ACADEMY OP SCIENCES] BIOGRAPHY 7 



This fact was discovered in 1913 at Maer Island, in the Murray Islands of Torres Straits, 

 Australia. Here Mayor made the first quantitative ecological study of a coral reef ever under- 

 taken. During his expedition to this region it was found that, despite the fact that the corals 

 of Australia suffer from excessive heat, while those of Florida are correspondingly affected by 

 cold, yet natural selection appears not to have resulted in improving any genus of coral by 

 increasing its abdity to withstand temperature conditions. The majority of the species of 

 reef corals grow best in the region of the breakers, yet the greatest number of coral heads are 

 found in a zone just shoreward of the inner wash of the breakers, where the water is relatively 

 calm and yet free from sUt. 



His studies confirm the conclusion that sea water does not dissolve limestone at a rate 

 sufficient to account for the formation of atoll lagoons in this manner. He concludes therefore 

 that Murray and Agassiz were mistaken in assuming that the lagoons of atolls are solution basins. 

 He discovered also that the streams and springs of Samoa and Oahu are alkaline despite the 

 fact that limewater is acid. Thus water pouring outward from the shores of these islands can 

 not dissolve limestone by reason of its acidity, since it is not acid. Other studies, especially 

 at Tutuila, showed that these Pacific corals form limestone at about twice the rate which 

 Vaughan had determined from corresponding genera of corals in the Atlantic. 



Finally, in his last trip to Samoa he determined by borings that the reef is underlain by 

 a basaltic rock at a depth of 40 to 50 meters. The modern fringing reefs of this part of Tutuila 

 are not superimposed on the ancient reefs which lie still deeper but are independent struc- 

 tures which have grown out over the submerged basaltic slopes of the island. Mayor con- 

 sistently entertained doubts as to the universal applicability of the Darwin-Dana theory of 

 coral-reef formation. 



There is no question that Mayor enjoyed this life on the sea. Whenever on board the 

 Physalia or Anton Dohrn he took command; and often assumed grave responsibilities in doing 

 so. The following account of one of his short voyages on the Physalia is from his annual report 

 to the Carnegie Institution, 1907. 



Our voyage among the Bahamas proved to be the most adventurous the yacht has yet encountered. On 

 April 1, 1907, a strong southerly gale forced us into a harbor of refuge under the lee of Elbers Cay, about 50 

 miles southeast of Nassau. The sun was about to set when, on the northern horizon, vast masses of black 

 clouds suddenly arose, driving before them the heavy breakers of the oncoming storm, and in an instant the 

 wind reversed and we found ourselves dragging anchors toward the rocks of a coral reef. With all haste we got 

 the yacht under way. It proved impossible to steam up into the gathering storm, and we had no choice but to 

 scud before it; "jumping" a bar with less depth than our draft, and sailing out between the jagged masses of 

 rock, we reached the open water, where we met the roghest sea the Physalia had encountered since she was 

 launched. At midnight the naphtha-tank burst, through the excessive rolling of the vessel, and, with all lights 

 out and only an electric "candle" held close to the binnacle, we went on through the night under storm 

 sails, and when the morning broke we were more than 100 miles away from our former anchorage. A large 

 bark foundered near us in this storm, and a yacht larger than the Physalia, which left Miami with us, was 

 never again heard from. However, the Physalia returned to Miami in excellent condition, her seaworthy 

 qualities having been thoroughly tested. 



What Doctor Mayor does not make clear in this account is that he was at the wheel and 

 his good judgment saved the vessel. 



Mayor's long experience in navigation was put by him at the disposal of the Government 

 during the World War. As stated above he taught navigation to naval recruits. There were 

 about 50 men in his first class at Princeton and the course ended in a cruise between New 

 York and Key West in February, 1918, for practice. His success was such that in the 

 autumn he was made lecturer on navigation at Princeton and taught seamanship to 350 men 

 in a training unit there. To facilitate the work of this unit he wrote a small book upon " Naviga- 

 tion Illustrated by Diagrams." A reviewer writes: "Dr. Mayor has the happy faculty of 

 speaking with his readers rather than at them. . . . The book has a certain charm not often 

 met with in textbooks." This charm, of course, was a reflex of the charming personality of 

 the author. It seems quite certain that Mayor had a strong natural liking for the sea; a 

 genuine thalassophilia; and this was associated with a nomadic tendency. The latter showed 

 itself at an early age in a love of wandering over the country. "In the beautiful country on the 



