[TAYLOR] BIOLOGICAL STATION ON THE PACIFIC COAST 203 
This may seem almost incredible to those whose experience is limited 
to work on the Atlantic coast, but it is, I believe, sober fact. 
If you take up the valuable and very interesting catalogue of 
Marine Invertebrates of the Eastern Coast of Canada (by Dr. J. F. 
Whiteaves), which represents the work of many able investigators ex- 
tending over a period of 50 years, you will find that in nearly every 
family British Columbia can already show a larger list, although her 
waters have hardly been investigated at all. 
If one wishes to study, say the anatomy or the life history of any 
particular marine type, he can on the Pacific coast obtain an abundance 
of material which would astonish an eastern naturalist. There are 
more common species in these waters than in any other I have ever 
examined. 
Then again, investigators on the Atlantic coast are limited as to 
time for their investigations. During the larger part of the year it is 
not possible for them to do anything in the way of field work, unless, 
perhaps, they desire to study the effects of low temperatures upon animal 
life and upon themselves. But while in December or January outdoor 
work in British Columbia is certainly not very comfortable, there is 
practically not a month in the year in which such work cannot there be 
done. 
Last February (and I may say that the past winter has been the 
most severe we have experienced for many years) I made two most inter- 
esting dredging expeditions and captured, among many other things, 
some very fine sponges and a large crab previously quite unknown (so 
far as Ï am aware) from Canadian waters. 
These very favourable weather conditions, are of course, of very 
great advantage to those who are, perhaps, unable to spare time for re- 
search in the summer months. Naturally too, work that can be carried 
on without interruption throughout the year, will be more rapidly com- 
pleted. 
Further still, the beauty of the climate and the interest which is 
now felt everywhere in our western province will render a stay at a 
Pacific biological station much more attractive to workers in need 
perhaps of a rest or change, than a similar stay on the Atlantic coast. 
But there will be still another attraction to the Pacific station. 
When twenty-five years ago I felt that I should like to travel 
before settling down to work, (I had at that time a prospect, thanks to 
the kindness of Dr. Giinther, of a position in the British Museum) I 
came to the conclusion that there was no part of the world where there 
‘seemed to be better opportunities of doing original work and of dis- 
covering new species (and there is something very attractive to the 
