52 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



The main laboratory is L-shaped and is io6 feet long. It is one 

 story high, and the roof contains eleven ventilating traps, thus 

 rendering the building remarkably cool even on calm, hot days. 

 The laboratory- room proper is 53 feet long and 19)^ feet wide, and 

 contains a dark-room, a large closet, and ample accommodations for 

 eight investigators, each of whom will have an L-shaped microscope 

 table facing the north light. 



In order to resist hurricanes, the laboratory buildings and the dock 

 are very strongly braced, and the foundation posts are all T-shaped 

 on their sunken ends, thus rendering it well-nigh impossible to 

 overturn the structures. 



The entire cost of the main laboratory, small laboratory, and two 

 outhouses, including cost of clearing and grading ground, hire and 

 maintenance of workmen, and payment of transportation and insur- 

 ance from New York to Tortugas, was $4,806.13. 



The director completed a survey of the site and reported upon the 

 same to Major W. E. Craighill. In answer to the petition of the 

 director, the U. S. Light-House Board granted permission to erect 

 the shipways in the situation shown on the survey map, this being 

 at the place where the last suitable tract of beach rock is found on 

 the northwestern side of the island. A shipways will be necessary 

 in order to draw out the laboratory vessel in case of hurricane. 



The director made numerous surface tours while at the Tortugas, 

 and the results of this work will be presented for publication in con- 

 nection with an investigation of the entire Atlantic coast from Maine 

 to Florida, opportunity for the study of which will be afforded by 

 the laboratory vessel. 



In order to study the marine life of the tropical Atlantic, using 

 the Tortugas as a land station, it is essential that the laboratory 

 should be provided with a stanch, sea-going vessel of light draft, 

 capable of making headway against the strong currents of the coral 

 reefs and the Gulf Stream. Such a vessel was designed by Stearns & 

 McKay, of the Marblehead Yacht Yard, Marblehead, Massachusetts, 

 and on April 28 they were commissioned to direct the Rice Bros. 

 Companj^ of East Boothbay, Maine, to construct the vessel. 



The design called for an auxiliary ketch 57 feet over all, 15 feet 1 1 

 inches beam, and 3 feet 6 inches draft, to be heavily and strongly 

 built in order to withstand tropical hurricanes, and to be provided 

 with a 20-horsepower Motor Engine Co. naphtha engine. The hull 

 is of wood, copper-bottomed, with a heavy iron keel and two center- 

 boards. There are accommodations for seven men, and the vessel 

 is especially designed to dredge in depths of 500 fathoms or less. 



