Sea-Side Study on the Coast of California. 33 
SEA-SIDE STUDY ON THE COAST OF CALIFORNIA. 
BY J. WALTER FEWKES. 
ITH the increased facilities for travel, the number of Eastern 
naturalists who visit California to collect marine animals with 
dredge and dip-net, will also increase. Those who are interested in 
the marine zodlogy of the Pacific Ocean will seek advice of those 
who have already studied there, as to the best place to carry on 
their work with profit and with least loss of time. To such the 
experiences of the author and his convictions as to a good place to 
prosecute this kind of work on the California coast may not be 
without interest. 
A second and most important object in writing this paper isa 
plea for the establishment on the Pacific coast of a marine labora- 
tory, where biological research of all kinds shall be carried on. 
It is a great pleasure to a marine zodlogist to pull the dredge or 
drag the Miiller’s net! in waters where these implements have never 
been used. It is a source of real satisfaction to study a marine 
fauna in which a majority of the animals captured are new to 
science, and one may be pardoned if he speaks with enthusiasm of 
the results of such study. 
Such places are many, and opportunities of this kind not so rare 
that naturalists are obliged to enter upon long journeys to reach 
them. Even upon the coast of New England where marine zodlogy 
has been cultivated for many years, the work can hardly be said to 
have more than begun, while great groups of marine animals have 
hardly been identified. A preliminary study, however, has been 
made, and, thanks to the researches of our naturalists whose names, 
known to all zodlogists, it is not necessary to mention, the facies of 
our New England marine fauna is known. 
When, however, we turn to the western shores of North America, 
to the coast of California, Oregon and Washington Territory, we 
find a shore where this study is yet in the first stages of growth, for 
' The net used in surface fishing. So called because so successfully 
used by the great naturalist, Johannes Müller. — 
