Chilton. — Canterbury College Mountain Biological Station. 331 



Art. XXXV. — Xotes from the Cnntei-lnh-g College Mountain Biological 



Station, Cass. 



No. 1. — Introduction and General Description of Station. 



By Charles Chilton, M.A., D.Sc, M.B., CM., LL.D., F.L.S., Professor 

 of Biology, Canterbury College, New Zealand. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 2nd December, 1914.] 



Plates V, VI. 



The time when it was thought that the work of the university both in 

 teaching and in research could be adequately carried out within the four 

 walls of a lecture-room has long since passed. For science subjects, and 

 especially for those generally known as the natural sciences — i.e.. zoology, 

 botany, and geology— the work has already extended far beyond the uni- 

 versity buildings, and, in addition to the ordinary laboratories, advantage 

 has been taken of excursions to points of interest for the particular science 

 concerned. Gradually, however, it has been found that such short visits 

 are insufficient for the full prosecution of many lines of research, and that 

 even for teaching purposes it is desirable to have stations situated far from 

 the ordinary university buildings, at places where the animals, or plants, 

 or rocks can be readily studied under the actual conditions in which they 

 occur in nature. Some of these biological stations were originally established 

 independents of any university, as, for example, the first one at Naples, 

 and for a time thev were confined almost entirely to marine biological 

 stations, and these still form the great majority. The advantages of such 

 stations to the universities were, however, soon appreciated, and most of the 

 leading universities now either have biological stations of their own or have 

 made arrangements to secure accommodation whenever it may be recpiired 

 for their students at stations controlled by other authorities. 



Soon, too, stations other than marine began to be established : one 

 of the first of these, perhaps, was the pioneer fresh-water station, esta- 

 blished by Professor Zacharias at Plon, in East Holstein, Germany. 

 Mountain stations, more particularly designed for the study of alpine plants 

 and the comparison of them with those of the lowlands, have also been 

 established by the Universities of Munich, Zurich, and many others ; while 

 in America, in addition to mountain stations, there is at least one special 

 station for the study of the botanical and other features presented by a 

 desert locality. 



The credit of first suggesting a mountain biological station in connection 

 with Canterbury College is due to Dr. L. Cockayne, F.R.S. From his 

 residence for a time on the West Coast Road on the borders of Westland, 

 and from his frequent visits to these mountainous and alpine regions, the 

 facilities that thev offered for extending the work and the research connected 

 with the biological laboratory impressed itself upon him, and in the year 

 1908 he suggested to the Board of Governors of the College the desirability 

 of reserving an area as a botanical reserve, and erecting on it a suitable 

 building for the accommodation of students and others engaged in natural- 

 history research. 



At first he suggested a locality on the Craigieburn Run. one of the 

 educational reserves belonging to the College, about a mile and a half from 

 the railway-station that then existed near the railway-bridge across the 

 Broken River. The suggestion for a biological station was strongly sup- 

 ported by myself, to whom it was referred by the Board of Governors, and 



