11. On the Chemical Composition of the Water composing the Clyde Sea Area

Extract

About the beginning of this year I was requested by a sub-committee of the Government Grant Committee* to determine some of the components of a series of samples of sea water, which were to be collected during the year at various parts and at different times in the Clyde sea area by the observers of the Scottish Marine Station. The collections were chiefly made under the immediate direction of Dr H. E. Mill. Since January, accordingly, I have been working at this, and have completed in all eighty-nine analyses, the results of which I now take the liberty of placing before this Society. There are various reasons why this paper should consist of little more than tables of results, one of which is that, having little or no experience in the science of oceanography, it would be presumptuous in me to draw conclusions from my results which would no doubt strike any one acquainted with that science at once. Another reason is that, though acquainted with some of the physical conditions under which the samples were taken, such as depth, temperature, place of collection, and date, I am quite ignorant of other conditions quite as important, if not more so, in my estimation, as, for instance, presence or absence of some freshwater stream near place of collection, state of tide, raiafall, 'c,—all conditions which would no doubt influence more or less materially the salinity of the water.