THE PACIFIC SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTION' 



By William Alanson Bryan 



Contents. — (i) A General Statement; (2) The Pacific Institution; 

 (3) The Exploring Expedition; (4) General Administration of the Institution; 

 (5) The Scientific Organization of the Institution; (6) Scope of the Inquiry; 

 (7) Departments of the Institution; (8) Disposition of the Material; (9) Pub- 

 lications. 



A GENERAL STATEMENT 



So far as the demands of modern science are concerned, the 

 Pacific Ocean is still little less than a vast unexplored realm. The 

 best authorities agree that the region is literally teeming with a 

 wealth of raw material for study in every department of scientific 

 research. This is true in spite of the fact that since the days of 

 Cook's memorable voyages of discovery there has scarcely been an 

 ethnologist, a geologist, a zoologist, or a botanist worthy of the 

 name, who has not longed to explore the region ; or whose mind and 

 heart have not been enthralled at the very thought of the virgin 

 opportunity for original research awaiting any investigator who 

 will study the problems of science involved in the Pacific's vast 

 watery domain. 



Indeed, to explore exhaustively the region; to fathom its 

 unknown depths; to delve into its great mysteries; to study at 

 first hand its people, its fauna, and its flora, have all been among 

 the dearest ambitions of men of science the world over. 



Although appreciating fully, the opportunity for scientific 

 achievements offered in particular lines of investigation few — 

 indeed, very few — of even the best informed of men have ever con- 

 ceived in more than a vague way of the enormous sum total of 

 scientific work still remaining to be done in the Pacific Ocean. Yet 

 the veriest tyro knows well that there are scores of islands scattered 

 over this broad expanse on which scientists have never even set 



I An address delivered by the president of the Institution before the Chicago 

 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, December 

 30, 1907. 



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