The Danish Expedition to the Kei Islands 1922. 
By 
Dr. Th. Mortensen. 
(With Plates I-III.) 
In November 1921 Dr. H j a 1 m a r J en s e n and the author left 
Copenhagen on a scientific Expedition to the Malay Archipelago, 
especially the Kei Islands. The Expedition was undertaken as the 
consequence of a plan, set forth some time before (in the fali of 
1918) by the present author, of establishing a tropical marine 
biological station with deep-sea investigations as its main object. 
There could hardly be any doubt that the most suitable place for 
a station with this programme was to be found in the Malay Ar¬ 
chipelago; but more exactly to point out the place on the basis of 
the knowledge gained through previous researches was not well 
possible. New investigations with this special view would be neces- 
sary, and this was then the main object of the Expedition: to carry 
out investigations, mainly marine biological, in those places which 
might come into special consideration as eventually offering suitable 
conditions for the planned station. Those places were Amboina, 
Banda and the Kei Islands, the latter locality having been espec- 
t ially pointed out to the author by Professor Max Weber as being 
|?probably the best of all, judging mainly from his experiences from 
the “Siboga Expedition. The investigations of the Expedition were 
accordingly concentrated to these three places. On the way back 
to Java there was an opportunity of a few days’ dredging off Ma- 
casser, and, finally, after the return to Java the author was afforded 
the opportunity of a 14 days’ dredging trip in the Java Sea and 
the Sunda Strait. 
On the arrival at Java the Expedition was joined by the two 
Dutch biologists, Dr. H. Boschma and Mr. H. C. Siebers, biol. 
doets., ornithologist of the Buitenzorg Museum. 
