revision of the European species of that group, it has appeared advisable to publish the following short note, with the view of removing one of the most prolific of those sources of error with which the literary history of the Holothuria has come to be burdened.

Four ordinary and two special meetings of the Council have been held during the year, at which the average attendance has been ten. The Council have to thank the Royal Society and the Linnean Society for allowing the meetings to be held in their rooms.