Until recently the Pacific has been regarded as so remote from 

 the old and well-established centers of civilization and learning 

 that many have felt that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to 

 carry out such an undertaking as is here proposed. Happily that 

 objection is now removed and the desirability of Honolulu serving 

 as the center for the work is generally admitted. 



Honolulu, the capital of Hawaii, is a thoroughly modern city. 

 It is equipped with every modem convenience, being supplied with 

 abundant cable and steamship connections, with all parts of the 

 Pacific. It has the most delightful and healthful climate in the 

 world, and in addition to its many widely recognized scientific and 

 educational facilities, offers natural advantages pre-eminently fitting 

 it to lead in this work — a work which is in truth a "world's work" 

 in scope and significance. 



Besides the remoteness of the Pacific from established centers 

 of learning as just alluded to, there have been innumerable reasons 

 for delay in undertaking this great task. Aside from the lack of 

 sufficient funds the chief and most important cause of delay in the 

 past has been that the islands of the region are divided among the 

 nations of the earth in such a way that no country has been ready 

 or willing to incur the expense incidental to the exploration and 

 charting of a sister country's domain. As a result, the little that 

 has been accomplished by home governments or private enter- 

 prise has been desultory, fragmentary, and in a large degree futile, 

 from lack of scope and consistent purpose. 



It therefore remained for some individual or institution or asso- 

 ciation of individuals and institutions to take up and, so far as 

 possible, carry forward the undertaking, and by so doing do for the 

 world a work that the state or nation could not legitimately attempt. 



Such, then, briefly told, are some of the purposes of and reasons 

 for the existence of the Pacific Scientific Institution, with the 

 organization, purposes, and work of which it is the province of this 

 paper to deal. 



THE PACIFIC SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTION 



In order to carry on in a comprehensive way the administrative 



and resident research work of the exploration of the region and at 



the same time provide for the inevitable lateral expansion of such 



6 



