THE PRINCE OF MONACO 129 



a generous recognition of British pre-eminence in oceano- 

 graphical research. It is, therefore, little short of a deplor- 

 able omission that the British Government failed to send any 

 ship of the navy and was not officially represented at the 

 inaugm'ation, although several of us from this country were 

 present as the Prince's guests. 



This museum of oceanography demonstrates the methods 

 of investigation and the results obtained. It contains the 

 extensive collections made on the Prince's expeditions, and 

 also shows the various tjrpes of dredges, trawls, tow-nets, deep- 

 sea thermometers, water-bottles, current meters and other 

 apparatus used by the different nations in their explorations. 



It may perhaps serve to give an impression of the circum- 

 stances surrounding the very striking inauguration of this 

 Musee Oceanographique de Monaco if I quote a few sentences 

 written in 1910 when returning home from that great meeting. 

 As the Prince had been recognized for the previous quarter of 

 a century, by men of science, as an ardent and successful 

 explorer of the sea, it is not surprising that, when he built and 

 endowed this unique museum, it was visited at the opening 

 celebration by such a gathering of scientific men interested in 

 the sea as had probably never been seen before or since. 

 " Official representatives of France, Italy, Germany, Spain, 

 Portugal, Russia and other countries, delegates from the 

 leading academies of the world— the Academy of Sciences of 

 Paris, the Royal Society of London, the Academy ' dei 

 Lincei ' of Rome, and the corresponding scientific societies of 

 Berlin, Vienna, Madrid, and St. Petersburg — along with 

 many other scientific men invited personally by the Prince, 

 were united in celebrating the progress of oceanography, and 

 in launching an institution unique in character and of 

 first-rate importance for science. . . . 



'' The museum building is a mass of white masonry, about 

 100 metres in length and over 70 metres high, planted 

 actually on the face of the cHff, on the seaward side of the 

 rock of Monaco. It rises sheer from the sea, and its lower 



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