November 



J' 



1910] 



NATURE 



THE OCEANOGRAPHICAL MUSEUM AT 

 MONACO. 



IN the history' of the development of the study of 

 the sea all the sciences find an application, 'and 

 nil were worthily represented at the inauguration of 

 :he Oceanographical Museum of Monaco on March 

 ^q of this year. The ceremonies and festivities inci- 

 dent to the occasion have already been chronicled in 

 the columns of Nature (April 14, vol. Ixxxiii., p. 191). 

 it is proposed here to give an impression of the life- 

 work of the Prince of Monaco, which found expression 

 in the solemnities of that occasion. The accompany- 

 ing illustrations ^ afford an idea of the magnificence 

 of the building and of the richness of the collections. 

 Fig. I gives a view of the museum from the sea. 

 The scale on which it is built can be judged from 

 :he fact that the height of the roof above the lowest 

 masonrj' is 75 metres. Fig. 2 is the statue of the 

 Prince standing on the bridge of his yacht. It is an 

 artistic work, and a good portrait. It gives fine ex- 

 pression to the modesty as well as to the power of 

 the creator of the greai 

 monument in the centre of 

 which it stands. 



The museum and the 

 vessels attached to it, with 

 heir staffs and general 

 jrganisation, are only one- 

 half of the great enterprise 

 which is entitled, " Institut 

 Oceanographique Fondation 

 Albert I" Prince de Monaco." 

 Its seat is in Paris, where it 

 possesses its own buildings 

 and a rich endowment, both 

 of them the gift of the 

 Prince. It has professors of 

 physical and biological 

 oceanography and of the 

 physiology of marine ani- 

 tnals, and the lectures de- 

 livered during last year had 

 the most numerous attend- 

 ance of any in Paris. During 

 the life of the Prince he 

 exercises supreme authority. 

 Both in Paris and at Monaco 

 there is complete organisa- 

 tion for giving effect to his 

 wishes, and, in the event of 

 his death, for carrying on 

 the work without interrup- 

 tion, and on the lines inau- 

 gurated by himself. Thus continuity and permanence 

 have been assured. 



It will be readily realised that the establishment 

 of these two great institutions has not been accom- 

 plished without the expenditure of large sums of 

 money and the devotion of much time and labour to ' 

 it. It is almost impossible for anvone to realise the \ 

 greatness of the work which is being accomplished J 

 without having been intimatelv connected with it, and i 

 even with this advantage the development of the con- ; 

 ception is slow. As with all great achievements, it > 

 ■will take at least a generation before it is thoroughlv ! 

 'understood and adequately appreciated. ' | 



The museum at Slonaco bears testimonv at every ! 

 turn to the great lines on which the Prince has him- ' 

 self worked, and in which his work is fundamental. ( 

 Thus, in the purely hydrographical department, we 

 see his bathymetrical chart of the world, on which i 



1 For the illuMrations in this anicle we are indebted to the courtesy of l 

 the propn-tor of the Xatu^vissfnsch'r/iluhe Wochenschri/t. They are 

 reprodMctrd from photographs hy Prof. Doflein. of Munich, and illustrate an ' 

 article by him in that periodical.— Editor. Nature. 



all the trustworthy deep soundings are entered. This 

 great document may be said to be the foundation-stone 

 of oceanographical work. .Another and much earlier 

 piece of hydrographical work is the current chart of 

 the North Atlantic, which gives the result of his 

 laborious work on board the Hirondelle. By the 

 methodical dispersion of floats, especially constructed 

 to expose the least possible surface above water, along 

 different lines radiating generally from the group of 

 the .Azores, by patiently awaiting their recovery, and 

 by then combining their records, he furnished the 

 demonstration that this portion of the ocean is prac- 

 tically a lake, bounded, not by land, but by the motion 

 of its own peripheral waters, thus enclosing a roughly 

 circular portion of the sea, part of which is generally 

 associated with the Sargassum weed and called the 

 Sargasso Sea. The "water, thus self-confined in the 

 warm, drv subtropical region, is exposed to powerful 

 evaporation, and to a considerable annual variation of 

 temperature at the surface. The combination of these 

 two thermal factors furnishes the mechanical power 



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Fig. 1.— V 



NO. 2140, VOL. 85] 



iew of the Oceanographical Museum at Monaco as seen from the sea. 



by which the deeper layers of the water obtain more 

 heat and attain a greater density in this sea than 

 they do in any other part of the of>en ocean, as was 

 pointed out by the writer in a paper "on the vertical 

 distribution of temperature in the ocean," read before 

 the Royal Society- on December 17, 1874, and pub- 

 lished in its Proceedings, vol. xxiii., p. 123. 



In the great hall to the left of the entrance the 

 visitor is at once struck by the magnificent collection 

 of skeletons of Cetaceans, which includes those of 

 many species. These are skeletons of individual 

 whales, nearly all of which have been killed by the 

 Prince himself, and each is complete, every- bone in 

 the animal being accounted for. From alf points of 

 view this collection is at once the most attractive and 

 the most interesting in the museum, and in it we see 

 the Prince reflected as a hunter and as a naturalist. 



In Fig. 3 we have the Orca, with its formidable 

 double row of teeth. It preys on other Cetaceans, and 

 always shows plenty of sport. The specimen figured 

 belonged to the leader of a school of three, which was 



