THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



MAEOH, 1905. 



THE BEKMUDA ISLANDS AND THE BERMUDA BIO- 

 LOGICAL STATION FOR RESEARCH.* 



By Professor EDWARD L. MARK, 



DIRECTOR OF THE ZOOLOGICAL LABORATORY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 



FEEL a certain hesitancy in speaking on the subject I have selected 

 -*- to talk about — the Bermuda Islands — because of the number of 

 prominent naturalists who have written so excellently about them. It 

 should be stated at the outset that I do not aim to add to the stock 

 of our knowledge about the Bermudas. So much has been written 

 about their zoology in recent years — especially by the zoologists of the 

 Challenger Expedition, then by Professor Heilprin of this city, on the 

 invertebrates and the coral reefs, by Mr. Agassiz, incidental to his 

 studies of the great question of the origin and growth of coral reefs^ 

 and most recently by that veteran in systematic zoology, Professor 

 Verrill, of Yale University — that it is hardly to be expected that any- 

 thing fundamentally new will be soon added. It is my purpose, rather, 

 to give something of a picture of the present conditions in Bermuda, 

 based partly on my own experiences, and particularly to direct your 

 attention to the accessibility of the islands and their availability as a 

 place for carrying on intensive rather than extensive researches. With 

 the facilities for work which will soon be provided by the colonial 

 government, it should be an attractive place not only for temporary 

 exploration and summer study, but also for protracted investigations 

 on important biological problems. 



My own interest in Bermuda as a place for zoological study was 

 first awakened by suggestions of President Eliot, who a few years ago 



*A vice-presidential address prepared for Section F (Zoology) of the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science, at its Philadelphia 

 meeting. 



vol. lxvl-26. 



