.Strit.MUtu IS, I'JOLt.J 



SCIENCE. 



3(J1 



California duriug the suuimer of 1901, 

 witli San Pedro, California, as a base of 

 operations, was planned and carried out 

 'as though it were to be the beginning of a 

 detailed biological survey of the coast of 

 California.'* 



That season dredging and trawling were 

 the chief work. A large number of 

 dredging stations at San Pedro, around 

 Santa Catalina Islands and at San Diego 

 were occupied, charted and their bearings 

 recorded. JIany hauls were made, several 

 at each station, as far as possible. All the 

 material secured was either preserved or 

 in case of species so abundant as to nuike 

 their preservation seriously biirdensome, 

 was recorded, ((uaiititatively as far as pi-ae- 

 ticable. 



Owing to lack of funds, nothing was 

 done during the .summer of 1902 toward 

 the survey work beyond some shore col- 

 lecting at San Pedro. During the present 

 sunnuer the survey idea has been again 

 foremost. It seemed this year, the total 

 of circumstances being taken into consid- 

 tM-atiou, that it would be best to devote 

 attention to the plankton chiefl.y. A sail 

 vessel could be used for this kind of work 

 more advantageously than for dredging 

 and trawling, and would be much cheaper 

 and conse<iuently would make the limited 

 funds available go considerably farther. 

 Two good, intelligent fishermen would be 

 able to do nearly all the collecting alone, 

 thus permitting the naturalists to devote 

 their whole time to studying the material 

 as it should be brought in. Again almost 

 nothing had hitherto been done on the 

 plankton of the waters of this region. 



The laboratory was moved this summer 

 from San Pedro to San Diego, or, more 

 fxactly. to Coronado. Several considera- 

 tions brought about this removal. The 

 most potent was the fact that a number of 



* 'A Siiiiinipr's Dred-iin? on the Coast of South- 

 ern f'nlifiiinia." Sciencf:. .Tanuaiv 10. inn-2, p. 5'i. 



citizens of San Diego were desirous of hav- 

 ing the work carried on there for a summer, 

 at least, and were willing to furnish the 

 funds to defray the expense of moving and 

 if operating the station for six weeks dur- 

 ing the suiinner and two weeks at the 

 Christmas vacation, 1903-1904. Again, 

 the zoologists of tlie university were glad 

 (if the opportunity to test more fully than 

 had before been possible the fitness of the 

 San Diego region as a location for a labora- 

 tory. Finally, the improvements of the 

 harbor at San Pedro now being carried on 

 by the national government, and the im- 

 portant commercial development in prog- 

 ress there, have made the building occupied 

 as a laboratory inaccessible for this pur- 

 po.'e, and have seriously, and. it is to be 

 feared, permanently, impaired some of the 

 most distinctive biological advantages of 

 the location. 



At Coronado amjjle quarters for a labo- 

 ratory, well lighted and conveniently lo- 

 cated, were generou.sly given and partially 

 fitted up by the Coronado Beach Company 

 in their old boat house on Glorietta Bight. 

 For a vessel the five- or six-ton .schooner 

 Luid. t'ornieily a pilot boat of the port, 

 was hired. This in charge of ^Ir. ^lanual 

 C;d:)ral. an unusually intelligent and com- 

 l)etent fisherman, with a helper wa.s kept 

 constantly at the collecting, almost though 

 not quite exclusively, of plankton. 



The nets used were of Nos. 000, 12 and 20 

 miller's boiling. No closing net was em- 

 ployed, but a series of nets placed at inter- 

 vals on a rope and hauled vertically was 

 the means used to differentiate the depths 

 at which the macroplankton was taken. For 

 the cc.mparatively shallow depths, not ex- 

 ceeding two htindred fathcnns, to which the 

 c.peratiims were limited, this method gives 

 very good results. This is particularly true 

 when there is but little wind or drift so 

 that several hauls can be (piiekly made in 

 nearly the same place. For ccllcctinu' 



