52 the hancock pacific expeditions vol. 3 



Southern Section 



Twenty-four catches were obtained at eighteen stations in the 

 southern section, all but two of them being taken near shore. Ten 

 were from the vicinity of Espiritu Santo Island, six near San Josef 

 Island, two near Ceralbo Island, and the others around the shore 

 toward Cape San Lucas. None were large and only three showed 

 numbers of thousands per liter. At the station about fifteen miles 

 east of Ceralbo Island two catches were taken, one of small size, the 

 other nearly 20,000 diatom cells per liter. No series of collections 

 known to the Scripps Institution has yet shown large abundance of 

 plankton diatoms in this section, sometimes called the "Cape Region" 

 by former observers. 



Ocean Catches 



After leaving the Gulf, twelve catches were taken on the northward 

 run in the Pacific Ocean near the west shore of the peninsula of lower 

 California. Except for one catch of moderate size about forty miles 

 northwest of Magdalena Bay, all were too small to have much 

 statistical significance, although one catch of the six taken near 

 Cerros Island showed nearly 10,000 cells per liter, a number sug- 

 gesting the possibility of good production in the locality at times. 



Genera and Species 



Fifty species belonging to twenty-six genera were recorded for the 

 Gulf. A number of other species were present, but their exact identi- 

 fication was not possible within the time available for study of the 

 material, even when the specimens bore enough distinguishing char- 

 acters. Inasmuch as these totals are about the same as those usually 

 found along the coasts of southern California and Lower California 

 in series of catches of similar extent, it may be supposed that such 

 representation is about normal. In the preceding November the Tem- 

 pleton Crocker Expedition of the California Academy of Sciences 

 of 1935 (Allen, in press) had found a like representation of genera 

 and species along the ocean coast of Lower California. As a matter 

 of interest rather than a matter of recognizable significance the fol- 

 lowing lists (Table I) of species on the two sides of the peninsula are 

 arranged in opposite columns for comparison. 



