NO. 2 FRASER : SCIENTIFIC WORK, VELERO III, EASTERN PACIFIC 51 



The collecting of marine invertebrates on the first expedition was 

 successful enough to indicate that the Eastern Tropical Pacific offered 

 a fertile field for marine biological exploration, a field up to this time 

 almost untouched. From such an unpretentious beginning, without plac- 

 ing any restraint on work on vertebrates, terrestrial invertebrates, or 

 ethnology, marine biological exploration has come more and more to the 

 fore until, on recent expeditions, this type of investigation, with other 

 cognate oceanographic adherents, is of paramount importance. 



Paralleling this development and, to some extent, accounting for it, 

 there has been an increase in the amount and in the efficiency of the 

 equipment carried on the Velero III. Suitable auxiliary boat equipment 

 was provided as the ship was built, and this made it an easy matter to fit 

 in any extra equipment necessary. 



For the 1933 Expedition much equipment was added — a hand 

 dredge, diving helmet, seines, dipnets, lobster traps, etc., suitable for 

 shallow water as well as intertidal collecting. This brought in its train 

 such an increase in marine invertebrate collecting, with such satisfactory 

 results, that there could no longer be any doubt that the Velero III had 

 found its proper niche in scientific endeavor. 



The 1934 Expedition, December 30, 1933, to March 14, 1934, took 

 quite a different route, although it covered little new area. The first stop 

 was made at Socorro Island (Revilla Gigedo group), and the second at 

 Clarion in the same group. From Clarion the course was set to Clipper- 

 ton Atoll, and on to the Galapagos Islands. This was the only time that 

 the archipelago was approached by way of Culpepper and Wenman 

 islands, the most northwesterly islands of the group. Three weeks were 

 spent in the Galapagos before proceeding to Guayaquil, Ecuador. The 

 return voyage was made to Balboa, C.Z., and along the coast to the 

 home port without entering the Gulf of California. (Expedition Chart 3) 



The greatest improvement in equipment for this cruise was the fitting up 

 of one of the whaleboats with a suitably geared power winch for dredg- 

 ing, a sorting table on the stern, movable shear legs for raising and empty- 

 ing the dredge, and 250 fathoms of steel cable for hauling the dredge. 

 This equipment made it possible to dredge satisfactorily in water to a depth 

 of 100 fathoms or even more, although that depth was seldom exceeded. 



Equipment to take water samples and bottom samples introduced 

 physics and chemistry into the general plan of operations. 



The success of this expedition engendered lasting confidence in the 

 work of the expeditions. A sound basis for future work had been fairly 

 and firmly established. 



