632 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LI. No. 1326 



bereavement to his colleagues witli wlioni he 

 maintained the friendliest relations. 



J. P. Iddings 



THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR 

 THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 



THE FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE 

 PACIFIC DIVISION 



The foiu-th annual meeting of the Pacific 

 Division, of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science will be held at 

 Seattle in quarters provided by the Univer- 

 sity of Washington on June 17-19, 1920. 



The 1919 meeting held at Pasadena was a 

 pronounced success, exceeding in point of 

 interest and attendance any previous meeting, 

 and fully justifying the wisdom of the 

 national council in providing for a geo- 

 graphic division of the American Association 

 to accommodate the large and active member- 

 ship residing west of the Eocky Mountains. 



Notwithstanding the long distance between 

 centers of population on the Pacific coast, or 

 perhaps rather on account of them, the ex- 

 ecutive committee has pursued the plan of 

 holding the annual meetings alternately in 

 different and widely separated sections of the 

 Pacific Coast area, believing that although 

 the largest attendance is not to be realized in 

 this way, it best subserves the purposes of 

 the organization in stimulating an active 

 interest in science throughout the district 

 and in promoting that cooperation among 

 scientific men which must be eiiective in 

 meeting local problems. 



The Exploration of the North Pacific 

 Ocean was discussed at the Pasadena meet- 

 ing in a symposium which outlined in a 

 general way the urgent need of launching 

 this project and the great practical benefits 

 which must accrue. Some of the many 

 scientific problems involved in the under- 

 taking were also presented by prominent 

 specialists who took part in the symposium. 

 Credit should be given to Dr. "William E. 

 Bitter, of the Scripps Institution for Bio- 

 logical Eesearch, who fathered this symposium 



and whose vision of the great economic and 

 scientific advantages to be gained by inter- 

 national cooperation in this enterprise now 

 seems in process of realization. At least the 

 attention of the National Eesearch Council 

 is directed to the matter and a committee has 

 been appointed which will report on ways and 

 means. This committee has already held one 

 meeting and will meet again in Honolulu in 

 August of this year. This great enterprise is 

 felt to be of peculiar significance to the 

 Pacific coast, and a second symposium on 

 " The Animal and Plant Eesources of the 

 North Pacific Ocean " will be presented at the 

 Seattle meeting. Naturally the fisheries, as 

 constituting the most considerable present 

 resource of the ocean, will receive major 

 consideration in this symposium, and Seattle 

 as the center of the fishery industry, seems 

 the logical place in which to develop this 

 phase of the subject. Quoting from the pre- 

 liminary announcement of the Seattle meel^ 

 ing: 



The thorough presentation of the fisheries prob- 

 lems as they confront the industry to-day should 

 prove to be a direct contribution to a better 

 understanding of what this great project means. 

 International in its scope, involving the vital in- 

 terests of all peoples bordering on the Pacific, it 

 perhaps offers the only solution that will meet the 

 needs of the teeming populations of the Orient, 

 and thus remove by peaceful, scientific means the 

 menace of future conflict. The resources of the 

 Pacific — by what shall they be gauged? A com- 

 paratively unknown field awaits our conquest. 



Following is the arrangement of the sym- 

 posium which will be held on Thursday after- 

 noon June 17 : 



THE ANIMAL AND PLANT RESOURCES OP THE NORTH 

 PACIFIC OCEAN 



Marine 'biology in relation to the North Pacific 

 fisheries: Dk. C. McLean Fraseb, director, Bio- 

 logical Station, Nanaimo, British Columbia. 



Relation of scientific investigations- to the fisheries : 

 Mr. W. F. Thompson, fisheries investigator, 

 California Fish and Game Commission. 



Present condition and needs of t}ie Alaska salmon 

 fisheries: Dr. Hugh M. iSmith, commissioner, 

 Bureau of Fisheries, Washington, D. C. 



