482 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 876 



movements of pelagic animals as they occur 

 in nature, the desirability of subjecting the 

 same groups to laboratory experimentation is 

 more obvious than ever. This aspect of the 

 investigations can not be entered upon ad- 

 vantageously until the salt water supply sys- 

 tem for the laboratory and landing facilities 

 for boats shall have been completed. A large 

 expenditure of money will be needed for these 

 extensions, but vigorous efforts will be made 

 to accomplish the work within the next twelve 

 or eighteen months. 



Although the hydrographic investigations 

 by the station are held to be primarily in the 

 interest of biological problems, at the present 

 moment some of the results being reached are 

 of themselves so important as to make them 

 closely rival in interest the biological work 

 itself. Dr. G. F. McEwen, who has charge of 

 this side of the researches, has devoted him- 

 self almost entirely, during this and the pre- 

 ceding summer, to testing V. W. Ekman's 

 theory of oceanic circulation so far as it ap- 

 plies to the phenomena of upwelling waters 

 along the continental margins of the great 

 oceans. The study has gone far enough to 

 make it clear that radical modification will 

 have to be made of the widely held supposi- 

 tion that the low summer temperature of the 

 sea along the west coast of North America 

 south of Point Conception, is due to a " Cali- 

 fornia branch of the Japan Current." Just 

 how far this modification will have to go can 

 not be determined without extending the tem- 

 perature observations much farther to sea, and 

 as far south as the extremity of Lower Cali- 

 fornia at least. 



A particularly interesting point in connec- 

 tion with Ekman's theory is the relation 

 which it assumes to exist between water tem- 

 erature at the surface, as well as at different 

 depths, and bottom topography. In a region 

 like that in which we are operating, where 

 there is a large area of continental shelf pre- 

 senting numerous islands, banks, deep valleys 

 and channels, that is, of varied bottom con- 

 figuration, this element is specially important, 

 not only in itself, but probably in its bearing 

 on the distribution of pelagic organisms. 



Mr. W. C. Burbridge, of Stanford Univer- 

 sity, who for the last two years has had in 

 hand most of the laboratory work on water 

 samples, has been more successful this sum- 

 mer than before in manipulating the rather 

 complicated Fox apparatus for determining 

 the gaseous content of the water. A large 

 number of determinations were made, but the 

 data have not yet been worked up, so it is im- 

 possible to say how valuable they are. The 

 impression gained is that the method, even 

 with its obvious and necessary limitations, 

 will give results that can be safely and sig- 

 nificantly used as one more factor in studying 

 the environmental conditions of pelagic or- 

 ganisms. 



During the summer the Station has entered 

 into relations with the California State Game 

 and Fish Commission for the economic study 

 of the "spiny lobster" (Palinurus interruptus) ; 

 and with the Bureau of Soils of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture for esti- 

 mating the quantity of " kelp " (Macrocystis 

 pirifera and Nereocystis Luetheana) on the 

 coast south of Point Conception for such in- 

 dustrial purposes as these plants may be 

 turned to. 



Dr. B. M. Allen, of the University of Wis- 

 consin, has charge of the former work, and 

 his searching inquiry into the lobster fishery 

 as it is now prosecuted not only on the Cali- 

 fornia but also on the Mexican coast, has al- 

 ready brought to light various facts which, if 

 followed up, should aid materially in formu- 

 lating legislation for the preservation of this 

 industry. 



The work for the Bureau of Soils is in the 

 hands of Mr. W. C. Crandall, now acting in 

 the three-fold capacity of teacher of biology 

 in the State Normal School at San Diego, 

 secretary of the Marine Biological Associa- 

 tion, and captain of the station's scientific 

 boat, the Alexander Agassiz. 



These industrial undertakings are, at pres- 

 ent, aside from the main aims of the station. 

 This, however, is in no wise due to lack of 

 sympathy on the part of the chief patrons and 

 the officials of the Biological Association 

 with such undertakings, but entirely to the 



