109 



Physical Oceanography, in the Chemistry of sea water and in several 

 fields of oceanic biology and submarine sedimentation by the Univer- 

 sity of California at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 

 Harvard University offers research courses (but at present no formal 

 instruction) in these same subjects; the University of Washington 

 offers Oceanography as related to the Fisheries; the University of 

 British Columbia teaches both the physical and biologic aspects; 

 while the Universities of Iowa and 'iVisconsin offer courses and 

 opportunities for advanced work in marine sediments. 



Opportunities are also afforded to students from Canadian 

 Colleges and Universities in general for supervised research, lead- 

 ing to degrees, at the Laboratories of the Biological Board of 

 Canada. A.nd this opportunity, largely taken advantage of by students 

 from most of the important Canadian schools, is an especially fertile 

 contrioution to the problem of oceanographic education in America 

 t od ay . 



As the foregoing suggests, opportunities for university instruc- 

 tion in Oceanosrraphy as a separate science are extremely scanty in 

 America, as compared with oth^r sciences. It is, in fact, one of 

 the most serious obstacles to advances in this field that it is not 

 now possible for a student to obtain a course of instruction, 

 prop-rly graded upward from the elementary introduction to advanced 

 research, in any one American University. In America the oceano- 

 grapher must today be largely self-taught in the basic aspects of 

 his subject. 



G. NUMBER OF OCSANOGRAPHSRS IN AinERICA 



To a certain extent, the activity in any field of science can 

 be estimated by the number of investigators and teachers engaged in 

 it. This number cannot be stated precisely for Oceanography in 

 America, oecause of the impossibility of defining the term, for every 

 student of marine biology, of marine physiology, of marine plants or 

 animals, of seism.ology, of isostasy, of structural geology, of coast 

 lines, or of ocean meteorology touches the fringe of Oceanography, 

 and so, is, to some extent, a potential oceanographer. This general- 

 ization is illustrated by the fact that while the "Liste des ocean- 

 ographes" of Canada and of the United States, compiled bv the Inter- 

 national Geophysical Union in 1935-1937 (Bulletin 3 (a,b) Conseil 

 Internationale-Union Goedesique et Geophysique Internationale) in- 

 cludes 124 names, certainly not half of these find their chief inter- 

 ests in the ocean itself. Thus the membership of the section of 

 Oceanography of the American Geophysical Union, which includes 

 practically the whole roster of American Physical Oceanographers, as 

 well as several whose interests are primarily bioloe:ic , numbered 

 only 31 in 1937. 



Probably it is safe to assert that the number of students in 

 North America whose studies are devoted to the physical, geologic, 

 chemical or biologic aspects of the ocean as an entity, as contrasted 

 with those to whom the oceanic aspect of the projects in which they 

 are eneraged is secondary, is not greater than fifty, all told. And 

 fewer still are actually engaged in oceanographic investigation. 



While the number of gre^^u^te students v/orking in problems bear- 

 ing on Oceanography is considerable, there is no immediate prospect 



