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 AN ADDRESS BY 
 WILLIAM ALANSON BRYAN 
 
 J^anfir Slttfitttutuitt Puhltratifltta 
 No. 2 
 
 CHICAQO, ILL., JANUARY 
 NINETEEN HUNDRED AND EIQHT 
 
THE PACIFIC 
 SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTION 
 
 AN ADDRESS BY 
 
 WILLIAM ALANSON BRYAN 
 
 Pacific Institution Publications 
 
 Special Series 
 No. 2 
 
 CHICAGO, ILL., JANUARY 
 NINETEEN HUNDRED AND EIGHT 
 
THE PACIFIC SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTION' 
 
 By William Alanson Bryan 
 
 Contents. — (i) A General Statement; (2) The Pacific Institution; 
 (3) The Exploring Expedition; (4) General Administration of the Institution; 
 (5) The Scientific Organization of the Institution; (6) Scope of the Inquiry; 
 (7) Departments of the Institution; (8) Disposition of the Material; (9) Pub- 
 lications. 
 
 A GENERAL STATEMENT 
 
 So far as the demands of modern science are concerned, the 
 Pacific Ocean is still little less than a vast unexplored realm. The 
 best authorities agree that the region is literally teeming with a 
 wealth of raw material for study in every department of scientific 
 research. This is true in spite of the fact that since the days of 
 Cook's memorable voyages of discovery there has scarcely been an 
 ethnologist, a geologist, a zoologist, or a botanist worthy of the 
 name, who has not longed to explore the region ; or whose mind and 
 heart have not been enthralled at the very thought of the virgin 
 opportunity for original research awaiting any investigator who 
 will study the problems of science involved in the Pacific's vast 
 watery domain. 
 
 Indeed, to explore exhaustively the region; to fathom its 
 unknown depths; to delve into its great mysteries; to study at 
 first hand its people, its fauna, and its flora, have all been among 
 the dearest ambitions of men of science the world over. 
 
 Although appreciating fully, the opportunity for scientific 
 achievements offered in particular lines of investigation few — 
 indeed, very few — of even the best informed of men have ever con- 
 ceived in more than a vague way of the enormous sum total of 
 scientific work still remaining to be done in the Pacific Ocean. Yet 
 the veriest tyro knows well that there are scores of islands scattered 
 over this broad expanse on which scientists have never even set 
 
 I An address delivered by the president of the Institution before the Chicago 
 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, December 
 30, 1907. 
 
 3 
 
foot. It is not strange, therefore, that romances, adventures, 
 explorers, scientists, one and all have dreamed fond dreams of 
 some day plundering for one reason or another, in some way or 
 other, this great storehouse of loiowledge, adventure, and discovery. 
 
 In moments of reckless fancy many such dreams of conquest 
 have been made over into tentative plans for accomplishing what is 
 without doubt the world's greatest task of exploration. Unfortu- 
 nately many of the plans thus proposed, though worthy in them- 
 selves, have been doomed from the first to languish for want of 
 financial support, or worse still have perished from lack of the 
 ordinary encouragement which one enthusiast is usually willing to 
 accord to another. 
 
 In view of the many disappointments of the past it is gratifying 
 and significant to find that the effort now being made to form a 
 thoroughly modern co-operative scientific institution with the 
 endowment and facilities necessary to carry on rapidly an exhaus- 
 tive survey of the whole region is everywhere being received with 
 the most cordial approval and support. At last one of the many 
 plans of exploration that has been offered is to be brought to 
 fruition. Hawaii, situated in the midst of the region to be studied 
 is to be the center of this great undertaking. 
 
 The propriety of Honolulu serving as a focal point and leading 
 in the work, as well as the fact that at last a worthy survey of the 
 Pacific is to be inaugurated has been hailed by men in all countries, 
 both in and out of science, with the utmost enthusiasm. For 
 there are many who believe that the results growing out of a care- 
 fully planned and faithfully executed exploration of the whole 
 realm will add more to the sum of human knowledge than any 
 single effort of a like kind that can be attempted. 
 
