738 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1064 



1876 no active field operations were car- 

 ried on by Professor Baird on account of 

 duties connected with the superintendency 

 of the government exhibit at Philadelphia. 

 In the report for 1876, however, the fol- 

 lowing statement is made : 



The laboratory at Woods Hole was opened . . . 

 for investigators, to whom every faeUity and as- 

 sistance was furnished by Vinal N. Edwards in 

 charge of the station. 



The first part of the summer of 1877 

 was spent at Salem, Mass. In August the 

 party proceeded to Halifax, N. S., where a 

 second station for the summer was formed. 

 Among the assistants of Professor Verrill 

 that year was E. B. Wilson. (It is need- 

 less to inform this audience that E. B. 

 Wilson has since been promoted.) In 1878 

 the laboratory was on Port Hill at the 

 mouth of Gloucester Harbor; in 1879 at 

 Provincetown, Mass., and in 1880 at New- 

 port, E. I. In 1881 Woods Hole was again 

 chosen as the center of scientific operations. 

 In the report for that year Professor Baird 

 speaks of the advantages of the place as a 

 permanent sea-coast station of the U. S. 

 Fish Commission. In the report for 1882 

 the reasons for choosing Woods Hole as a 

 permanent station are given. After speak- 

 ing of the experience at Gloucester the re- 

 port continues : 



A totally different condition of things was found 

 at Woods Hole where the water is exceptionally 

 pure and free from sediment, and where a strong 

 tide rushing through the Woods Hole passage 

 keeps the water in a state of healthy oxygenation 

 specially favorable for biological research of every 

 kind and description. The entire absence of sew- 

 age owing to the remoteness of large towns, as 

 well as the absence of large rivers tending to re- 

 duce the salinity of the water, constituted a strong 

 argument in. its favor, and this station was finally 

 fixed upon for the purpose in question. 



In the report for 1875, published in 

 1878, one finds the spelling of the name of 

 the station changed from Woods Hole to 

 Woods HoU. This change was made in 



conformity with a similar change made by 

 the Post Office Department. An ingenious 

 argument for this unusual way of spelling 

 hole will be found in a small pamphlet 

 written by the late Joseph Pay. It should 

 be stated, in justice to the author of the 

 pamphlet, that his contention was that the 

 word in question was really the Norwegian 

 word holl, meaning a hill, but pronounced 

 hole. 



In this connection it is proper to mention 

 the fact that this same Joseph Pay gave 

 to the U. S. government the waterfront 

 extending from what is now the property 

 of the Marine Biological Laboratory to 

 what is now called Penzance, but then was 

 without a name, if one will except the ob- 

 vious epithets which were liberally applied 

 to the locality by the residents of Great 

 Harbor whenever the wind was from the 

 northwest, for there was situated a large 

 fertilizer establishment, known locally as the 

 "Guano Works." Among material col- 

 lected at Woods Hole in 1882, I still have 

 a considerable number of goose-barnacles 

 which I scraped from an Italian bark, 90 

 days out from the Mediterranean, then tied 

 up at the wharf of the "Guano Works" 

 and unlading her cargo of sulphur. 



Prior to 1877 the tug Blue Light was de- 

 tailed by the Navy for the use of the Fish 

 Commission. A larger tug, the Speedwell, 

 was detailed in 1877. In the year 1880 the 

 Fish Hawk, which had just been built, was 

 used in exploring the Gulf Stream and its 

 fauna, especially in connection with the 

 distribution of the tile-fish. In 1883 the 

 Albatross, a ship especially designed for 

 deep-sea work, was completed and placed 

 in commission. 



Professor Baird early inaugurated the 

 policy of naming a vessel that was propelled 

 by its own power for some bird. A sailing- 

 vessel was given the name of a water mam- 

 mal, while rowboats were given the names 



