174 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



CRUISE ALONG THE FLORIDA KEYS. 



Upon returning to America, the Anton Dohrn was placed in com- 

 mission and employed from April 20 upon a 10-day cruise to the Tor- 

 tugas and back to Miami, the object being to enable Dr. Paul Bartsch 

 to study the many colonies of cerions from Andros Island, Bahamas, 

 which he had planted upon the Florida Keys in May and June 1912. 

 These colonies range over a line 225 miles in length from the Ragged 

 Keys near Miami to the Tortugas, and had suffered various fates, some 

 having prospered and produced many young, while others, placed in 

 adverse environments, had died without leaving progeny; but in all 

 cases where young had been produced in Florida, they differed either 

 in form or color from their Bahama-born parents, and displayed a wider 

 range of variability. Moreover, the same species of parents produced 

 different sorts of young in different localities, and thus the mutation 

 appears to be due to some effect of the environment reacting either 

 upon the germ-cells of the parent or upon the growing young as indi- 

 viduals. For details one should consult Dr. Bartsch's preliminary 

 report (pages 195, 196). His very important study has indeed only 

 begun, yet enough has been accomplished to lead one to believe that a 

 flood of light will soon be thrown upon the obscure subject of mollus- 

 can variation, and that we may be enabled to ascertain the underlying 

 causes which have resulted in the extraordinarily rich variety of mu- 

 tations in the Achatinellidse of Hawaii or the Partulse of Tahiti. 



CRUISE TO THE BAHAMAS. 



After returning to Miami, the Anton Dohrn again set forth, on 

 May 1, 1914, this time for the Bahamas, with Dr. Thomas Wayland 

 Vaughan. 



In this connection the Director desires to express his gratitude to 

 His Excellency the British Ambassador, Sir Arthur Cecil Spring-Rice, 

 who, upon the instigation of President Woodward, kindly gave to us 

 letters of introduction to the governors of the Bahamas and of Jamaica. 

 To His Excellency Sir George B. Haddon-Smith, c. m. g., governor of 

 the Bahamas, and to the Honorable W. Hart-Bennett, c. m. g., the 

 colonial secretary, we are indebted for acts of kindness which con- 

 tributed materially to the success of the expedition, as did also the 

 courteous and efficient advice and aid rendered by our American 

 consul at Nassau, the Honorable W. F. Doty. 



Messrs. Lenox E. Forsyth and E. W. Forsyth renewed their kind 

 acts of former years and guided Dr. Vaughan to places of geologic 

 interest upon Andros Island. 



Dr. Vaughan found that the corals which he had measured and 

 cemented upon tiles at Golding Cay, Great South Bight, Andros Island, 

 in 1912, had survived well and had grown at about the same or a some- 



