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NATURE 



[December 18, 1902 



THE MINNESOTA SEASIDE STATION. 



AMONG newer American establishments for the study 

 of marine biology, the Minnesota Seaside Station 

 has awakened considerable interest. It is upon British 

 soil, being situated about sixty miles north-west of 



Fig. j. — Buildings of Minnesota Seaside Station as seen across Station Cove. The large 

 laboratory building is not >hown, but stands immediately to the right of the smaller 

 building. The buildings face nearly south. 



Victoria, British Columbia, just at the entrance of the 

 Straits of Fuca. The site was chosen after a careful 

 reconnaissance of the Pacific coast, both Canadian and 

 American, and presents some remarkable advantages. 

 So fir as accessibility is concerned, it may be reached 

 from Seattle, Port Townsend or Vic- 

 toria, and commands, not only the 

 outer waters of the ocean, but the 

 region of Puget Sound as well. 



The physiographic features of the 

 shore in the vicinity of Port Renfrew, 

 Vancouver Island, the nearest har- 

 bour to the Station, are extraordinarily 

 favourable for the development of its 

 special and characteristic work. The 

 country rock is a tilted slate, cut by 

 dykes of diabase and overlaid by mill- 

 stone grit and sandstone. The bold 

 promontory, just north of the Station, 

 is of sandstone covered with glacial 

 drift. The very broad shelving shore 

 of sandstone is dotted with a great 

 number of pot holes, worn by glacial 

 boulders and ironstone concretions 

 from the country rock. These pot 

 holes vary in size and depth from 

 little shallow saucers a few inches 

 across to huge wells and cisterns 

 many yards in diameter and often 

 twenty feet or more in depth. Hun- 

 dreds of such pools between tide marks serve as natural 

 aquaria. Each has its characteristic distribution of 

 plants and animals. For this reason, the Station shore 

 is astonishingly rich in types of oceanic fauna and flora. 

 Within a couple of miles, the formations change, and 



NO. T729, VOL. 67] 



no other place upon the entire Alaskan, British Colum- 

 bian or Californian coast is known to be so favourable 

 for naturalistic study and research as that where the 

 Minnesota Seaside Station has been built. 



The thing of most importance about a seaside station is 



the sea. Minnesota, occupying a mid-continental position, 



might send its students with equal 



^ ease to the Atlantic or to the Pacific. 



It seemed, however, that a rallying 

 point upon the Pacific would be the 

 more inspiring. The eastern shore is 

 already somewhat hackneyed and over 

 civilised, so that the distractions of 

 village life, golf, yachting and society 

 may, in some circumstances, inter- 

 fere with the free and genuineactivi- 

 ties of a station. It is undeniable 

 that, when a laboratory by the sea 

 has acquired the appurtenances and 

 refinements of a highly organised in- 

 stitution, something is lost on the side 

 of Nature to counterbalance the gain 

 in comfort and conventionality. The 

 Minnesota Seaside Station, two thou- 

 sand miles distant from the labora- 

 tories of the University of Minneapolis, 

 behind the great plains and mountain 

 ranges, sixty miles from any consider- 

 able settlement, free from the influence 

 of morning newspapers, daily mails 

 and inquiring tourists, has for its para- 

 mount source of interest and principal 

 spring of enthusiasm the sea, and the 

 sea alone. 



From its site, three miles south of 

 the harbour of Port Renfrew, visited 

 four times a month by a little coasting 

 steamer belonging to the Pacific Navi- 

 gation Co., the Seaside Station looks 

 out directly towards Cape Flattery. To the right roll 

 the swells of the open Pacific. To the left, across 

 the blue straits, rise, peak upon peak, the Olympics 

 with their glistening glaciers, untrodden summits and 

 eternal snows. There are few more beautiful spots in 



Fir.. 2 — Group of students holding an extended specimen of the Giant Kelp. Xereocystis 

 priafiits. The holdfas. is seen hanging down on the right and the leaves are held upon 

 the left. 



northern latitudes. One feels the magic of the mountains, 

 the forest and the sea, and not to be a naturalist in such 

 an environment is scarcely possible. 



During its first season, there were twenty-nine in at- 

 tendance at the Station. In 1902, the number rose to 



