556 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. n., Xo. 38. 



plan with the stern in the direction in wliieh 

 west is on the map. I constructed the orien- 

 tation of the passagewaj- and of the state- 

 room accordingly. It happened, that, when I 

 joined the ship, her stern was towards the 

 east ; but, on descending into the cabin for the 

 first time, I fixed the orientation to correspond 

 to the one previously formed from the plan, 

 forgetting at the moment that I was thus mak- 

 ing a change of 180°. 



VII. A universal law of the four cardinal di- 

 rections is, that thej' always arrange themselves 

 along visible lines, such as roads, boundaries 

 of a room, etc. : in other words, the directions 

 never subdivide themselves. In going along 

 a new road which I know ought to bisect the 

 angle between two directions, I can, by an 

 effort of the will, imagine it to do so ; but, the 

 moment attention is relaxed, one cardinal di- 

 rection is sure to take possession of the road, 

 and of course, once in possession, keeps it : so, 

 no matter how well I maj' know that the walls 

 of a room are at an angle of 90° with the other 

 walls of a building, the directions are sure 

 to arrange themselves parallel to the walls. 



It may be asked. How does this system work, 

 in case of a number of rooms radiating like a 

 fan from a central space ? I answer, that in 

 such a case my ideas of direction simplj' get 

 unutterablj' confused, and only by long habit 

 can I get the relations of the ditfereut rooms 

 to each other. Simon Nevfcomb. 



THE ARAGO LABORATORY AT BAN- 

 YULS. 



Among the zoological stations or laborato- 

 ries along the coast of France, none is more 

 widelj' known or more firmly established than 

 the laboratory at Eoscoff','' in Finisterre, orga- 

 nized in 1872 hj Professor Lacaze - Duthiers 

 ' as an adjunct of his zoological laboratory of 

 the Sorbonne at Paris. Encouraged by the 

 success of his laboratory at Eoscoff, which 

 during August, 1881, had twenty-five workers, 

 but which, owing to its exposed position at 

 the north-west extremity of France, was only 

 available for work from March until October, 

 at the most, Professor Lacaze-Duthiers sought 

 to establish a winter laboratory on the Medi- 

 terranean, to furnish seaside work the re- 

 maining months of the j-ear. After careful 

 examination of the French coast of the Medi- 

 terranean, a location was chosen for the labo- 

 ratory at the base of the rockj' promontory of 

 Fontaul6, at the entrance of the little harbor 



^ For a detailed .iccount of the laboratory at Roscoff, with maps 

 and plans, see Heme scienllfique, Nov. 26, 1881, xxviii. 673-680. 



of Bauyuls-sur-mer, within a few miles of the 

 Spanish frontier in tlie department of l'yr6- 

 nees-Orieutales. 



The municipal council of Banyuls, tlirougb 

 the mayor, M. I'ascal, who took much interest 

 in the establishment of the laboratory, offered 

 a site for building, twelve hundred francs for 

 immediate use, and an income of five hundred 

 francs annualh' for twenty years ; M. Thomas, 

 a wealthy gentleman of Banyuls, ottered two 

 hundred and fiftj- francs annually for ten years, 

 and a boat ; the council of the department of 

 Pyrenees - Orientales voted twenty thousand 

 francs toward the construction of tiie labora- 

 toiy ; and subscriptions were received from 

 the citizens of this rich wine-producing neigh- 

 borhood. These were some of the means em- 

 ployed to induce Professor Lacaze-Duthiers to 

 locate at Banyuls. Port Vendres, a neighbor- 

 ing village, offered inducements to locate there ; 

 but the great number of fishermen in Banj'uls, 

 its nearness to the open Mediterranean, and 

 its freedom from the distractions due to com- 

 mercial and other activities, together with the 

 earnest interest taken by its inhabitants in 

 the laboratory, won the choice of that village. 

 What a novel sight it would be, here in America, 

 to see villages contesting for the honor of pos- 

 sessing a scientific laboratory ! The Academy 

 of sciences at Paris took the laboratorj' under 

 its protection ; and the establishment was called 

 ' Laboratoire Arago,' to honor the name of 

 the most distinguished savant of the Pyr^nees- 

 Orientales, a former member of the academy. 



It is, of course, impossible to speak of much 

 work alread}' accomplished at the Arago labo- 

 ratory, as one might describe studies complet- 

 ed at Eoscofl'; for the laboratory at Banyuls 

 was scarcelj' finished in the winter of 1881-82, 

 when, with another American and a French 

 student, I had the pleasure of being one of the 

 first to work within its walls : so I will write 

 only of the region and of the laboratory. 



The eastern end of the Pyrenees descends 

 suddenly upon a north and south coast bj- a 

 series of radiating ridges, between which are 

 small indentations of the sea, forming harbors, 

 with roelcj' promontories at each side of their 

 entrances, and a sandy beach within. This 

 kind of coast otters numerous advantages to 

 those searching for marine animals. On each 

 of the larger of the beaches are villages, 

 most of which date back to Eoman times. 

 These villages were recently connected bj" a 

 railroad which follows the coast, passing 

 through tunnels between them. 



Banyuls is situated upon one of these beaches, 

 at the head of a small harbor, which is partly 



