2 University of California Publications in Zoology [Vou, 14 
A.—METHODS AND RESULTS OF THE HypROGRAPHIC WORK 
I. INTRODUCTION 
The present report discusses the physical conditions encountered 
during a biological survey of San Francisco Bay, which was com- 
menced in January, 1912, and covered the whole of that year, together 
with about half of the sueceeding one. No comprehensive account of 
this survey can be attempted until the principal biological data are 
ready for presentation in a generalized and serviceable form. For 
this we must await the completion of the labors of a number of spec- 
ialists who have undertaken the study of the various groups comprised 
in the fauna and flora of these waters. It has been regarded as highly 
desirable, however, that a preliminary report should be prepared, 
discussing the physical conditions which obtain in San Francisco Bay, 
and embodying the hydrographic observations made in the course of 
this survey. And the present seems an opportune time to record in 
brief the history and scope of the survey as a whole. 
In February, 1911, the Biological Division of the University of 
California prepared a series of recommendations looking to a biolog- 
ical survey of San Francisco Bay. Correspondence was entered into 
with Stanford University and with the State Fish and Game Com- 
mission of California, both of which organizations pledged their sup- 
port to the undertaking. A carefully prepared plan was at length 
drawn up by those chiefly interested in the project, and this plan was 
submitted to the Bureau of Fisheries and to the California delegation 
in Congress. 
Attention was therein called to the value of the fisheries of San 
Francisco Bay, and to the scanty knowledge of the biological and 
physical conditions upon which their existence depended. From the 
more purely scientific standpoint, the importance was urged of ob- 
taining data upon which to base a handbook or series of monographic 
papers dealing with the local marine fauna and flora. Such a work 
would be of great value to naturalists, as well as to those having 
economic problems more clearly in view. 
The presence of the United States Fisheries steamer ‘‘ Albatross’’ 
in the neighborhood of San Francisco during a considerable part of 
each year suggested the most practicable means by which such a survey 
