1912] Ritter: The Marine Biological Station of San Diego — 167 
F. THE STATION AS IT IS TO-DAY 
I. LAND 
The considerations that most influenced the board of directors 
to endure the present disadvantages of isolation of the new 
location were the certainty for all time of ocean water uncon- 
taminated by human habitations, and the ample elbow-room 
assured whatever developments might take place. Not much 
less weighty with some of the board was the belief that at no 
distant future time the land not actually used by the station 
would become a rich income-producing endowment. This belief 
would appear chimerical to a sober-minded person who should 
contemplate it without taking into account the nature and extent 
of the demand, as evidenced by events of the last decade and a 
half, for seaside lands on the coast of southern California. The 
recent rapid increase in population and wealth that has taken 
place at various points along the coast, particularly in the 
vicinity of Los Angeles, can be interpreted in no other way than 
by assuming that the climatie and other natural conditions of 
the region are as positively a material and business asset as the 
prairies of the upper Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes 
are an asset of Chicago, and as New York Bay and the Hudson 
River are an asset of New York City. Once this is seen, 
it becomes clear that the country tributary to this region in a 
business sense, that is, available for natural exploitation, is nearly 
the whole United States. The general fact of the demand for 
homes in this region because of climatic conditions, taken along 
with the special ones that the station’s property is certainly not 
surpassed in natural attractiveness by any on the whole coast, 
and that the developments of the San Diego region are assuring 
ready accessibility and the many other advantages that appertain 
to a large concentrated population, constitute the chief basis 
of the belief. : 
Looking at the situation in the broadest way, taking account 
of physical, industrial, social, and intellectual tendencies and 
possibilities, as well as of the scientific purposes of the station, 
