PIONEER OF DEEP SEA RESEARCH 5 



Captain Allan Hancock, to the celebration of whose eightieth birth- 

 day this paper is a modest contribution, seems to the present author to 

 have gone through a development resembling that of Albert of Monaco. 

 Early attracted to the ocean, first as a navigator, later as an investigator, 

 he has built and equipped in succession four oceangoing research ships 

 of increasing perfection, the Velero I-IV and made numerous cruises 

 in the eastern parts of the Pacific Ocean. He has assembled a staff 

 of competent scientists to aid him in this work and he has created a 

 center of research, the Hancock Foundation at the University of Southern 

 Cahfornia. Moreover, like the Prince of Monaco, he has taken a great 

 and active part in paleontological research and has presented to the Los 

 Angeles County Museum the fossils of prehistoric animals excavated 

 from the Rancho La Brea Asphalt Pits. Later he presented to Los 

 Angeles County the entire tract of about 32 acres containing these 

 Asphalt Pits, with the condition that the scientific features be preserved 

 for all times so they can be visited and studied by interested scientists. 



May the present author be permitted to wish him many more years 

 of active work and studies, adding a fervent wish that he may also take 

 an active interest in the international cooperation in deep-sea research, in 

 which his own country appears destined to take a leading part in the 

 future. 