 It seems unnecessary to discuss the many urgent reasons which 
 make the exploration of this region almost imperative. Everyone 
 knows that the Polynesian race is not only passing away, but 
 that it is taking with it into the great beyond all the facts which 
 would elucidate the manifold problems involved in the origin and 
 subsequent distribution of the various branches of the race in the 
 Pacific. We know that the civilization of the Polynesian people 
 was not only very old at the time of their discovery by the white 
 
 4 
 
race, but, considering the circumstances of isolation under which 
 the race was developed, very far advanced. Yet farther than the 
 meager records of early explorers and the narratives of traders, 
 missionaries, and adventurers, all of whom in their writings treated 
 the civilization of the natives in a superficial manner, we know 
 next to nothing of one of the great races of mankind. Ethnologists 
 yearn for reliable knowledge of this interesting — yes, fascinating 
 people. They assert that we must ascertain their origin, tribal 
 traditions, and social affinities before a worthy history of the human 
 race can be written. We all know too well of the rapid change of 
 conditions and the obliteration of the facts upon which the study 
 of any primitive people depends. Anyone at all familiar with the 
 peculiar conditions in the Pacific feels that with the Polynesian and 
 kindred tribes it is indeed now or never that this work must be done. 
 
 That which is true of the Polynesian race as a people is equally 
 true of the material in every department of natural history. That 
 which it is so important to preserve or record is everywhere passing 
 away or changing in character. Then too, an exhaustive exami- 
 nation of any one subject in the Pacific is so interwoven with others, 
 that the study of the one is remarkably involved by the lack of 
 knowledge of the other. This is true to such an extent that in 
 order to be of a high character, any ethnological survey of the 
 region requires as a starting-point information which is today 
 sadly lacking of the oceanology, climatology, geology, zoology, and 
 botany of the entire ocean. 
 
 A task which involves so much exploration, investigation, and 
 research can only be accomplished by creating first of all a scientific 
 center exclusively devoted to this especial work. Such a center 
 must undertake to collect and bring thither all of the material and 
 data on which the investigation must be based. It must then pro- 
 vide the men and facilities necessary for the study of the material, 
 once it is assembled, and lastly, in order to make the labor of the 
 survey permanent and valuable, ample opportunity for the publi- 
 cation and application of the facts thus obtained must be provided. 
 Thus the results of the undertaking may be permanently added to 
 the general store of human knowledge for the benefit and improve- 
 ment of all. 
 
 5 
 
Until recently the Pacific has been regarded as so remote from 
 the old and well-established centers of civilization and learning 
 that many have felt that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to 
 carry out such an undertaking as is here proposed. Happily that 
 objection is now removed and the desirability of Honolulu serving 
 as the center for the work is generally admitted. 
 
 Honolulu, the capital of Hawaii, is a thoroughly modern city. 
 It is equipped with every modem convenience, being supplied with 
 abundant cable and steamship connections, with all parts of the 
 Pacific. It has the most delightful and healthful climate in the 
 world, and in addition to its many widely recognized scientific and 
 educational facilities, offers natural advantages pre-eminently fitting 
 it to lead in this work — a work which is in truth a "world's work" 
 in scope and significance. 
 
 Besides the remoteness of the Pacific from established centers 
 of learning as just alluded to, there have been innumerable reasons 
 for delay in undertaking this great task. Aside from the lack of 
 sufficient funds the chief and most important cause of delay in the 
 past has been that the islands of the region are divided among the 
 nations of the earth in such a way that no country has been ready 
 or willing to incur the expense incidental to the exploration and 
 charting of a sister country's domain. As a result, the little that 
 has been accomplished by home governments or private enter- 
 prise has been desultory, fragmentary, and in a large degree futile, 
 from lack of scope and consistent purpose. 
 
 It therefore remained for some individual or institution or asso- 
 ciation of individuals and institutions to take up and, so far as 
 possible, carry forward the undertaking, and by so doing do for the 
 world a work that the state or nation could not legitimately attempt. 
 
 Such, then, briefly told, are some of the purposes of and reasons 
 for the existence of the Pacific Scientific Institution, with the 
 organization, purposes, and work of which it is the province of this 
 paper to deal. 
 
 THE PACIFIC SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTION 
 
 In order to carry on in a comprehensive way the administrative 
 
 and resident research work of the exploration of the region and at 
 
 the same time provide for the inevitable lateral expansion of such 
 
 6 
 
an undertaking, the Pacific Scientific Institution has been formed. 
 It is a corporation under the control of an especial honorary board 
 of fifteen trustees, who are empowered to receive, in trust, funds, 
 property, or equipment for the prosecution, promotion, and main- 
 tenance of scientific research in the Pacific Ocean, The main 
 object of the trust, as set forth in the charter, is the effecting of a 
 thorough biological and ethnological survey of the Pacific. In 
 addition to other liberal powers, the trustees are given discretion 
 to wind up their affairs, when in their judgment the main object 
 for which the trust is created shall have been completed. They 
 will, in that event, make such a disposition of the trust funds as 
 may have been provided for by the benefactors, or in default of 
 such instructions, as they themselves may, within limitations, deter- 
 mine.^ They are also empowered to reorganize, endow, and 
 permanently establish any one or all of the especial institutions 
 which may be created by them for the continuance of research in the 
 Pacific. 
 
