101 



Little oceanographic work is being Eponsored at present from the 

 Tortugas Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution, which is operating 

 on only a modest scale. But this Laboratory offers unique advantages 

 for tropical work under the flag of the United States, and during 

 the past fifteen years it has been an important heed-quarters for 

 reseach on marine sedim-:nts, reef- forming organisms, and marine 

 geologic processes, including the chemistry of sea -water. Besides 

 routine record of temperature, salinity, hydrogen in concentration, 

 etc.; the projects (too numerous to detail) have included repeated 

 investigations of the precipitation of '^alcium carbonate in the 

 Tropics; carbon dioxide tension; -electric conductivity, alkalinity 

 of ocean waters, soluDility of calcites end calcareous sediments, 

 and investigations of marine bacteria. This Labort-tory has also 

 sponsored coral rsef studies in the Pacific, and in the region of 

 Torres Straits, as well as in th.-; Atlantic. 



Th: newly established Laboratory of Professor Conseil, at Fort 

 au France on the Island of Bartinique also includes oceanographic 

 research in its program. But it is too early to estimate its 

 accomplishment in this field. 



2. Pacific Coast. 



The Scripps' Institution of Oceanography of the University 

 of California occupies a position at present unique in American 

 oceanography, because it is the only establishment on the continent 

 that is exprr'-'ssly organized and maintained for the investigation of 

 the problems of this science, without e'^onomic bias. The Institution, 

 at its headquarters at La Jolla, California maintains a marine labora- 

 tory excellently equipped for physical ,. chemical , and marine sediments 

 as well as for a wide variety of biological investigations, and 

 operates a research vessel as described on page 



Using the data gathered on the cruises of the station boet, and 

 otherwise, as just described (page 98), the station centers its 

 efforts on such subjects as the celculation of dyn?mic circulation in 

 the region studied, the development of new mathematical m.ethods of 

 analysis, and to attempts to discover whether CaliforniDn weather may 

 be forecast from the ocean temperatures. Chemical analyses of the 

 water are here perfoTmed in routine as indices to its varying fertili- 

 ty as a food medium for the plankton. !Tew methods of analysis are 

 developed, and this general field is being constantly expanded. 

 Studies of the variations in the ajnount of plankton in local waters, 

 seasonal, regional, and bathymetric, compared with the amount of 

 dissolved food stuffs in the water, are a regular p?rt of the program, 

 and this has recently been expanded to include studies of oacteria in 

 the sea. The biological investigations also include the physiology of 

 fishes ?;nd pelaaio fish eggs f.nd larvae. Tne study of m&rine bottom 

 deposits is also a part of the regular progr8.m of the Institution. 



The activities of the Institution find expression in a regular 

 institution program carried out continuously by the members of the 

 staff assisted by visiting investigators. In developing tnis pro3:r3m 

 the physical and dynamic aspects of the seg, chemistry , biolocy, and 

 geology have each received coordinate attention, so thc:t the institu- 

 tion is now making the most concerted effort in \merica tow^.rd the 

 theoretic synthesis of thes-^ several fields of sea science. By 



