Febeuary 6, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



201 



The wealth of life at Laguna has attracted 

 students of Pomona College during the past 

 three years to visit this region for summer 

 ■work. The growing interest of students and 

 others in sea-side studies led to the erection 

 of an adequate huilding. This contains two 

 general laboratories, dark room, store rooms, 

 aquarium for living specimens and nine pri- 

 vate laboratories with fresh and salt water. 

 There is in addition to the main building a 

 tank house with two more rooms. The labora- 

 tory is established chiefly for teaching pur- 

 poses, but there are facilities for a limited 

 number of investigators. The plan of investi- 

 gation and to some extent the work of teach- 

 ing is organized along a definite line. 



The laboratory is but one station for 

 zoological work. The other center is situated 

 fifty-five miles inland at Pomona College, 

 Claremont. Between the two stations there 

 are ranges of hills, low mountains with small 

 streams and lakes, and great level stretches. 

 Back from Claremont and the college build- 

 ings the mountains of the San Gabriel range, 

 often covered with snow, rise to an elevation 

 of ten thousand feet, and beyond them 

 stretches the desert with its lower ranges and 

 arid valleys. In this area a careful survey is 

 to be made of all groups of living things, not 

 all at once, but bit by bit, not by a few, but by 

 many. 



Some of the advantages of the location and 

 of the climate are such as to contribute to the 

 success of the enterprise. Field work may be 

 undertaken at all times during the year at 

 Laguna and to a large extent about Claremont. 

 One of the chief recreations of the students 

 is in the form of long or short expeditions 

 into the mountains, and their services are 

 enlisted to obtain specimens from different 

 regions of high and lower altitude. In this 

 way many interesting things have already been 

 brought to light. Some species, for instance, 

 are found to have a very local distribution on 

 some mountain slope or in the depths of some 

 scarcely accessible canyon. Besides the collec- 

 tion of specimens, there are possibilities in 

 the way of observation of large animals, such 



as mountain sheep, deer, mountain lions and 

 many smaller mammals and birds. 



One of the features of class exercises in 

 introductory courses is the collection of ento- 

 mological and other zoological specimens with 

 full data, as well as field work of other kinds. 

 By these means the student obtains knowledge 

 of the different animal groups, and the rough 

 materials for more careful investigations are 

 collected. For the more advanced workers 

 special groups or special problems are studied 

 in the field or in the laboratory. The necessary 

 determinations are made so far as possible by 

 the students, but their material is sent to 

 specialists for confirmation. The results of 

 this survey are not to be confined to mere 

 records of species, but so far as possible in 

 every group an attempt will be made to deter- 

 mine the adaptations to the environment, the 

 relation of the insects and other forms to the 

 cultivated plants in the region. Records are 

 to be kept of climatic conditions from season 

 to season and from year to year. Specimens 

 collected at various times are kept with date 

 and locality label until special students or 

 specialists can determine them. At no time 

 will the work on a particular family, order or 

 class be regarded as finished, but from month 

 to month new records are to be added. Al- 

 though systematic investigations may come 

 first in point of time, the effort will be made to 

 determine other things from the material as 

 occasion arises. This will necessitate a broad 

 study of plant forms, topographical and cli- 

 matic factors, as well as the interrelations of 

 the animals studied. Knowledge of life his- 

 tories and habits will also be a natural feature 

 of the work. 



There is so miich ground to cover in this 

 great outline, that it will be years before much 

 of an impression is made upon the unknown, 

 and it may be a long time before certain iso- 

 lated facts seem to have any value or bearing 

 on the rest. It is the purpose before long to 

 have a special fireproof room to keep the speci- 

 mens and records for the use of present work- 

 ers and for the future. These data ought to 

 be very valuable in a few years to many special 



