Laguna Warine Laboratorp 5 
PROLOGUE 
OR many years groups of Pomona College students in 
Biology, had made annual visits with Dr. Cook, head of the 
Department of Biology, to the neighboring coast, usually to 
Deadman’s Island at San Pedro. The single day spent there 
each year, among the rich displays of life accessible at low tide, had 
kept alive the intention of the Department, growing stronger year 
by year, to spend portions of each summer on the coast, with a 
selected group of interested Pomona students. After many attempts* 
to organize such a project, early in 1911, Dr. Cook, Professor Baker, 
and Mr. Charles W. Metz, at a final conference, decided to go, regard- 
less of obstacles, for one season’s trial, and to take with them a group 
of students interested in the work solely for the work’s sake, and to 
share with them alike in all expenses of whatever nature. The selec- 
tion of a location was left to Professor Baker and Mr. Metz, and 
these two, during the Spring of 1911, worked over, largely on foot, 
most of the coast from Redondo to Laguna. The latter locality was 
settled upon without any question, as by all odds the most desirable 
for our immediate purposes—studies on the fauna and flora of the 
tidal zone and its immediate neighborhood. The varied topograph- 
ical and ecological conditions—the high promotories, the acres of 
rocky tide-pools exposed at low tide, the numerous small sand 
beaches, all equally accessible—together with the varied beauty of 
all the natural surroundings, showed this. to be a most uniquely 
favorable place. We immediately rented a large house from Mr. 
James T. Smith, and June 21 found us in possession with all the 
necessary outfit for the proposed work. 
Miss C. K. Rice (now Mrs. A. C. Dyer of Kinsley, Kansas) had 
kindly consented to serve as chaperon, and the following students 
joined the party: Blanche E. Stafford, Vinnie R. Stout, Harry V. 
M. Hall, Mabel Guernsey, John Guernsey, Leon Gardner, and some- 
what later, Frank R. Cole. David L. Crawford, who was also one 
of this group, carried on his work in the Claremont laboratory. With 
*In connection with these attempts, grateful acknowledgments should be made to 
Miss M. Hathaway and Mr. Llewellyn Bixby. 
