38 Sea-side Study on the Coast of California. 
men, nor was commerce at first of great importance. As a result 
many of the coast towns are separated by some distance from the 
wharf or landing-place. One knows how much discomfort this may 
mean to a naturalist if he has trudged along over a mile from the 
wharf to the nearest house he could rent for a laboratory, with a 
water-bucket filled with the products of surface fishing by night, 
and if twice a day he has been obliged to replenish the water by a 
similar tramp. ‘Time is lost which might be employed for work, 
and the naturalist cannot watch and take advantage of the ever 
changing conditions of the sea and wind if his workshop is a mile 
or more from his boat. The naturalist who studies ichthyology,' 
and who visits the fish markets when the fishermen return from 
their nets, does not feel these discomforts which the naturalist who 
must collect for himself has. 
A good collecting-place, boats, and ready access to the water are 
three requisites in a choice of a good station for marine work. 
They are the great difficulties which the pioneers in marine zodlogy 
have always encountered. The naturalist who works in a well- 
equipped station, with trained fishermen for collectors, knows little 
of these difficulties. Until, however, a zodlogical station is founded 
on the coast of California these three things, unfortunately or for- 
tunately, must have great influence in his choice of a working-place. 
The Eastern zodlogist, who has worked on the Atlantic, encoun- 
ters several physical characteristics on the coast which are new to 
him. The absence of those nooks and indentations of the coast, 
pockets in which floating life is driven by the currents and winds, 
is a marked feature of the coast line. Many of the harbors are 
open roadsteads upon which a surf is continually breaking. While 
this feature is in some respects a disadvantage, it is in others an 
advantage. | 
Along the coast in many places, as at Santa Barbara, a zone of 
floating kelp undoubtedly prevents many floating animals from 
being washed to the shore. This kelp extends for miles along the 
coast, and it is only where the bottom sinks immediately to a great 
1 In this article I have considered more especially the needs of the 
student of the marine invertebrated animals, as the largest share of 
oceanic life belongs to these groups. In many instances it will be found 
that the needs of the ichthyologist are very different. They have little 
to do with dredging, but the student of the embryology of marine fishes 
and their younger stages will appreciate what is desired in work with 
the Miiller’s net. 
. 
