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METHOD OF MAKINGS A SANITARY INVESTIGIATION OF A RIVER

1893; American Association for the Advancement of Science; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1126/science.ns-21.538.284-a

1095-9203

C. C. Brown,

Water Resources and Management

ANYONE familiar wit1 the b~illiant pioneer work of Agassiz, PourtalBs, and Brooks, together with their students, upon the fauna of the Gulf of Mexico and neighboring waters will gladly welcome the inauguration of any movement, however modest, to continue the exploration of the American Mediterlanean.The successive summer expeditions sent from the Johns Hopkins University since 1887, to the different Bahanla Islands and Jamaica, and the proposed establishment of the Columbus Station on the latter islands, are familiar to all interested in the work of this field.An important part of the School of Biology, created in January, 1892, by the regents of the University of Texas, both as regards instruction and research, is the Gulf of Mex~co btation As a result of a brief prelimiuary suivey which, at the request of the regents, I made last summer a t Aransas Pass and Galreston, several facts of prime importance in locating a biological station became apparent.The Ion7 Texas coast is bordered b~ esceedingly shallow bays, from two to ten miles wide, cut off from the Gulf of Nexico by a very narrow sand-formation.This almost continuous stretch of sand, raised unevenly by innumerable dunes formed by tile wind, is broken at eight places by nalrow channels into seven islands, and at three other points partially unites with the mainland to form extended peninsulas.I t s gulf shore is nnindented, while, on the other hand, its bay shore-line is quite irregular.Vast areas of the bays are exposed at lour tide,forming mud-flats; while even in Corpus Christi and Matagorda Bays the depth does not exceed fifteen feet.Since the n ~e a n tide is less than half a foot at most places in the bays, a n advantageous location for a biological station must be contiguous to the free matels of the Gulf.Even then one must go from along most of the outer shore five miles to seaward. in order to reach the tenfathom curve.Directly off the entrance to Galveston Bay this depth of less than ten fathoms extends for a distance of thirty miles.Reaching from near the montli of the Rio Grande along the extreme souther11 Texas coast for one hundred and fifty miles northward is Padle Island.The bay which it cuts off, Laguna JIadre, is for the most part a vast mud flat, and the Padre itself is inaccessible.Farther north, at either Aransas Pass, where Corpus Christi and Aransas Bays empty into the Gulf, or a t Pass Cavallo, the entrance to Matagorda Bay, would be, with a suitable building, an excellent location for the station.The entrance to Galveston Bay, while in some respects not having the natural advantages of the other two locations, yet is much more accessible.Here is a highly desirable building, which cost some $15,000, soon to be vacated by the Quarantine Department.Since this building belongs to the State, the Galveston location was recommended and a bill was introduced in the 23d legislature of Texas to set aside the present officers' quarters of the Quarantine Department a t Galveston for the purposes of the Marine Biological Station of the University of Texas.With a further item of $5,000 for equipment, the bill was favorably reported flom the Committee on Grounds and Buildings of the House, but, owing to the large number of measures having precedence, this bill, unfortunately, was not considered.Besides a building fully supplied with the necessary aquaria, microscopes, reagents, etc., for laboratory study, and boats of light draught for work in the shallow water, i t is planned, after the idea of Dohrn 1 for the Kapleq Station, to equip a seaworthy steamer as a floating station for deep-sea collection and obserration in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.For the wonderful possibilities of this field no addition to the eloquent testimony ot A. Agassiz,' in his descliptioiz of the work on the " Blake " expeditions, need be added.