 As the means appear, the trustees will establish central offices 
 of administration in Honolulu provided with laboratories, libraries, 
 printing equipment, etc., which they will house in buildings of a 
 more or less temporary character. They will also, as speedily as 
 possible, establish a biological station, an aviary or zoological 
 garden, a garden of acclimatization or botanical garden, and such 
 other scientific institutions or facilities as they may in future deem 
 desirable.^ When practicable, the Pacific Scientific Institution will 
 affiliate with the various scientific and educational institutions 
 already well established in Hawaii, such as the Honolulu Aquarium^ 
 the Historical Library, the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Oahu 
 College, Hawaiian Experiment Station, and similar institutions, 
 with the object of forming a local research institution with adequate 
 facilities for prosecuting, in the fullest and most satisfactory way, 
 a work of the extent and character indicated in the general plan 
 of exploration. 
 
 » The Peabody fund for the promotion of education in the South is cited as a 
 strong precedent case. 
 
 2 In this connection I am happy to say that provision has aheady been made 
 for the establishment of the three important scientific centers just mentioned, 
 through the munificence of interested patrons in Honolulu. 
 
 7 
 
To facilitate the research work from time to time, additional 
 tables of research under the control of the Institution will be 
 endowed, which will be provided by patrons and interested insti- 
 tutions in such a way that the Pacific Scientific Institution can call 
 to its assistance a corps of specialists, as they are required, to work 
 on the problems with which the survey is to deal, and at the same 
 time to furnish specialists in the old well-established museums and 
 universities much needed opportunity for colateral research in the 
 Pacific insular province. 
 
 This, it is confidently believed, will promote a spirit of co-opera- 
 tion among the universities, museums, and scientific institutions 
 of the world, that are directly or indirectly interested in a study of 
 the Pacific, which will be most helpful and desirable in every way. 
 
 THE EXPLORING EXPEDITION 
 
 The present plan for field work is to acquire an especially 
 equipped yacht of from five to seven hundred tons capacity, which 
 will be provided with sails as well as oil-burning engines, and fitted 
 with the necessary accommodations for fifteen scientific men, 
 including laboratories, field library, storage tanks, etc. 
 
 This vessel, using Honolulu as a base, and establishing secondary 
 focal points from which to carry on its work, will make cruises to 
 the various groups of islands in the Pacific region. The voyages 
 can be so arranged that the entire ocean, with its more than two 
 thousand islands, may be thoroughly covered in about fifteen 
 excursions. Thus the vast region would be worked over, group 
 by group, with a fully equipped corps of especially trained field 
 scientists; the time required to complete the work, of course, vary- 
 ing with the number and size of the parties in the field. In this 
 way the work and publications on any group, as for example on the 
 Society Islands, would be uniform and complete; every depart- 
 ment of ethnology and natural history will be treated, both in the 
 field and in the subsequent publication, by a specialist. By reason 
 of a carefully prearranged plan, the study of each island will be 
 made with an understanding of the great ultimate object, namely, 
 knowledge of the Pacific Ocean as a whole. The data thus 
 gathered will always be even and of a comparable character. 
 
 8 
 
The central institution in Honolulu will in due time affiliate 
 with the various universities and museums of the world in a way 
 to offer an opportunity for actual field work to the graduate stu- 
 dents of those institutions. The undertaking will thus be suppHed 
 with a constantly increasing corps of young and enthusiastic 
 naturalists for the arduous work of the field exploration. They 
 will bring with them to the work the support of their especial 
 institutions; since their appointments on the expeditions will be 
 gained, in the main, through meritorious w^ork done during their 
 preparatory courses. It is evident that work of this character is 
 not only supplementary to the university and museum training, but 
 that such expeditions will furnish scientific employment for many 
 graduates of our colleges and universities along the line of their 
 especial training. It will also provide a means of doing postgraduate 
 work under remuneration during the critical time between lea\dng 
 college and the finding of satisfactory or permanent employment 
 in scientific pursuits. On the other hand, the expeditions will be 
 carried on at a minimum of expense, while offering splendid facih- 
 ties for the development of scientific men, from among whom the 
 Institution will select its permanent staff as the work of the survey 
 advances. 
 
