[PRINCE] BIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION OF CANADIAN WATERS 85 
nature of our Pacific coast waters,’ and it may be doubted if the 
“ Albatross” has anywhere secured, in so short a time, and with such 
ease, a mass of living treasures to compare with those obtained in her 
cruise in 1890 along the west shores of our Dominion. May the 
biological station sanctioned by the Dominion Government be equipped 
and be actively engaged in reaping the harvest of these gem-studded 
shores, at the earliest possible moment! 
A Dominion Biological Station for British Columbia. 
The project for a marine biological station for British Columbia 
has never been allowed wholly to remain in abeyance, and enthusiastic 
scientists have never ceased to harbour the hope that the Dominion 
Government would realise the necessity of scientific investigation in the 
Pacific waters as appropriately as they did on the Atlantic coast. But 
no public statement was made to the country until the able and far- 
seeing representative for Comox-Atlin, Mr. William Sloan, M.P., 
in a memorable speech on fishery matters declared, on January 
18th, 1907, to the Federal House at Ottawa that there ought to be no 
delay in founding a scientific laboratory for fisheries’ research on the 
coast of British Columbia. Mr.*Sloan said that he strongly favoured 
a marine biological station in British Columbia, and went on to announce 
(Hansard Debates, 3rd Session, 10th Parliament, Ottawa, 1907) 
that :—‘“‘ The proposed establishment of the station has been everywhere 
accepted as being necessary in extending a more definite knowledge as 
to the economic values contained in our seas and the further extending 
of facilities for investigation and scientific research would be beneficial 
to our fisheries.” 
Foundation of Canadian Biological Station, 1898. 
When the Biological Station on the Atlantic coast was founded 
by the Dominion Government in 1898, it had in numerous ways a field 
of vast possibilities before it, though, as we have seen, many a 
scientific worker had “ploughed the furrow alone” during the 
previous fifty or sixty years. Several causes had contributed to 
bring about the consummation. A report of my own in 1894, 

*Dr. Stearns and others have described the specimens obtained, in such 
publications as the Proc. U. S. Nat. Museum, Vol. XIII, ete., and Professor 
Starr Jordan’s classic works on fishes include a large number of descriptions 
based on British Columbia examples. 
Drs.- Jordan and Bean, it may be added, cruised along the B. C. coast 
and made collections so long ago as 1880, and paid special attention to the 
cod and halibut resources. 
