AN INTENSIVE STUDY OF THE FAUNA AND FLORA OF A 

 RESTRICTED AREA OF SEA BOTTOM. 



By FRANCIS B. SUMNER, Ph. D., 

 Director U. S. Fisheries Laboratory, Woods Hole, Mass. 



The preparation of detailed lists of the animals and plants occupying 

 regions of greater or less extent has long been the favorite occupation of a 

 certain class of naturalists. Such lists abound in the annals of botany and 

 zoology. And it is only thus, indeed, that we have learned how our planet is 

 populated. The cumulative labors, first of individuals, then of scientific organ- 

 izations and of governments, have given us the data from which to formulate 

 the laws of geographical distribution. In the beginning we have the bare facts 

 of occurrence; then correlations are established between given conditions of 

 environment and the presence of given species or varieties; finally, we are 

 brought within striking distance of the great central problem of the origin of 

 species. So much for the scientific aspect of the case. On the practical side, 

 faunistic studies need offer no apology for their existence. They have, indeed, 

 formed a part of the established policy of our government for many years. The 

 Department of Agriculture has long maintained a biological survev of the land 

 animals and plants of this continent, while our Bureau of Fisheries has slowly 

 but steadily been conducting a census of the inhabitants of our seas and lakes. 

 Truly, these creatures are not all fit for food, nor indeed for any commercial 

 purpose whatever — though we must add that there are probably many more 

 animals and plants of economic value than we now realize. But the life of the 

 sea is an interrelated whole. One species stands in relation to another as its 

 enemy, prey, food, parasite, host, messmate, or the like, and intimate chemical 

 relations may exist, as we find between the animal kingdom and the plant 

 kingdom as a whole. 



Moreover, as we now view the case, all these multitudinous living creatures 

 are, so to speak, related by " blood." What we learn of one is commonly appli- 

 cable to its nearer relatives and frequently to a long series of other forms. 



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