THE OTTAWA NATURALIST \ 



^ 



Vol. XXIV. OTTAWA, OCTOBER, 1907. No. 7 



THE MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AND ITS WORK. 



A Review of "Further Contributions to Canadian 

 Biology," 1902-1905. 39th Annual Report De- 

 partment Marine and Fisheries, Ottawa, 1907. 



The publication by the Department of Marine and Fisheries 

 of Part II. of the Journal of the Marine Biological Station of 

 Canada, is an event of no small scientific interest, and a brief 

 review of its contents, and of the circumstances under which 

 the staff of the Station carry on their work, may be acceptable 

 to our naturalists generally. 



The former report from the Station was entitled "Con- 

 tributions to Canadian Biology," and the present series, of 

 thirteen papers, bears the title "Further Contributions." It 

 is of the usual 8vo Blue Book size, of about 130 pages, and in- 

 cludes ten very beautiful plates, and five half-tone illustrations 

 in the text. Professor Prince, the Dominion Commissioner of 

 Fisheries, prefaces the report with a short note of explanation, 

 and refers to the success of the station in enlisting the aid of 

 voluntary workers from practically all the Canadian Universities. 



"Toronto and McGill Universities have been prominently 

 represented," Professor Prince states. "Queen's University, 

 Kingston, has almost every season sent some representative of 

 its academic staff, while Dalhousie (Hahfax, N.S.), Mount 

 Allison, (Sackville, N. B.), Acadia (Wolfville, N. S.) and other 

 universities, including some United States institutions, have 

 sent workers." The staff has been unsalaried, and only scientific 

 workers trained and quaHfied to conduct original researches 

 have been given the free use of the Station, its library, apparatus, 

 and other advantages. By the wise generosity of the Dominion 

 Government it has been possible to partially meet some of the 

 expenses of the staff, but the fishery and other laborious investi- 

 gations have been carried on by voluntary scientific workers, 

 without the stimulus or reward of an adequate honorarium. 

 No Station of the kind in the world has been operated at such 

 slight cost to the country, and with such substantia] results. 



The present publication amply bears out the claim just 

 made. It contains twice the number of papers contained in the 



