145 



where, make it unlikely that they can lead in the attack on the un- 

 derlying prohlems of the sea. 



Oceanographic research below the surface of the sea also en- 

 tail technical difficulties, because of the necessity of obtaining 

 data of various kinds with delicate instruments at the end of a 

 long wire, and from a base (the ship) which, ideally stationary, is 

 actually drifting, often rolling and pitching: also because obser- 

 vations' of various kinds, must be made with recording instruments, 

 that must v/ork under great pressures. All this results in an undue 

 concentration of ivork close to shore, in particular sectors of the 

 coastal waters, not always selected because of their scientific im- 

 portance, hut often for more practical reasons of convenience, ac- 

 cessibility, etc., leaving other sectors entirely untouched, though 

 the7/- may be more significant. It is difficult to see how this can 

 be remedied under present conditions. 



If one great need of Oceanography today is money, another is 

 men. ?i/e doubt if it be generally realized that the number now pro- 

 fessionally and primarily engaged in firsthand investi£-ation of 

 ocean problems in North America today, outside of the government 

 surveys of the United States and of Canada, probably does not ex- 

 ceed fifty. It would be difficult to state the number of productive 

 oceanographers within the governmental bureaux, because it is impos- 

 sible to draw any definite line there between scientific investiga- 

 tors and technical recorders, tabulators or cartographers in the 

 strictly navigational and fisheries fields. But thirty-five would 

 probably include all who are now actively engaged on problems, not 

 economic, in which the oceanic phase is paramount. While a consid- 

 erable list of institutions concerned with one or another phase of 

 Oceanographv is mentioned in chapter III , most of these include 

 only one or two oceanographers on their stnffs, or none at all. So 

 few, indeed, is the roster of investigators in Oceanography in the 

 United States and in Canada, that if one drops from the ranks, some 

 interesting pro;iect or another is handicapped, if not entirely nut 

 a stop to. This state of affairs is so apparent that there is no 

 need of attempting to enumerate the professorships, curatorships, 

 fellowships, now maintained, in this field in America. To do so 

 would, in fact, require a special survey, so often does the title 

 of a university chair fail to describe the scientific interests and 

 activities of its incumbent. 



its internal economics that he requires as the background for his 

 detailed studies, no matter in what field these may fall. There- 

 fore, he must spend some of his days out on the sea* often on a 

 boat far too small for comfort, contending with rough seas, wet and 

 cold; sea-sickness must be no bugbear to him., nor cramped quarters. 



