141 



or hyirographic services in their mewbership. The years since the 

 war iiave°also seen the development of another type of institution 

 in Europe (as in America), aiming to encourage oceanography in gen- 

 eral and to urge cooperative effort in particular, hut without any 

 such authoritv to enforce its wishes. This type is exem.plified m 

 Europe by the Section on Oceanography of the International Geodetic 

 and Geophysical Union, the letter a child of the International Re- 

 search Council. The Section has sub-committees on tides, o--^ the At- 

 lantic, on the Pacific, on the Mediterranean, and on the unification 

 of methods and instruments of Oceanographv. But while it exercises 

 some indirect influence b- the discussions at its m.eetings, this in- 

 fluence las not been as great up to date as its rather pretentious 

 organization might suggest. Its stated ob.i'ect is the coordination 

 of the activities of tie different countries, especia'ly of the sev- 

 eral internat^^onal Comm-issions and Institutions active in marine 

 investigation and the encouragement of the use of standard m.ethods 

 of research. Thus it corresponds more nearly to the corre spend ?.ng 

 subdivisions of the National Research Council in the United States, 

 than to any other institution concerned with oceanography in Amer- 

 ica At the present time its most active contributions may be ex- 

 pected to cone from the proposed publication of an oceanographic 

 encvclopedia, and of a yearly bibliography of oceanography. The 

 Section held its first m.eeting in 1920; in 1927 its membership de- 

 finite"! v included representatives from Belgium, Canada, the United 

 States,' France, Great Britain, Italy, Tlorway, and Sweden, while the 

 national adherents to the parent Union numbered 32. 



III. SUffiiARY 



Prom the material standpoint oceanography may then be described 

 as in a much m.ore active state in Europe than in America, with int- 

 erest in this science much more widespread, especially among educa- 

 tional and research institutions. Corresponding to the larger num- 

 ber of institutions concerned with oceanography, a much larger num.- 

 ber of professional openings exist in Europe for young men interest- 

 ed in the sciences of the sea, especially in the fields of fisheries 

 biology. 



We must point out, however, that the development of oceano- 

 graphy in Europe has been som.ewhat one-sided during the past quarter 

 century, from the intellectual standpoint. This has been largely 

 due to' the dominating role played by the Permanent international 

 Conncil for the Exploration of the Sea, the main ob.iect of which is 

 to develop the sea fisheries on a scientific basis, and which conse- 

 quently has tended to keep biologic problems in the foreground, of- 

 ten at' the expense of the ohysical and chemical aspects of the sea 

 that are the rational basis for a correct unders+-anding of marnne 

 biology. In the regular Investigations carried on by the fisheries 

 services of the subscribing governments, the tendency has been to 

 take un physical oceanography only to the extent that it miay be ex- 

 pected' to have direct bearing on fisheries problems, with the result 

 that hydrograrhic data have not always been chosen most wisel"'- for 

 the solution of nh-'-sical problems. Though the work of the Internat- 

 iona] Council has contributed materially to the quantitative know- 

 ledge of the circulation of the waters off western and northern 

 Europe, it would have contributed still more to the general under- 

 standins: of the natural economy of those seas had the physical and 