 GENERAL ADMINISTRATION OF THE INSTITUTION 
 
 A simple and, it is believed, workable plan that is adapted to 
 the character of the work the Institution is to carry on has been 
 adopted for the general administration of the affairs of the Insti- 
 tution. 
 
 A board of fifteen trustees has been appointed. The board is 
 composed of men of highest business, judicial, or educational 
 standing in the Hawaiian Islands. Since they reside in Honolulu, 
 they are intimately in touch with the work of the Institution at all 
 times. They serve without remuneration other than the expenses 
 incidental to the administration of the trust funds. This body has 
 the general and complete control of the affairs of the corporate 
 Institution. However, if it seems wise, they may obligate the Insti- 
 tution to make annually a comprehensive statement of its general 
 affairs or the affairs of any special department of the work under 
 
 9 
 
their control to any person or corporation which a donor may desig- 
 nate to receive such reports. 
 
 The trustees meet at stated intervals for a review of the affairs 
 of the Institution, and to hear and act on the president's monthly 
 or quarterly reports. The board is organized into various com- 
 mittees, which are empowered to act for the full board in certain 
 matters in order to facilitate its business. 
 
 The president is the chief executive officer of the Institution, 
 and is ex officio a member of the Board of Trustees, serving during 
 the pleasure of the board. The Executive Committee is composed 
 of the five officers of the Institution, as recognized by the charter 
 of incorporation and has general control of the affairs of the Insti- 
 tution when the trustees are not in session. 
 
 Each department under the direct control of the Pacific Scien- 
 tific Institution will have its responsible officer styled the Director. 
 The by-laws provide that he shall make his reports and be respon- 
 sible to the president of the Institution. 
 
 Institutions affiliated with the Pacific Scientific Institution will 
 be addressed and recognized through the Institution's proper repre- 
 sentative ; affihation being effected by both institutions concerned,, 
 accepting written conditions of such alliance. 
 
 THE SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZATION OF THE INSTITUTION 
 
 The president is directed to select an Honorary Scientific 
 Council consisting of gentlemen who are of international reputa- 
 tion in scientific and educational matters. 
 
 With the assistance and advice of the Honorary Scientific Coun- 
 cil the details of the systematic work will be so arranged that a 
 definite system of procedure will be settled upon before the actual 
 exploration is inaugurated. The members of the Scientific Council 
 will assist as advisers in the selection of the leading specialists who 
 shall serve as curators of the several more or less limited depart- 
 ments into which the scientific work will necessarily be divided. 
 The gentlemen thus selected will serve as the honorary curators of 
 the departments in which they have distinguished themselves, and 
 will exercise a general advisory supervision over the work, material, 
 and publications of their especial departments. When possible 
 
 lO 
 
they will be consulted in the selection of the curators, assistants^ 
 and collectors who shall work in their respective departments, and 
 will be regarded as forming the heads of departments of the scien- 
 tific staff. 
 
 One of their first duties will be to prepare for the Institution a 
 full and comprehensive statement of the status of their specialty, 
 with reference to the Pacific Ocean. In their reports they will 
 treat as fully as circumstances will allow such subjects as the regions 
 in which collections have been made — regions from which no satis- 
 factory collections have been secured — the kind and quantity of 
 the material required; equipment necessary for the collecting, 
 storing, and study of the material ; a list of the important literature 
 deahng with their specialty in the region; the kind, quantity, and 
 form of field notes to be collected ; the lines along which investiga- 
 tion should be pursued; theories which require further or more 
 minute study afield or in the laboratories, etc. 
 
 These theses will be collected, edited, and eventually published 
 to furnish the broad foundation on which the survey will be con- 
 ducted. Such a book will serve the young student as a touchstone; 
 and will be a guide to what has been accomplished in the past and 
 what yet remains to be done. It will be a source of inspiration, 
 tending to make the material, gathered from any source, in the 
 various groups, by various observers, take on a more even and 
 comparable character. 
 
