146 



He must, in a word, be sea-minded, just as a forester must be forest 

 minded. Furthermore, marine explorations at all ambitious are nec- 

 essarily fne work of a pr rty whose efforts the oceanographer in 

 charge must direct- t' erefore, he must have some of the qualities of 

 leadership! it will be easier for him if he be seaman enough to lend 

 a hand, when needed, and if he have some knowledge of navigation. 

 Practical experience shows that these requirements of personality -^nd 

 especially of love for the sea will always limit the nvimber of budd- 

 ing scientists from whose ranks the supply of oceanographers can be 

 drawn. 



Perhaps an even more serious limitation is the fact that^ there 

 are very few professional openings for oceanographers in America, 

 outside the government bureaux, whether in teaching or in research 

 institutions. Consequently, but very few in each year can enter 

 this field, however they might be disposed thereto. And, wo think 

 here not only of the teaching and research professions definitely 

 announced as in "Oceanography", but of professorships in Biology, 

 Geography, Chemistr^^, etc. whose tenants co-jld devote t' eir research 

 abilities to ocean problems. Nor is the case much better in the gov- 

 ernment service, for in few cnses are the incumbents of positions in 

 the United States Hydrographic Office, United States Bureau of Fish- 

 eries, United States Coast and Geodetic Surve^'', or the Biological 

 Board of Canada able to exercise that freedom of choice as to re- 

 search problems that is prereouisite for orderly scientific progress. 



The fact that American Universities, as a v;hole, offer few op- 

 portLinities for instruction in the basic aspects of ocean geophysics, 

 or in the oceanic phases of blolog^', is a fatal hnndicap, because to- 

 day the Am.erican oceanogropher mur.t too l^rgel'^ be self -taiight. This, 

 furthermore, cuts two wars because, with so few students available, 

 it seldom, happens that any ^^oung student with training in the basic 

 interrelationships of ocenn science is available when an opening does 

 come for research in some marine problem, making it usur. lly necess- 

 ary to turn to some chemist, physicist, or biologist who has never 

 before given serious thought to this branch of geophysics or to any 

 other. Thus the coordination of different disciplines that is need- 

 ed, is apt tc be seriously interfered '>vith. 



Another obstacle of an intellectual sort must be recognized. 

 Perhaps any scientist would affirm that the m.anifold problems of the 

 soa open attractive avenues for research. But if the individual in- 

 vestigator have vision he is apt to stand appalled at the complexity 

 of the problems to which any marine investigation necessarily intro- 

 duces him: appalled too, at the great extent of the area of sea that 

 must be taken into account. He soon appreciates, also, that if he 

 is to advance from observing and recording isolnted phenomenc to syn- 

 thesizing and accounting for them in biological or geoph^/sical terms, 

 he must have m.ore than an elementary acquaintance with widely di- 

 verse fields of science, and that this diversification must continue 

 throughout his professional career. 



For this reason fertile results in the more basic problems of 

 Oceanography can be expected only through cooperation bet-veen indiv- 



