17 



figure 2b, and Table III. All grab samples were washed through a series 

 of sieves, the smallest diameter of the screens being 1 mm, while a uniform 

 inner mesh size was used in all trawls, regardless of trawl dimensions. The 

 type of gear used at each station taken is given under the station data in 

 the appendix. All material living and dead was retained, and after thorough 

 sorting, all animals groups which could not be identified at Scripps Insti- 

 tution were sent out to various specialists mentioned in the acknowledg- 

 ments. The author sorted all samples into the various systematic groups 

 before sending to specialists, and personally identified 95 "^/q of the mollusks. 

 Some small groups of mullusca were sent to specialists for verification. 



It was obvious after a short time, that the volume of data collected 

 during this program was too large to handle in a conventional manner. 

 First of all, over 1,150 species of invertebrates were identified, and at least 

 another third are yet to receive names. Altogether over 270 stations were 

 taken, although only 200 were taken in the Gulf of California. Each station 

 was characterized by date, time collected, depth, latitude, longitude, 

 bottom temperature, bottom oxygen, sediment type, collecting device 

 and the organisms found there. When attempting to put this information 

 together, it could be seen that there were too many variables to integrate 

 by inspection alone. At about the time when it became necessary to process 

 this information, an electronic digital computor (a Control Data Systems 

 1604) was installed at the School of Science and Engineering, University of 

 California, San Diego. Since the data from the geological studies of the 

 Gulf of California were already being entered on to IBM cards and programs 

 written to process their data, it was suggested that the biological data 

 could also be processed in a similar manner. 



It was first necessary to construct a system for putting the information 

 on to IBM cards, so that the maximum use of the data could be made with 

 a minimum number of cards. Three sets of cards were found to be sufficient 

 for recording all of the data. The first set of cards was for the storing of 

 station data (an example of the print-out is shown in figure 4a). Originally, 

 many of the stations had different sets of numbers, corresponding to the 

 various expeditions. Later in this study, all early stations were numbered 

 consecutively, and additional stations added in the same numbering 

 system. Each station card contains station number, date of collection, 

 time of collection, depths, latitudes and longitudes to tenths of minutes, 

 bottom water temperatures to tenths of degrees Centigrade, oxygen values 

 to tenths of a ml/L., sediment types (using code numbers devised by the 

 geologists), collecting devices, also coded, total number of species taken 

 at the station, and total numbers of living and dead individuals per station. 



2 V'idensk. Medd. fra Dansk naturh. Foren. Bd. 126. 