 SCOPE OF THE INQUIRY 
 
 As has been intimated, perhaps none of the many subjects 
 which require immediate investigation in this vast region are of 
 greater importance than those with which ethnology deals. Hap- 
 hazard and promiscuously gathered specimens, regarded as mere 
 curios by the voyagers, have furnished a large proportion of the 
 ethnological material that has gravitated to our museums. With- 
 out data, often without labels, it has been assigned by different 
 workers to different islands, until its value, even as curios, has dis- 
 appeared. Yet such specimens are all faithfully guarded by mu- 
 seum custodians in the hope that competent and properly trained 
 ethnological explorers with modern methods may yet go afield and 
 
 II 
 
locate the place of their origin and supply the data that will make 
 them priceless. Indeed, the ethnology of the region is so imper- 
 fectly known, that the few workers in the field are often at a loss to 
 know what line of work is the most urgent to pursue; so great 
 and manifest are the gaps in our scientific knowledge of this inter- 
 esting race. As has been said, the rapid changes which civilization 
 and commerce are effecting will soon obliterate all that remains of 
 the native culture of this people. 
 
 Therefore the main work of the expeditions will be to study 
 the races of man inliabiting the Pacific, in a manner similar to that 
 in which the Bureau of American Ethnology has studied the 
 American Indian. Such a study should cover their physical, 
 mental, hnguistic, social, religious, aesthetic, and industrial develop- 
 ment, as well as the problems of race mixture and the causes of 
 racial decay among the primitive tribes inliabiting the multitude 
 of Pacific islands. Since the material for the elucidation of many 
 of the problems involved does not exist in any museum or museums, 
 exhaustive collections must be made, both in the field and by pur- 
 chase, which will illustrate their crafts before it is too late to secure 
 them. 
 
 Next in importance is the study of land biology. The limited 
 size of the majority of the islands makes the extermination of exist- 
 ing peculiar forms a matter speedily accomplished by the intro- 
 duction of foreign plants and animals, or unusual conditions. For 
 example, among the birds on the island of Oahu the number of 
 species known to science which have been exterminated since their 
 description exceeds those now existing on the island. Still in the 
 Pacific there remain many islands unexplored by scientists and 
 thousands of forms of animal life that are as yet undescribed. 
 
 In the plant world similar conditions exist. There are hundreds 
 of species which are unknown; while the geographical extent, 
 abundance, variation, native names, and economic uses of all the 
 plants of the region must be investigated and recorded. Such a 
 survey will, without doubt, aid materially in the development and 
 utilization of the botanical resources of the tropical islands of the 
 world. 
 
 The value of the study of the shore fauna and flora cannot be 
 
 12 
 
exaggerated. To illustrate: the marine life of the Hawaiian 
 Islands is better known than that of any group in the region that 
 it is proposed to visit; yet the U. S. Fish Commission, in a brief 
 season's collecting, secured more than one hundred and fifty new 
 species in the waters about the islands. Still we know more about 
 fishes than we do of any of the many other marine forms of life. 
 
 The work of Dr. T. Wayland Vaughn on the corals of Hawaii 
 revealed the fragmentary nature of our knowledge of this impor- 
 tant subject. The researches of Dr. Walter K. Fisher on the 
 Hawaiian Holothuroidea furnishes even more convincing evidence 
 along the same line. In his excellent monograph he describes 
 sixty species of that class as occurring about the Hawaiian Islands, 
 fifty-two of which are reported as new to science. Indeed the possi- 
 bihties of a careful investigation of the coast fauna and flora, 
 down to the limit of the effect of light on ocean forms, can scarcely 
 be conceived. 
 
 DEPARTMENTS OF THE INSTITUTION 
 
 In order to facilitate the exliaustive study of the life history and 
 economic importance of both plants and animals, the establishment 
 of the biological station, an aviary, and a botanical garden in 
 Honolulu are made to take a prominent part in the general scheme. 
 
 These have all received financial support and will be established 
 from time to time by the central institution as supplemental to its 
 work, and will so far as possible be made the center for the work 
 of the Institution in the particular field which they cover. One of 
 the most important will be the Botanical Garden and Tropical 
 Gardens of Acclimatization in which will be grown and studied 
 many of the important plants procured by the Institution's explorers. 
 The production of new and important tropical fruits, flowers, and 
 other economic plants from plants thus introduced will be an 
 important branch of the Institution's applied botanical work. 
 
 The unrivaled situation of the Hawaiian Islands with the 
 diversity of climate which can be obtained in the various altitudes 
 available, should in time make this one of the world's most impor- 
 tant and beautiful botanical gardens. 
 
 An aviary will be provided that will partake of the nature of 
 
 13 
 
zoological gardens for the reception of the birds and animals of the 
 Pacific. Here the rare and beautiful birds of the region will be 
 brought and studied, as the results of the survey are procured. 
 The systematic and economic study of birds will be the major work 
 of this department of the Institution. The economic study of 
 birds is as yet almost an untrodden field of practical research. The 
 far-reaching value of investigation in this branch of the work can 
 scarcely be estimated. 
 
