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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLII 



tween Sandy Hook and Cape Canaveral, and the coral 

 reefs of Florida, have each their own peculiar fauna and 

 impose their own limitations upon the diversity of animal 

 life. A diversity which is accentuated by the fact that 

 in Florida we find a tidal rise and fall of less than two 

 whereas in northern Maine the diurnal range is more 

 than thirty feet. 



Moreover, the relatively brackish and protected waters, 

 such as those of Long Island, Pamlico and Albemarle 

 Sounds, Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, and the tor- 

 tuous estuaries and salt-water creeks of the Carolinas and 

 northern Florida, have faunae differing widely from those 

 of the more richly endowed outer sea-beaches. 



It is therefore evident that in so far as research is con- 

 cerned no one biological laboratory can grant facilities 

 other than those limited by the conditions of its own 

 locality. The purposes of research demand that we 

 establish a series of stations at salient points from Maine 

 to southern Florida. 



On the other hand, the successful prosecution of 

 research demands that our youth be trained to its per- 

 formance, and to this end it is essential that certain of 

 the more centrally situated laboratories should devote 

 some part of their energies to the giving of primary in- 

 struction. 



Such instruction should, I believe, be given only in 

 those laboratories which are placed near large centers 

 affording the advantages of accessibility and diversity of 

 intellectual interests. On the other hand, a certain re- 

 moteness from the busy world and consequent freedom 

 from interruption is peculiarly favorable to the conduct of 

 research, and it is interesting to observe that the only 

 laboratory, along our coast, devoted exclusively to re- 

 search is placed upon the most inaccessible island along 

 the entire range from Maine to Florida. 



At present we find one laboratory at South Harpswell, 

 Casco Bay, Maine, a great center at Woods Holl, another 

 at Cold Spring Harbor, in Long Island Sound, another 



