PROPOSED EXPLORATIONS AND INVESTIGATIONS 243 



ical 'exploration of the vast territories recently acquired by the 

 United States, are more likely to occnpy the attention and energies 

 of our governmental surveys. 



Under these circumstances the Carnegie Institution, untrammeled 

 by political boundaries and in possession of sufficient means, seems 

 to be the proper agency for carrying out this important enterprise. 



In brief, our contention may be summed as follov.\s: 



The proposed scheme would be of great value to biologic science. 



The need for undertaking the work now is urgent. 



The plan is practicable ; it is no experiment ; its promoters have 

 largely devoted themselves to it ; the methods are perfected ; the time 

 is ripe ; the cost is moderate; no other institution can now under- 

 take it. 



The Carnegie Institution must therefore take it up if the im- 

 portant scientific questions involved are to be satisfactQrily solved in 

 the present generation. 



3. Feasibility of the Work. — Geological exploration on a large 

 scale and with a definite object in view has long been recognized 

 as a profitable scientific enterprise. The importance of the results 

 achieved by such investigations are so well known that they need 

 no more than this passing allusion. In the same way extensive, 

 specially equipped expeditions for investigating the life of the deep 

 sea bottom are almost continually at Vvork ; vast sums are annually 

 spent on their equipment and maintenatice, and the value of the 

 information thus obtained amply justifies the expenditure. In 

 our special field precedent is not so widely- known, and yet it has 

 been fully established. During the past fifteen years the United 

 States Departm.ent of Agriculture has been conducting a biolog- 

 ical survey of North America, upon the lines of which, as elab- 

 orated by Dr. C. Hart Merriarn, we would propose to establish 

 our work in the Old World. Through Dr. Merriam's energy and 

 experience the technique of exploration of this kind has been per- 

 fected in the most minute detail as regards both the collecting of 

 specimens and, what is even more important, the taking of proper 

 observations. This work has resulted in an entirely new conception 

 of the geographic distribution of the life of North America, to say 

 nothing of a vast increase in our knowledge of the fauna and flora 

 of the entire region. So successful has this work been, and so 

 economically conducted, that biological exploration on land, on a 

 large scale, can no longer be regarded as an experiment. By ar- 

 ranging the work in accordance with these tested methods, with 



