PROPOSED EXPLORATIONS AND INVESTIGATIONS 273 



language, habits, mode of life, customs, religion, and traditions un- 

 less they are studied within a reasonable time and before the flora 

 has been modified by contact with civilization. 



To carry out these investigations it will be necessary to have a 

 twin screw steam.er built for the purpose and properly equipped. 

 The United States has no vessel adapted to that purpose. The Alba- 

 tross is a single screw steamer and is altogether too small as a coal 

 carrier to work with economy. Such a vessel should be 200 feet on 

 the water line and have a beam of 32 feet ; equipped it would prob- 

 ably cost $175,000. It would cost $75,000 a year to run the vessel. 

 Three naturalists would be needed for the deep sea work. Two pho- 

 tographers and one artist would find ample occupation during the 

 expedition. A couple of geologists, the same number of botanists 

 and of ethnologists could during three years spent on these groups 

 obtain information which probably could not be duplicated. 

 If all this work could be under the supervision of one person it 

 would be of great value. Previous expeditions have limited their 

 work to a great extent to certain groups of islands, and in conse- 

 quence what we know of the various groups is the result of the 

 work of a number of individuals and not the resume by a single per- 

 son who has seen the whole. The scientific members of the expedi- 

 tion could be left at different groups, depending upon local transpor- 

 tation, and they could be picked up on completion of their work by 

 the steamer and transferred to the next group. A period of three 

 years' work would add immensely to our knowledge of the hydrog- 

 raphy, the fauna of the Pacific, and of the great Oceanic Island 

 groups. 



The expenses of the scientific assistants would be from $20,000 to 

 $25,000 a year, and the cost of publishing the results of this expedi- 

 tion, while depending upon the amount of material collected, would 

 certainly, if done in a creditable way, involve an expenditure of 

 $200,000 to $250,000 spread over a period of ten to fifteen years, or 

 say an annual expenditure of $20,000 at the outside. 



The above is a fair statement of work in an interesting field which 

 I do not think any government is likely to take up. A German deep- 

 sea expedition has lately returned from the Indian Ocean ; the Eng- 

 lish after their expedition with the Challenger are not likely to enter 

 the field again; the Prince of Monaco and the French have limited 

 their work to the Mediterranean and the western coast of France, 

 and no other nation is likely to enter into competition with us. The 



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