444 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 
Islands. No elevated tertiary limestones were seen, but the modern 
coral reef is in places now above the sea. In essential respects Gardiner 
and Agassiz are in accord and both decide that Darwin’s theory is not 
applicable to the Maldives. They differ, however, in the conception of 
‘perfect atoll,” and in their opinions of some of the causes which 
have led to the deepening of the lagoons, but the discussion of these 
matters would be unprofitable in this place. 
Dr. Henry B. Bigelow was an assistant upon this expedition and 
wrote a report upon the Meduse. 7 
After his return from this expedition Alexander Agassiz was not 
suffered to remain long at rest, for once again, for the third and last 
time, he was given charge of the Albatross. The Albatross left San 
Francisco on October 6, 1904, and steamed to Panama. Thence to the 
Galapagos Islands, then to Aguja Point and Callao on the Peruvian 
coast, and then to Easter Island, from which she returned to the 
Galapagos, only to again venture out over the Pacific to Manga Reva, 
then back to Acapulco, and home to San Diego, where she arrived in 
March, 1905. Lieutenant Commander L. M. Garrett, U.S.N., was in 
command, and they crossed and recrossed the Humboldt current four 
times, cruising more than 13,000 miles, making 160 deep-sea soundings 
and 280 pelagic hauls. The expedition ranged over the largest uninter- 
rupted area of ocean in the world. Professor C. A. Kofoid collected 
the protozoa and Dr. Henry B. Bigelow the medusez, while the coral 
reefs, oceanography and echinoderms were studied by Alexander Agassiz. 
Interesting photographs of the great stone images of Easter Island 
were obtained, and it was found that Manga Reva is a barrier reef 
island with an eroded volcanic center. 
A remarkable result of the expedition is the discovery that the cold 
Humboldt current, which flows northward along the western coast of 
South America from the Antarctic to the equator, is a great bearer of 
pelagic life teeming with meduse, salpe and all manner of floating 
ereatures both on the surface and in its depths; but in the outer Pacific 
beyond the western edge of this great current we find a vast area almost 
barren of life. Also the bottom under the Humboldt current is crowded 
with organisms, whereas there is a sparsely inhabited submarine desert 
to the westward of the western edge of the current. The effect of this 
current upon the distribution of pelagic life is most clearly described 
by Henry B. Bigelow in his account of the meduse of this expedition. 
This was Alexander Agassiz’s last great scientific expedition, al- 
though in 1908 he made a brief visit to the Florida Reef, and from 
February until March, 1907, he cruised through the West Indies from 
Porto Rico to Grenada in the chartered yacht Virginia. Dr. Henry B. 
Bigelow was his scientific assistant, and many pelagic hauls were made, 
but the region was found to be almost barren of floating life. This is 
