946 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 441, 



lu Europe individual enterprise or univer- 

 sity initiative backed by government support 

 has established a magniiicent chain of biolog- 

 ical research stations reaching from Tromsii, 

 Norway, and even the White Sea, along the 

 North Atlantic, the Baltic and North seas, 

 the Irish Sea, the Channel, the Bay of Biscay, 

 and the Mediterranean, Adriatic and Black 

 seas. In this country, vyhere the idea that a 

 university should be primarily a research in- 

 stitution is slov? in taking root, we can not 

 look for the establishment of such stations 

 far from university centers. The founding 

 of the Carnegie Institution leads us to hope 

 that now America can do her plain duty in 

 the investigation of our adjacent tropical seas. 

 Just where these laboratories should be lo- 

 cated may be left to the consensus of opinion 

 of zoologists, if such can be obtained. There 

 seems to be a nearly unanimous agreement 

 that the Tortugas are the best place for one 

 of them. Certainly any one looking at the 

 map and seeing their position in the middle 

 of the out-portal of the great breeding ponds 

 of the Atlantic tropical fauna would predict 

 that here would be one of the best places in 

 the world for a marine station. Twelve years 

 ago Mr. Agassiz named it to the writer as the 

 ideal place for a marine station, and every 

 zoologist that has been there since has brought 

 home the same report. So it clearly is an 

 ideal spot, and the first tropical marine station 

 should go to the Tortugas. 



It is to be hoped that, in addition, the desira- 

 bility of establishing a marine station at Ja- 

 maico, Porto Rico or another of the Antilles 

 may be considered ; and while we are planning 

 a chain of marine stations, certainly the island 

 of Grand Manan or the coast of Newfound- 

 land and Puget Sound should be considered. 

 Also, it would be well to have a party to ex- 

 plore in successive years the fauna of Davis 

 Strait, Hudson Bay, Bering Sea and the 

 Gulf of California, and to report on the feasi- 

 bility of establishing marine stations at those 

 places. But it seems to me the first step is 

 certainly to establish a laboratory at the Tor- 

 tugas. C. B. Davenport. 



Chicago, 



May 13, 1903. 



To THE Editor of Science : 'Although some- 

 what tardy in my reply to Dr. Mayer's query, 

 I am none the less enthusiastically in favor 

 of the establishment of a marine biological 

 laboratory for research in the tropics. There 

 would be certain advantages in having it 

 within the jurisdiction of the United States, 

 which would narrow the choice of site to 

 Porto Eico, the coast of Florida, or the 

 Tortugas. In the region of Porto Rico the 

 island of Culebra seems especially favorable, 

 and the Fish Hawk found good collecting also 

 at Mayaguez. Before a laboratory is finally 

 established I think that these localities should 

 be considered carefully. As to the main 

 coast of Florida and the islands immediately 

 adjoining, a laboratory in most localities of 

 this region would be inaccessible and difficult 

 to provision. Moreover, as I can testify, the 

 water there is frequently in bad condition, 

 becoming milky with fine calcareous material 

 from the grinding of the coral sand by the 

 surf. 



Dr. Mayer reports the water at the Tortugas 

 to be very pure ; and, as there is a government 

 station there, I infer that means is afforded 

 for frequent communication with Key West, 

 which is easily accessible and ^ould furnish 

 a satisfactory base of supplies. Professor 

 Nutting has mentioned the abundant fauna of 

 the Tortugas, but the one. point in which the 

 Tortugas seem likely to excel all other 

 localities has not been emphasized, and that 

 is as a place for the study of the tropical 

 pelagic fauna. 



It was a search for such a place that 

 led the Johns Hopkins party of 1892 to 

 Bimini, which is on the east side of the Gulf 

 Stream. The Tortugas were considered, and 

 rejected on account of the quarantine for yel- 

 low fever there at that time. We arrived at 

 Bimini after a storm with the wind blowing 

 from the southwest, and upon rowing out into 

 the Gulf Stream we found an abundance of 

 pelagic forms that more than satisfied our 

 greatest expectations. But after the wind 

 had returned to normal southeast and had 

 been blowing from that direction a week or 

 so we realized that we had selected the wrong 

 side of the Gulf Stream, for there was a com- 



