June 19, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



985 



eies increases with the latitude, until, at last, 

 the Arctic regions are noted for the immense 

 numbers of individuals of certain species. 

 Hence, other things being equal, the more 

 northern the spot, the more abundant the 

 material and the better the location for a 

 research laboratory. Therefore, from this one 

 standpoint Eastport may possibly hold the 

 supremacy over other points on the ISTev? 

 England coast north of Cape Cod. Its repu- 

 tation as a collecting ground is great, and, 

 since the days of Stimpson, numerous natural- 

 ists have gone there for material. 



In the discussion of a location for our 

 laboratory the claims of Eastport were con- 

 sidered, but the place was passed by in favor 

 of South Harpswell for the following reasons : 

 The laboratory must be comparatively easy 

 of access. Students should be able to reach 

 it with the least possible expense and trouble, 

 and there must be adequate market facilities 

 for the boarding places of those working at 

 the laboratory. Eastport may be reached by 

 rail by a long, circuitous and expensive jour- 

 ney, or by boat in twenty-four hours from 

 Boston only on alternate days. Again, the 

 facilities for obtaining board are such that 

 the laboratory, as at Woods Hole, would be 

 compelled to establish its own dining hall, 

 and to maintain it under great difficulties 

 and inconveniences. At South Harpswell 

 there are numerous good hotels and boarding 

 houses and the supplies are of the best. So, 

 too, laboratory supplies, bought with all pos- 

 sible foresight, occasionally become exhausted 

 and must be replenished at short notice. 

 Nothing could be obtained at Eastport in less 

 than two days. Harpswell is distant but two 

 hours from the large wholesale city of Port- 

 land, and our experience has been that every 

 chemical and reagent desired could be ob- 

 tained from there on short notice. 



Then, Eastport lies in the very center of 

 the region of fogs, a most serious drawback, 

 not only to the pleasures of life, but to re- 

 search as well. When all the material studied 

 must be obtained from the sea, it will be 

 readily seen that two or three days of con- 

 tinuous fog might seriously interfere with a 



piece of research. The farther west on the 

 Maine coast, the less numerous the fogs. Au 

 Harpswell, last year, from the middle of June 

 to the middle of September there were only 

 seven days when there was any fog. 



Casco Bay is about twenty-five miles across, 

 from Cape Elizabeth to Cape Small Point, 

 and it indents the coast about a dozen miles. 

 This whole area is cut up by numerous penin- 

 sulas — ' necks ' or ' points ' of local terminol- 

 ogy — and dotted by islands, the number of 

 which passes into the hundreds, affording 

 miles upon miles of shore collecting and be- 

 tween them every variety of bottom. Almost 

 no fresh water empties into the bay, while 

 the considerable tides — about ten feet — cause 

 strong currents, and these bring in constantly 

 — to use a paradoxical expression — the freshest 

 of salt water. South Harpswell itself is at 

 the tip of a narrow neck about ten miles long 

 at just about the middle of the bay. It is 

 fourteen miles from Portland, with which 

 place it is connected, during the summer 

 season, by five boats a day each way. 



The laboratory has been practically open 

 but two seasons, and its output of published 

 work is as yet small. The list includes: 



A. B. Lamb : ' The Development of the Eye 

 Muscles in Acanthias,' Journal of Anatomy, 

 Vol. I., 1902. 



J. S. Kingsley: 'Preliminary Catalogue of 

 the Marine Invertebrata of Casco Bay,' Proc. 

 Portland Society of Natural History, II., 1901. 



J. S. Kingsley: 'Additions to the Recorded 

 Fauna of Casco Bay,' I. c, 1902. 



Erank S. Collins : ' An Algologist's Vacation 

 in Maine,' Rhodora, IV., 1902. 



G. M. Winslow: 'Note on the Circular 

 Swimming of Sand Dollar Spermatozoa,' 

 Science, XVIL, 1903. 



E. B. Wilson: 'Experiments on Merogony 

 in Nemertine Eggs, with Reference to Cleav- 

 age and Localization,' Science, XVIL, 1903. 



Here might also be mentioned the paper 

 of Dr. 0. B. Wilson, ' On the Embryology of 

 Oerehratulus,' and the several papers by Dr. 

 Gilman A. Drew upon the structure and de- 

 velopment of the molluscs Nucula, Solemya 

 and Yoldia. The work was done in Harpswell, 



