SECTION IV., 1907. [208] Trans. R. S. C. 
XIII—A Plea for a Biological Station on the Pacific Coast. 
By Rev. G. W. TayLor. 
(Read May 16, 1907.) 
In the supplement to the 32nd annual report of the Department 
of Marine and Fisheries (Fisheries Branch) for the year 1901, are a 
series of papers entitled “Contributions to Canadian Biology, being 
studies from the Marine Biological Station of Canada.” The first of 
these papers is “ An Account of the Biological Station of Canada, its 
Foundation, its Equipment and Work,” by Prof. E. E. Prince, the 
Dominion Commissioner of Fisheries, and the present president of this 
Section. 
This paper gives an exhaustive history of the movement which 
resulted in the establishment of our present stations—a movement which 
owed very much to the efforts and influence of the Fellows of the Royal 
Society. 
One of the first steps contributing to the attainment of this object 
was a suggestion by Prof. Prince himself in his first official report as 
Commissions of Fisheries dated 5th Oct., 1893. This was followed by 
a special report prepared by the Professor at the request of the Minister 
of Fisheries and published as an appendix to the Departmental Report of 
1894. It is entitled “ A Marine Scientific Station for Canada.” 
All the above named reports and papers will well bear reading over 
again. 
Prof. Prince shows that up to the time of his writing very little 
systematic work in Marine Biology had been done in Canada. 
If a Canadian professor desired to carry on original biological 
investigation, it had to be done independently, at his own charges, or else 
he had to go across the line or may be to Europe, to some of the excellent 
biological stations there established. Individual students were obliged 
to apply to authorities in the United States in most cases (not in all, 
for one would be most ungrateful if one overlooked our veteran natur 
alist Dr. Whiteaves) for information as to the Canadian Marine Fauna. 
And so Prof. Prince made a strong plea that Canada should undertake 
her own scientific investigations and especially those needed in the in- 
terests of her own fisheries. 
This plea was entirely successful and as a result, in 1898, there was 
established a Biological Station on the Atlantic coast of Canada. 
