ALEXAJSFDER AGASSIZ 117 



that such a condition of matters must be regarded as local 

 and accidental. 



Now, Alexander Agassiz, on his last expedition, to the 

 Eastern Pacific, in 1904-5, explored anew this region of the 

 earth's surface the furthest removed from the shores of 

 continental land, and he found that this same condition of 

 things extended over vast areas of the Pacific Ocean. Here 

 we have almost certainly the region of minimum accumu- 

 lation on the sea-floor, and recent investigations indicate that 

 there is in these deep deposits more radio-active matter 

 than anywhere else in the solid crust of our planet. A 

 satisfactory and clear understanding of the chemical 

 phenomena taking place on the floor of the ocean in this 

 region has not yet been obtained, but Agassiz's researches 

 take us a long way on the road to a solution of some exceed- 

 ingly interesting and important oceanic problems. Take, for 

 example, his conclusion that the bottom fauna depends upon 

 the surface plankton, and that depends upon the presence of 

 strong currents, which may be expressed briefly as — no 

 currents, no plankton, no bottom fauna. This was one 

 of his last contributions to oceanography ; and Prof. C. A. 

 Kofoid, who was with him on the occasion, has kindly given 

 me the use of a photograph (PI. VIII.) he took of Agassiz 

 watching the arrival of the deep-sea trawl on the deck of the 

 *' Albatross." He passed his seventieth birthday at sea on this 

 Pacific expedition, and he actually died at sea in mid-ocean 

 five years later, while returning from a visit to Europe. 



The following list of his more notable expeditions may be 

 of interest : — 



" Blake " . . Caribbean Sea . . 1877-80 



" Albatross " . South Seas and Pacific . 1899-1900 



I Bahamas and Cuba . . 1892 



Bermuda and Florida . . 1894 



Barrier Reef, Australia . 1896 



Fiji Islands . . .1897-8 



Maldives . . . .1902 



"Albatross" . Eastern Tropical Pacific .1904-5 



