542 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. Hll 



season to season and from year to year, of the 

 temperature, salinity and gas-content in the depths 

 of the Pacific, no observations have been made — ■ 

 not even ia the lesser depths throughout which ex- 

 tends the interchange of heat bet^veen the ocean 

 and the atmosphere; and consequently there is no 

 knowledge of the import of such changes upon the 

 variations of climate and of physical and biolog- 

 ical oceanography. The observational foundation 

 for investigating the ocean from the standpoint of 

 thermodynamics does not exist. 



Marine Meteorology and the General Circulation 



of the Atmosphere : 0. F. ^Mabvin. 



The proposal to organize a marine exploration 

 of the Pacific ocean for making carefully planned 

 scientific observations in oceanography, gravity, 

 atmospherics and related subjects claims the great 

 interest of the Weather Bureau and affords an 

 opportunity to utilize the meteorological data now 

 in the archives of that institution and hereafter to 

 be collected by it in the discussion of observations 

 to be collected during the expedition. Exports 

 are now received by the Weather Bureau from 

 175 vessels traversing the main routes mostly of 

 the Pacific oceans. Weather maps of the oceans 

 can be constructed on some occasions at least, and 

 in any case it may fairly be said that the proposed 

 exploration must of necessity contemplate supple- 

 menting the meteorological data it collects by the 

 more or less simultaneous information of related 

 nature collected from every other vessel then at 

 other points over the adjacent oceans. The great- 

 est need in atmospherics of the present time is 

 free air data. To secure these in fullest measure 

 will require, at times at least, two points of ob- 

 servation one or two miles apart, for the purpose 

 of triangulation as it were, and the expedition 

 should be planned to provide for such a possibil- 

 ity as well as that of following free balloons by 

 the aid of a small high-speed launch or sister ship 

 of appropriate character. The meteorological ob- 

 servations that might form the working program 

 of the expedition will be indicated and the per- 

 sonnel suggested. The paper will refer to or 

 briefly summarize the data obtained from aerolog- 

 ical work in the United States and draw inferences 

 therefrom as bearing upon accepted theories of 

 the general circulation of the atmosphere. 



On the Distri'bution of Pacific Inverteirates : Wm: 



H. Ball. 



Mr. Ball will point out the importance of the dis- 

 tribution of marine invertebrates, as one of the 

 keys to the former distribution of land masses, 



and to our very imperfect knowledge of their dis- 

 tribution in the Pacific. Certain species, usually 

 those inhabiting the reefs and comparatively shal- 

 low water, are very widely distributed over the 

 region usually referred to as Indo-Paeific; but 

 when a careful collection of the species belonging 

 to any isolated island or group is available it be- 

 comes evident that a large proportion of them are 

 local and combine to form a local fauna. A 

 knowledge of these faunas is necessary before any 

 satisfactory discussion can be had of the pre- 

 sumably Tertiary fossiliferous deposits which are 

 found fringing the more elevated Pacific islands. 

 The land shells of the Hawaiian and Tahitian 

 groups indicate a high antiquity for their isola- 

 tion according to Pilsbry, the most eminent stu- 

 dent of these animals. The facies of the Tertiary 

 fossils obtained by Ochsner on the Galapagos Is- 

 lands indicates a derivation from the American 

 rather than the Indo-Pacific fauna, with which the 

 recent invertebrates are commingled. These facts 

 indicate the interest which attaches to a wider 

 knowledge of the Pacific faunas. 



Land Mollusca of the Pacific: H. A. Pilsbrt. 



Present knowledge of Pacific land snail faunas 

 is fairly adequate only for the Hawaiian and So- 

 ciety groups, but fragmentary data are available 

 for many other islands. Some distinctively conti- 

 nental families extend as far out as Piji, the west- 

 ern Carolines and the Bonin Islands. Beyond this 

 there is another fauna, its striking feature being 

 the absence of all highly evolved continental 

 groups. This Pacific fauna consists partly of 

 groups known by paleontological evidence to be 

 old (such as the Suceineidae and Endodonts), and 

 partly of a series of families having a primitive 

 organization resembling aquatic air-breathing 

 snails; Achatinella and Partula being the best 

 known representatives. These hold a relation to 

 the higher land snails analogous to that of the 

 monotremes to placental mammals. Their adap- 

 tive modifications often parallel those of funda- 

 mentally diverse continental snails. The hypothe- 

 sis that Pacific snaUs reached the islands by over- 

 sea drift leaves the absence of higher snails unex- 

 plained. The distribution of the faunas and their 

 antique aspect suggest that there were large 

 antecedent land masses, upon which the present 

 relatively modern volcanic islands were superposed 

 during subsidence. 



Marine Algw of the Pacific Islands: W. G. Far- 

 low. 

 In any future expedition to the Pacific Islands 



