504 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LVI, No. 1453 



The entire coast lines of Guadalupe and sev- 

 eral of the other islands were examined care- 

 fully for evidence of the existence of the 

 Guadalupe fur seal but not a single animal was 

 seen. Many inquiries were also made regarding 

 the species but no information was obtained 

 which would indicate that there remained a 

 living representative. It has apparently gone 

 the way of the great auk, S teller's sea cow and 

 several other valuable species; commercial 

 hunters can cut another notch on their gun- 

 stock. 



The old fur-seal rookery grounds of Guada- 

 lupe were examined carefully. Three of these 

 were found and the lava rocks were polished as 

 smoothly as though they had been deserted but 

 yesterday. An estimate based upon knowledge 

 gained on the Alaska fur-seal rookeries placed 

 the original number of animals on Guadalupe 

 at 100,000. The great killing took place in the 

 early part of the nineteenth century and we 

 must look with remorse upon our ancestors 

 who were so thoughtness as, to destroy so val- 

 uable an animal. In 1892 and subsequently 

 several expeditions have visited Guadalupe 

 Island in the hope of securing specimens for 

 museum purposes but met with no success. 

 Four incomplete skulls upon which the species 

 was founded and possibly a few disassociated 

 bones (yet unidentified) taken by the last ex- 

 pedition seem to represent all there is of it 

 except regrets. 



No southern sea otters were seen by the mem- 

 bers of the expedition, but information ob- 

 tained would indicate that there are still alive 

 a very few of these excessively valuable ani- 

 mals. 



The natural history collections made by the 

 expedition were large considering that the 

 islands were visited during the di-y season. 

 Specimens in various groups were obtained in 

 approximately the following numbers: birds 

 and mammals, 300; reptiles and amphibians, 

 1,000; insects, 1,100; land shells, 2,000; marine 

 fossils, many; and miscellaneous fishes, inver- 

 tebrates and plants. 



The representatives of the Mexican govern- 

 ment are thoroughly alive to the necessity of 

 conserving the natural resources of their 

 western territory. It is not expected that 

 measures will be adopted which will throttle 



the proper commercial development of the vast 

 wealth of marine life of those waters but it is 

 expected that the Mexican government will 

 provide laws and regulations which will prop- 

 erly safeguard and conserve those resources so 

 that they may continue for all time valuable 

 assets of that government. 



G. Dallas Hanna 

 California Academy of Sciences 



AID TO RUSSIAN SCIENTISTS 

 The American Committee to Aid Russian 



Scientists with Scientific Literature made an 

 appeal through Science (June 23, 1922) to 

 the scientific men and organizations of .the 

 United States for gifts of American scientific 

 books, journals and papers to be sent, by aid 

 of the generous cooperation of the American 

 Belief Administration, of which Mr. Herbert 

 Hoover is chaii-man, to Russia for distribution 

 among Russian univei-sities, scientific organiza- 

 tions and individual workers. In addition to 

 the general appeal through Science, the com- 

 mittee made a special appeal by letter to vari- 

 ous commercial publishing houses, university 

 presses and scientific organizations which pub- 

 lish journals, memoirs, bulletins, etc. 



The response to this appeal has been wide- 

 spread and generous. Up to date nearly nine 

 tons of American scientific books, journals and 

 papers published since January 1, 1915, have 

 been collected and sent to Russia. The con- 

 tributors include 70 government and state 

 bureaus and experiment stations, 40 univei-si- 

 ties and colleges and univei-sity presses, 23 

 national and state scientific societies and about 

 120 private individuals. To make special men- 

 tion of any contributors among the many who 

 have made such generous response to the appeal 

 may seem unfair, but to reveal the interesting 

 fact that commercial publishing houses, which 

 are presumably not primarily philanthropic, 

 or, at least, immediately benevolent in their 

 aims, have exhibited a generosity not inferior 

 to that shown by the more strictly science- 

 supporting organizations, I want to call atten- 

 tion to such examples of good will as shown by 

 the Yale University Press in its contribution 

 of six copies each of twenty-four first class, 

 scientific books published by it, and by Double- 

 day, Page and Company in submitting a list 



