BIOLOGICAL LABORATORIES 223 



THE BIOLOGICAL LABOEATOEIES OF THE PACIFIC COAST 



By Professor WM. E. RITTER 



THE study of marine botany and zoology has gained a foothold on 

 the Pacific coast of the United States in the brief period during 

 which biology has been institutionally naturalized in this part of the 

 world, that promises well for the future. 



Seaside laboratories have been established at three main centers of 

 population: at Puget Sound, in central California, and in southern 

 California. At the extreme north the University of Washington, in 

 cooperation with several other institutions, has a laboratory at Friday 

 Harbor on San Juan Island. In central California the Timothy Hop- 

 kins Laboratory on Monterey Ba}^, belonging to the Leland Stanford 

 Junior University, has now been in operation for twenty-three years; 

 and near by is the Herzstein Laboratory owned by the University of 

 California. On the coast of southern California are the Scripps Insti- 

 tution for Biological Eesearch at La Jolla, near San Diego, securely 

 founded because permanently endowed, and in the vicinity of Los 

 Angeles laboratories at Venice and Laguna Beach are manfully striv- 

 ing toward permanency. The Scripps Institution is a research depart- 

 ment of the University of California. The laboratory at Venice is 

 being fostered by the University of Southern California and that at 

 Laguna Beach by Pomona College. 



With this bird's-eye view of what the country's long western sea 

 frontage presents in the way of effort to turn to intellectual account 

 the riches of life of this part of the Pacific ocean, we may proceed to a 

 somewhat closer look at what is being done. 



A student of marine life who has considered the geography of Puget 

 Sound even from afar, does not need to be told that it is a great, richly 

 stocked aquarium of both animals and plants. Almost completely land- 

 locked though sufficiently open at both ends to enable the water to flow 

 through it with each run of tides, beset with innumerable irregular 

 islands, and rock-shored everywhere, a piece of the sea could hardly be 

 more ideally circumstanced for all kinds of organisms adapted to such 

 conditions. For several decades the prodigality of life in the Sound 

 has aroused the enthusiasm of naturalists, resident and visiting. 



Credit for the first efforts to create a laboratory for making use of 

 this wealth of life is due to Professor Trevor Kincaid, of the University 

 of Washington. After several years of preliminary collecting and re- 

 connoitering by Professor Kincaid and his students, Friday Harbor was 

 selected in 1903 as, on the whole, the most favorable place for a per- 



