266 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION 



Pacific is largely connecLed with such a survey, and until the fauna 

 of eastern Asia is well known all our work on the fauna of the 

 western Pacific must be tentative. The fauna and flora of western 

 North America and of the Pacific Ocean are largely derived from 

 Asiatic sources, and until we have studied Asia we are in the posi- 

 tion in which students of American history would be if th.e history 

 and peoples of Europe were practically unknown. The parts of 

 biolog>- which deal wdth evolution, with geographical distribution, 

 and with relations to environment would be imm.easurably benefited 

 by s'.ich a survey as you contemplate, and I sincerely hope that the 

 Carnegie Institution may see fit to provide for it. 



Under presenl auspices, it will be wholly im.possible to do this 

 vv'ork within a century. The small funds the American universities 

 can spare go but a little way, and so far as the European institutions 

 are concerned, all that has been done is of the slightest importance 

 in proportion to the magnitude of the problems. 



There could, therefore, be no interference with the work of 

 others. In fact, all interested in these problems would derive their 

 best material from this survey, and their energies would thus be 

 enlisted in it. 



The plan as detailed to me seems to me entirely practicable at a 

 moderate cxpen.diture each year for a number of years. 



I need not say that there can be no possible question as to the 

 fitness c.f yourself and Mr. Miller to direct this work. American 

 naturalists have long recognized in you one of the m.aster minds of 

 zoology, and you have been as successful in practical work, as that 

 of the Fur Seal Commission, as in the research work of pure science. 



Not one of the various projects submitted to the Trustees of the 

 Cariiegie Institution interests me personally so much as yours, and 

 none can have a more far reaching relation to the development of 

 biological science. 



It is our opportunity to claim the Pacific Ocean and to study its 

 shores and its life with the thoroughness that our colleagues in 

 Europe have devoted for a century to the Atlantic. 



Very truly yours, David Starr Jordan. 



President Stanford University. 



