Il8 REPORTS ON INVESTIGATIONS AND PROJECTS. 



vantages owing to the rough weather of the winter months. Finally he 

 learned that one must go to the tropical ocean in that period of calms extend- 

 ing from spring to early autumn, or during the months which follow the 

 trade-wind season of the winter and precede the hurricanes of the autumn. 

 Moreover, in winter the tropical ocean is barren of larval forms, whereas 

 in the spring a great awakening comes and numbers of animals cast forth 

 their eggs and the young form vast swarms drifting over the calm surface 

 of the warming sea. 



Not only do we find an almost constant trade-wind gale and few marine 

 animals in winter, but at this season it is most difficult for college professors 

 to leave their duties for a period long enough to conduct a successful re- 

 search. Owing to bad weather more than twice as much time must be given 

 to a research in winter as in summer, for in winter one's work is certain to 

 be seriously hindered by bad weather, whereas in summer the long calms 

 will permit of almost constant study of the sea. 



It would seem desirable, therefore, to settle upon the policy of maintain- 

 ing the laboratory in fully active operation only during the spring and sum- 

 mer and correspondingly so to increase its efficiency that the work of its 

 short season will prove as productive as possible. 



Very rarely a research leads to the necessity for visiting the tropics in 

 winter, and these special cases can be cared for by the laboratory in accord- 

 ance with their special requirements, for the new yacht which we hope soon 

 to launch will provide excellent winter quarters for such studies. 



For example, it will be necessary for Professor Tennent to study the de- 

 velopment of certain echinoderms which breed only in winter, and the re- 

 searches of Professors Treadwell and Vaughan will certainly lead to winter 

 work. In all these cases it will be well to select some protected harbor, such 

 as Miami, Florida, Nassau, New Providence, or Montego Bay, Jamaica,, 

 where one is relatively sheltered from the trade wind. Often researches 

 commenced in the tropics must be supplemented by studies in colder waters ; 

 for example, the Director's studies of North American Ctenophoras will 

 oblige him to visit Newfoundland in the autumn of this year. Thus the 

 work of the laboratory may at times be profitably extended to regions other 

 than the Tortugas. 



A progressive change is coming over conditions of research in marine 

 biology, and with it the Tortugas Laboratory must keep pace. Only a few 

 years ago a short period of observation sufficed for the preparation of a 

 good research, but to-day the simpler problems have nearly all been solved, 

 and study to be productive must be more prolonged. It is therefore most 

 important that the laboratory afford facilities for long and elaborate studies 

 such as w^e may hope will lead to the discovery of fundamental laws. Ac- 

 cordingly, Dr. T. Wayland Vaughan is studying the complex phenomena 

 of the growth and formation of coral reefs, and many years must elapse 



