110 



of any rapid increase in the number of ocean&g-raphers in A.m;jrica , 

 becaus;'- very few professional openings for teaching or investigation 

 are open, except in the very special lints of work carried on in the 

 government service. 



III. SUMMARY 



Oceanogra.phy is today a "live" science in A.m--rica, but at the 

 same time an "infant" science, struggling against many and serious 

 obstacles to its growth. These obstacles do not result from any lack 

 of general interest in the subject, as evinced at scientific gather- 

 ings, etc. , but from a complex of practical oostacles which hold to a 

 minimum the amount of occanographic effort now actually being exerted 

 in America. 



True, it would b "' possible to prisent the foreaoing survey in 

 such a way as to suggest th';t Oceanography is today w-11 served in 

 America. This, in fact, is true, so far as Libraries, and opportun- 

 ities for la:3oratory study of data otherwise e-athered, are concerned. 

 But in every other way Oceanography, though very much alive, lags 

 far behind all the other sci'^^nces with which it is commensurate in 

 importance. 



Consider, for example, the paucity of effort directed primarily 

 toward oceanic exploration, as m93cur=>d by th'= fact that in America 

 today there are only three research institutions outside the srovern- 

 ment services and state universities th^t eith^er devote their chief 

 energies to Oceanography (physical or biclcgical), or include this 

 subject as a major item in their fields of investigational activity. 



It is too early to prophesy wheth-r the recent entrance of the 

 various other institutions, mentioned aoove, into Oceanography, by 

 individual projects, actually presages the dawning of a bett-r day; 

 this will depend largely on how soon the practical obstacles analyzed 

 elsewhere (page 143) can be ov^rrcome. 



