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from the governments of the several natione that participate in th. 

 p-reat sea^ f i sheries of the northwestern Atlantic, selected as a rule 

 (but not necessarily) from the Fisheries Services or other govern- 

 mental scientific establishments. At present Canada, Newfoundland, 

 France and the United States are represented on the Committee. This 

 body receives no appropriation from any source, constquently.it has 

 no executive powers but is purely advisory. On ths oth^r hand, its 

 functions in that respsct are unlimited, and it has proven effective 

 in coordinating the scientific investigations of the several govern- 

 ments in those fi-;lds of oceanic biology where all have a common 

 interest. Its actual accomplishments have been to unify efforts in 

 su';h problems as the migration of the mackerel, cod and other fish; 

 the dispersal by currents of fish ^crgs and larvae; the study oy drift 

 bottles of the dominant non-tidal circulatory movements of the water 

 along the i^.oast of north-eastern America; the secular variation in 

 temperature, etc.; as well as of subjects more directly concerned with 

 the Fisheries that need not be listed here. ^nd the success it has 

 enjoyed without powers of any sort is one of the strongest arguments 

 for the establishment of the proposed Institution. 



Cooperation in encouraged in a somewhat different way by several 

 committees of the National Research Council of the United States and 

 of Canada, likewise of the Pacific Science Association. Four of the 

 committees of the first of these councils have direct oceanographic 

 contact, namely, those on sedimentation, on shore line investigation 

 of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, on features and changes of the shore- 

 line of the Pacific coast, and on submarine configuration and oceanic 

 circulation, under which there is a subcommittee on the submarine 

 topography and structural history of the Caribbean-Gulf region. 

 These are consultive rather than executive bodies, though the com- 

 mittee on sedimentation has been able to give financial support to 

 actual projects from royalties realized from the sales of the 

 treatise on sedimentation and color chart for description of sedi- 

 ments published by the National Research Council. Other puolir^ations 

 (dealing with land geology) are also in course of publication by it. 

 And its work has led to the development of courses on sedimentation 

 in several colleges and universities. The committee on shoreline 

 investigation of Atlantic and Gulf coasts is carrying- on studies of 

 variation of sea level in cooperation with the United States Coast 

 and Geodetic Survey. The most useful contrioution to Oceanography 

 that the other committees of this group are now makinsr is through 

 their annual summ.aries of the various projects that are actually in 

 progress around, the coasts of America and in other parts of the world]- 



-'"See annual reports of division of Geolotry and Geography, National 

 Research Council, Tashington, D. C. 



We wish especially to call attention to the annual report of 

 the committee on submarine configuration and oceanic circulation, 

 which makes it possible for independent workers to k=ep in touch 

 with all the more important projects falline' within its field. 



The committee on Oc eanograohy of the Canadian Research Council 

 Was appointed to coop.-rate with the several committees ortranized 

 under the Pacific Science Congress at a meeting in Japan in 1936. 

 It has b^en concerned chiefly with developing ways of miakine: avail- 

 able the data that have been accumulating in various departm.ents of 



