190 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 422. 



sonants are not the same. I do not think 

 the sense is changed, but intend to have a 

 new translation made. 



Another interesting Indian manuscript in 

 my hands is the Mohawk version of the greater 

 condoling songs. La Fort's is the Onondaga 

 one used at the delivery of the wampum when 

 the curtains are removed. The others are 

 sung at the wayside meeting, and on the 

 march to the council-house, in which they 

 usually end. This version was very plainly 

 written by Chief George Key, of the Grand 

 Eiver reservation, Canada. For mere con- 

 venience it is arbitrarily arranged in verses, 

 and it has the valuable feature of a division 

 into syllables throughout. The song with the 

 names was written first, perhaps as bein^ of 

 first importance, but the remaining songs are 

 in the order of Hale's book. There are slight 

 variations from his version, but none of essen- 

 tial importance, except one. Those who have 

 attended a condolence will remember the con- 

 tinual repetition of ' Ha-i-i-i,' much pro- 

 longed, and this hardly appears in his book. 

 In the great song with names before me it 

 is written nearly a thousand times. In the 

 one he saw the writer may have spared him- 

 self the trouble of writing, knowing just 

 where it should be used. The chiefs' names 

 occur in the usual order, but some of those 

 placed together in Mr. Hale's version are 

 separated in this. The variations in sense 

 are very slight. 



The greater songs are always used in the 

 Mohawk version, as this is better adapted to 

 the music used. This music I hope soon to 

 secure. W. M. Beauohamp. 



204 Maple St., Syracuse, 

 November 19, 1902. 



SHORTER ARTICLES. 



THE TORTUGAS, FLORIDA, AS A STATION FOR RE- 

 SEARCH IN BIOLOGY. 



The Tortugas, Florida, probably surpasses 

 any other situation in the tropical Atlantic, 

 in the richness of its marine fauna and in 

 natural advantages for the study of tropical 

 life. Until within recent years, however, the 

 inaccessibility of the islands rendered it diffi- 

 cult to maintain even a temporary station 



upon them, and all of our knowledge of the 

 life of the region is due to the cursory visits 

 of the United States governnient expeditions 

 in the Bibb, 1869; Blake, 1877-78, and Al- 

 batross, 1885-86, as well as to the explorations 

 of Louis Agassiz, 1850-51, and Alexander 

 Agassiz, 1881. 



Certain assistants of Alexander Agassiz 

 have also studied the fauna of the Tortugas, 

 and several expeditions not under government 

 control have visited the reefs, notably that of 

 the University of Iowa under C. C. Nutting, 

 in 1893. The latest expedition to the islands 

 was that of the Museum of the Brooklyn In- 

 stitute of Arts and Sciences in 1902, the re- 

 sults of which have not yet been published. 



Since 1898 the United States government 

 has established a naval coaling station upon 

 the Tortugas, and frequent and regular com- 

 munication with Key West is now maintained 

 by means of a large ocean-going tug. The 

 region has thus recently become accessible, 

 and the time for the establishment of a 

 research station upon the islands is now ripe. 



The Tortugas group is composed of seven 

 low, sandy islands and numerous reef flats 

 irregularly disposed so as to partially enclose 

 a lagoon about ten miles long and six miles 

 wide, and having an average depth of about 

 eight fathoms. 



Two of the islands are inhabited. Garden 

 Key being occupied by Fort Jefferson, and 

 Loggerhead Key by the Tortugas Lighthouse. 



The group is the most recent of the Florida 

 reefs. Pure, deep ocean water surrounds 

 them, and there are none of the extensive 

 mud flats or mangrove-covered shores so 

 characteristic of the keys along the mainland 

 coast of Florida. The northern edge of the 

 Gulf Stream lies about twenty-five or thirty 

 miles south of the Tortugas, and the east to 

 southeast breezes, which prevail during the 

 spring and summer, drift the surface waters 

 of the Gulf, Stream upon the Tortugas, giving 

 a remarkable opportunity to study the life of 

 the great tropical ocean current, while at the 

 same time enjoying all of the advantages of 

 a land station, a combination of advantageous 

 conditions which all who have been upon 

 cruising expeditions will appreciate. 



