76 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XX. No. 496 



SCIENCE: 



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THE HOPKINS SEASIDE LA.BOEATORY. 



BY DAVID S. JORDAN. 



One of the best equipped and most favorably situated of 

 the marine laboratories for research is the Hopkins Seaside 

 Xiaboratory on Monterey Bay in California. This institu- 

 tion is an outgrowth from the biological departments of the 

 Xieland Stanford, Jun., University, its equipment having 

 been provided for by the generosity of Mr. Timothy Hop- 

 kins, one of the trustees of the University. The laboratory 

 is situated on a rocky point of land known as Point Aloha, 

 which juts into Monterey Bay near the village of Pacific 

 Grove. The laboratory is a two-story, frame building sixty 

 feet by twenty. On each floor the many windows make the 

 sides of the building virt\ially of glass. The lower floor is 

 devoted to aquaria and to work in connecti )n with aquaria. 

 The upper floor is fitted up for advanced research, with pri- 

 vate rooms for workers in special fields. On the lower floor 

 are seven aquaria provided with running water, besides 

 various glass jars and similar vessels used for the study of 

 smaller animals. 



The fauna of Monterey Bay is peculiarly rich, as the life 

 histories of the animals of this region have been scarcely 

 Studied by zoologists. The laboratory, therefore, offers spe- 

 cial attractions to naturalists, particularly to workers on 

 tunicates, jelly fishes, star-fishes, fishes, and nudibranch mol- 

 lusks. The material for zoological purposes is extremely 

 abundant, and one singular feature of the life of this region is 

 the immense size to which many animals grow as compared 

 with the size reached by their relatives in the Atlantic. 



In the aquaria I notice many specimens of salpa, large 

 transparent tunicates, reaching a length of four or five 

 inches. There are nudibranch mollusks {Aplysia) nearly a 

 foot in length, and a twenty-armed star-fish (Pycnopodia) 

 ■whose span covers the whole height of one side of the 

 aquarium. This creature has been timed in making a cir- 

 cuit of the four sides of the aquarium, covering the distance 

 of about nine feet in just four minutes. Immense jelly 

 fishes which will almost fill a bushel basket are also very 



common, and sea anemones, reaching a size by which the 

 largest of the Atlantic seem like marigolds compared with 

 sunflowers. Tunicates, chitons, limpets, sea urchins, sea 

 anemones, octopus, and squid exist in great abundance and 

 variety. Among the fishes are also many forms of interest 

 in the aquaria, numerous species of blennies and sculpins 

 abounding about the rooks. The blue hag fish (Polistotrema) 

 occurs in great abundance. This is an eel-shaped fish about 

 a foot to a foot and a half in length, which lives as a para- 

 site in the bodies of other fishes. It enters at the eye or at 

 the throat or some other soft place, and then by means of 

 the rasp-like teeth, makes a hole in the body of its host and 

 in time without breaking or disturbing the bones or viscera 

 of the unfortunate animal, it will devour the entire muscu- 

 lar system of the fish on which it feeds. Many of the larger 

 flounders and like fishes obtained in the Bay of Monterey 

 are found to be half-devoured or reduced to mere hulks by 

 the operation of this singular fish. The locality is espe- 

 cially favorable for the study of the viviparous surf-fishes 

 and rock-fishes. The huge torpedo or cramp fish, which is 

 found across the bay about Soquel, also invites investigation. 

 As I write, a grampus ]2 feet in length is brought in in a 

 dray-wagon by a Portuguese fisherman from Monterey, while 

 a constant stream of objects of interest comes in from the 

 Chinese fishing camp at Point Alones. The marine flora of 

 the Bay of Monterey is equally interesting. About one 

 hundred and twenty species of sea weeds have been collected 

 by Mr. Bradley M. Davis, who has charge of the work in 

 botany. These range in size from the giant kelp, which 

 here has a length of thirty or forty feet, down to the minute 

 algae about the wharves. 



The laboratory is well supplied with collecting apparatus, 

 with microscopes, reagents, embedding apparatus, and the 

 usual material for study, this being brought from the labora- 

 tories of the Stanford University. About thirty students 

 ha^e been in attendance during the summer, some of these 

 being advanced workers in different departments, some of 

 them teachers and the others students from the laboratories 

 of the university. 



Among the pieces of special work which may be noticed 

 are the studies of Professor Frank M. MacFarland on the 

 egg segmentation of the nudibranchs, those of Frank M. 

 Cramer on the nervous system of the limpet, those of Leav- 

 erett M. Loomis on the sea birds of Monterey Bay, those of 

 Wilbur W. Thoburnon the rock-fishes, those of Miss Flora 

 Hartley on the anatomy of the abalone, and those of Mr. 

 Charles W. Green on hydroids. 



The instruction for the summer has been in the hands of 

 Professors Charles H. Gilbert and Oliver P. Jenkins, of the 

 chairs of zoology and physiology respectively, in the Stan- 

 ford University, assisted by Bradley M. Davis and Wilbur 

 W. Thoburn, graduate students. The purposes of the labora- 

 tory as set forth in the circular are: To supplement the work 

 given in the regular courses of instruction in the zoological, 

 botanical, and physiological departments of the university 

 under the favorable conditions of such a station; to provide 

 facilities for investigators who are prepared to make re- 

 searches in marine biology, for which the Pacific Coast offers 

 exceptional attractions, in that its field is very rich and is as 

 yet largely unworked, to afford an opportunity to those, es- 

 pecially to teachers, who desire to become acquainted with 

 marine animals and plants, and to learn the practical 

 methods of their study. 



Id respect to the abundance of material and newness and 

 freshness of the fauna to be studied as well as in the matter 



