34 Sea-side Study on the Coast of California. 
here the dredge has been but little used, and the revelations of the 
Miiller’s net are almost unknown. 
The marine animals of the Atlantic have been fora long time the 
continuous study of marine zodlogists. Those of the bays and seas 
of Europe and of the Eastern waters of the United States have been 
so sedulously investigated that it may be said that almost our whole 
knowledge of animals which live upon the surtace of the ocean, is 
derived from this source. The Pacific Ocean, from its remoteness 
from centers of zodlogical activity or other causes, is almost wholly 
unexplored, and while good beginnings have already been made, 
even the facies of the surface fauna of the Eastern Pacific is practi- 
cally unknown. 
The coast of California, throughout its great length, offers extra- 
ordinary advantages for a study of this department of marine zoöl- 
ogy, and yet, with one or two exceptions, the use of the Miiller’s 
net, early introduced on the Atlantic waters of the United States by 
the elder Agassiz, and so successfully used for so many-years by sev- 
eral naturalists, is unknown on a coast washed by the largest ocean 
on the globe. The use of dredge and net has a great future in the 
study of the marine fauna of California. 
In the first phase of the study of the surface life of the ocean, 
the work was almost wholly the result of individual enterprise, 
unaided by government or university appropriations. Naturalists 
visited, during their vacations, the North Sea, Nice, Villa Franca, 
Naples, or Messina, accompanied by students, and in that way the 
foundations of this knowledge were laid. The work which they did 
has been the admiration of naturalists and their verdict forms a 
part of the history of science. But in this pioneer work the older 
naturalists had difficulties to contend with which one who visits the 
well-appointed stations which havearisen in later years on the Med- 
iterranean, knows nothingof. The places which offer the best locali- 
ties for collecting were not known, practical fishermen had to be 
shown the animals which were wanted and how to collect them. 
In most cases the naturalist himself had to spend many hours on 
the water collecting, and precious time was used for what might 
have beén done by others. The naturalist was investigator and col- 
lector, and his laboratory, oftentimes the room in which he lived, or 
some place poorly lighted and little fitted for his work. While the 
combination of collector and investigator in one and the same person * — 
1 I know of no more absurd position than that of the closet naturalist 
who despises the collector, or of the anatomist or histologist who belittles 
