324 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



and to plan for some cooperation in research work of the various problems 

 involved. 



Probably the chief problem is a thorough investigation of the living marine 

 diatom flora, involving interesting and valuable connections with other forms 

 of marine life, especially the edible fishes and shell-fish. La Jolla, Laguna 

 Bay, Pacific Grove, San Francisco and its adjacent waters, Portland, and 

 Puget Sound, were the principal points of interest. The opportunities 

 afforded for collecting material at these places showed that the Pacific diatom 

 flora is rich in species peculiar to those waters and in some instances quite 

 abundant, but less so than that of the Atlantic Coast. This is probably due 

 to the much greater uniformity in water temperature, salinity, depth along 

 the shore, and other qualities of this coast, from Mexico to Canada, than is 

 the case on the Atlantic seaboard. Still more important, the far less frequent 

 and deep indentations of the Pacific coast-line and the much fewer rivers and 

 streams discharging into these, necessarily afford a much narrower range of 

 biological conditions, which in turn must affect proportionally the range in 

 diversity of aquatic life. There seems to be, therefore, a simpler problem 

 in working out the relationships of marine ecology on the Pacific than on the 

 Atlantic Coast. 



The three places promising the richest results of study were found to be 

 Pacific Grove on Monterey Bay, San Francisco (with its enormous area of 

 ocean and bays), and Puget Sound. The time of making this trip, though 

 on the whole well selected, was unfortunate in the absence of a good many of 

 the biological workers on vacation; some of the places, notably Friday Harbor 

 on Puget Sound, were closed for the season. But the Puget Sound station 

 at Nanaimo, British Columbia, was fortunately still open — a place of unusual 

 resources for marine biological research. 



The cooperation offered everywhere was so spontaneous that great progress 

 in thorough diatom study is sure to result. In fact, the steady inflow 

 of collected material sent to Washington is a proof of this. This cooperative 

 plan of Pacific coast diatom study includes sending to the Washington 

 laboratory, samples taken at regular intervals at the various points on the 

 coast. These will form a central collection of consecutive samples that will 

 be of much future value to science. Parts of each sample are to be retained 

 at each locality and investigated by the local workers wherever practicable; 

 otherwise, the work will be attempted at the Washington laboratory, and in 

 all cases help in identifying difficult forms will be given. When this coopera- 

 tive work has supplied its information on the kind and quantity of the diatom 

 flora at the various places and under different conditions of time, depth, etc., 

 an important factor in the big problem of the Pacific coast fish-food supply 

 will have been secured. 



Less time was given to the fossil diatom deposits; and yet notable results 

 were obtained. Several days were spent at the large and important deposit 

 at Lompoc, California; and subsequently a complete series of samples of the 

 1,400 foot (or more) depth of strata comprising this great bed has been 

 shipped to Washington and is already prepared for study. The samples 

 were taken at intervals of 25 feet or less, and probably represent the most 

 important series of fossil diatom stratification in existence. Their geological 

 interpretation promises to be valuable. 



