PREFACE ix 



The scope and general arrangement of the present report was decided upon at various 

 meetings of the Committee on Oceanography. As regards oceanographic information 

 on the different ocean basins, the purpose was to present in succinct form the degree of 

 exploration of as nearly all the areas of the oceans as is possible. The topics covered by 

 the report need not be listed here, but as an illustration of what was intended the chart 

 showing the available data on subsurface salinities and temperatures in the Indian Ocean 

 may be taken. It is immediately obvious that there are no records in an area between 

 10° and 30° south latitude and between 70° and 90° east longitude. That is, there is here 

 an area twenty degrees of latitude on one side and twenty degrees of longitude on the other 

 side for which there is not a single vertical section for subsurface temperatures and salini- 

 ties. There are in the Indian Ocean other areas ten degrees of latitude and ten degrees 

 of longitude on a side within which no observations have been made. The report was 

 intended to bring out in this way those areas in the different oceans on which there is no 

 information. It should, therefore, serve as a guide for oceanographic research on many 

 important oceanographic problems, especially those that deal with the geophysical aspects 

 of oceanography. 



The catalogue of oceanographic institutions was intended to show for each country 

 the provisions in it for oceanographic research and the scope of its oceanographic activi- 

 ties. In this way just what was being done in each country would be made obvious, and 

 those countries, in which the provisions are inadequate, should they desire to do so, may 

 utilize the information for placing their programs in oceanography on a plane similar to 

 that of other countries. 



The Committee commissioned Thomas Wayland Vaughan to prepare a report of 

 the kind indicated. On the first of September in 1932 he started on a trip around the 

 world to visit various oceanographic institutions and to consult with the oceanographers 

 in as many different countries as possible. After leaving the United States he went first 

 to England, thence to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, France, 

 Spain, Monaco, Italy, Egypt, Siam, French Indo China, China, the Philippines, Japan, 

 and the Hawaiian Islands. On previous trips Mr. Vaughan had been in New Zealand, 

 Australia, the East Indies, and the Malay Peninsula, largely for the purpose of getting 

 information on oceanographic activities. Subsequent to his journey around the world 

 he visited oceanographic institutions along the Pacific coast of Canada and the United 

 States, the two marine laboratories in Scotland, and he either conferred with the directors 

 of or visited other oceanographic institutions in eastern Canada and the United States. 



By the spring of 1934 the report had far advanced toward completion but in June, 

 1934, Mr. Vaughan was taken ill and was unable to resume work on the report until after 

 he retired from the Directorship of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the end 

 of August, 1936. During September he attended the meeting of the International Asso- 

 ciation of Physical Oceanography in Edinburgh and inspected marine laboratories in 

 Scotland. After his return to the United States, from the first part of November, 1936, 

 he gave the completion of the report his uninterrupted attention until it was ready 

 for press. 



