"The 



Physical 

 Basis of 

 Heredity ' 



Collecting 

 at 



Mazatlan 



The Days of a Man [^1894 



plain and intelligible fashion without effort at 

 argument or propaganda. My address on "The 

 Physical Basis of Heredity" developed a point of 

 view almost unknown even to those of my hearers 

 who had tried to keep up with current discoveries. 

 Its chief quality, highly praised at the time, lay in 

 bringing abstruse conceptions into line with the 

 common knowledge of educated people. 



At the close of 1894, for the first time since our 

 arrival at Stanford, I found opportunity to resume 

 field work in Zoology. In December my wife and 

 I went on an expedition to Mazatlan, the port of 

 the state of Sinaloa on the west coast of Mexico, 

 almost directly opposite the tip of Lower California. 

 Two assistants, George B. Culver and Edwin C. 

 Starks, accompanied us, as well as five other stu- 

 dents, Thomas M. Williams, Frank H. Lamb, 

 Norman B. Scofield, James A. Richardson, and 

 George L. Seward, all volunteer helpers. This trip, 

 the scientific side of which was financed by the 

 further bounty of Timothy Hopkins, resulted in 

 large and valuable collections, including much that 

 was new to science; and under the title, "The Fishes 

 of Sinaloa," I published a description of all the 

 material obtained. In connection with this and 

 later expeditions of the same kind carried on under 

 the auspices of the Hopkins Marine Station, a series 

 of specimens was each time sold to the British 

 Museum and the Museum of Vienna, thus creating 

 a revolving fund for further explorations. 



The situation of Mazatlan is singularly pictur- 

 esque. The narrow harbor, sheltered by tall, craggy 

 islands of varying form and size, opens near a noble 

 beach, "Las Olas Altas" the high waves 



C 5263 