 The Honolulu Aquarium is an institution of which the island 
 city is justly proud. The addition of rare varieties of fish to its 
 tanks, will, without doubt, make possible in time the bringing 
 together in the three institutions mentioned one of the most com- 
 plete living collections of the plant and animal life of a single region 
 to be found anywhere on the globe. 
 
 The study of the marine botany and zoology will also be actively 
 pursued. The first department of the work to receive financial 
 support from one of Hawaii's generous citizens was the Biological 
 Station. In its laboratories the work in general and experi- 
 mental biology growing out of the survey will be carried on. In it, 
 as well as in the general institution, will be endowed tables of 
 research to which we are assured scientific men will resort from all 
 parts of the world. Work in the biological laboratory, where the 
 simpler forms of plant and animal can be exhaustively studied, has 
 come to be regarded as one of the most fruitful sources of research. 
 Many biologists believe that the laboratory is the workshop where 
 the answer to the old, old question as to the "origin of hfe" is being 
 forged. Who knows but that it may fall to Hawaii to provide for 
 the world the means and material with which to elucidate this 
 great riddle. It will be remembered by all that the great Pacific 
 in times passed furnished much of the fresh data and material^ 
 which in the hands of such philosophers as Darwin, Wallace, and 
 Gulick gave a solution for many of the most difficult problems 
 in evolution. 
 
 DISPOSITION OF THE MATERIAL 
 
 It is urged that the Bcrnice Pauahi Bishop Museum, by reason 
 of its central location within the region to be studied, be made the 
 
 14 
 
principal recipient and final depository of the first series of the 
 material to be gathered by the survey. The general accessibility 
 of the museum to students residing on the shores of the great ocean, 
 coupled with the nature and value of the collections already perma- 
 nently stored within its halls, no less than the important part that 
 the museum will doubtless take in the work of exploration, are 
 among the many points that might be urged in favor of such a 
 disposition of the type material. 
 
 However, the final disposition of the material in the Bishop 
 Museum, after it has been worked out by the Institution, would 
 seem to be a matter for treaty, conditioned among other things on 
 the museum's early and helpful affihation with the Pacific Scien- 
 tific Institution. Also some definite expression of the museum's 
 willingness to make the necessary provisions for the permanent 
 storing, exhibition, and conservation of the material that would 
 fall to its share by this arrangement would be necessary. In order 
 to make the material gathered accessible to workers in all parts of 
 the world it is suggested that the U. S. National Museum be made 
 the recipient of the second set of material. The third set of speci- 
 mens should be distributed among the leading specialists actually 
 engaged in the systematic work. It would invariably gravitate by 
 bequest or purchase to the institution most interested in the spe- 
 cialty in question. 
 
 PUBLICATION OF THE INSTITUTION 
 
 The publication of the results of such an exploration as has been 
 outlined in the preceding pages is no inconsiderable part of the 
 whole undertaking. It is hoped that in time the printing and 
 illustrating will be done in a plant under the control of the Insti- 
 tution. The regular publications of the Institution will be in two 
 forms, i. e., memoirs — quarto, and papers — octavo. It is estimated 
 that there will be on an average five thick quarto volumes for each 
 group of islands visited. The reports on each group will be as 
 complete as possible and will constitute a biological and ethno- 
 logical survey of the group as a unit. Each subject dealt with 
 will in every case be treated by a specialist. 
 
 The smaller octavo series is to receive the miscellaneous papers 
 
 15 
 
growing out of the exploration. In it will be published the result 
 of minor investigations carried on in the various departments in 
 the Institution. 
 
 When the survey of the entire region has been completed, it is 
 proposed to call upon the world's leading specialists in each depart- 
 ment to aid in co-ordinating the work done by the field observers 
 and systematic workers in the various groups. Thus only can 
 deductions and conclusions be supphed that will be in keeping 
 with the monumental labor that must be expended in consum- 
 mating a work of such heroic proportions. 
 
 In conclusion it may be added that a worthy exploration of the 
 Pacific on the fines indicated in this synopsis is a work which with- 
 out doubt, in the bulk of publications and outlay of labor involved, 
 will easily double that so successfully accomplished by the famous 
 Challenger Exploring Expedition around the world; that being 
 the only previous undertaking that has in any way approached in 
 importance the task of exploration outhned for the Pacific Scientific 
 Institution. 
 
 i6 
 
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