Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 66.djvu/397



FEEL a certain hesitancy in speaking on the subject I have selected to talk about—the Bermuda Islands—because of the number of prominent naturalists who have written so excellently about them. It should be stated at the outset that I do not aim to add to the stock of our knowledge about the Bermudas. So much has been written about their zoology in recent years—especially by the zoologists of the Challenger Expedition, then by Professor Heilprin of this city, on the invertebrates and the coral reefs, by Mr. Agassiz, incidental to his studies of the great question of the origin and growth of coral reefs, and most recently by that veteran in systematic zoology, Professor Verrill, of Yale University—that it is hardly to be expected that anything fundamentally new will be soon added. It is my purpose, rather, to give something of a picture of the present conditions in Bermuda, based partly on my own experiences, and particularly to direct your attention to the accessibility of the islands and their availability as a place for carrying on intensive rather than extensive researches. With the facilities for work which will soon be provided by the colonial government, it should be an attractive place not only for temporary exploration and summer study, but also for protracted investigations on important biological problems.

My own interest in Bermuda as a place for zoological study was first awakened by suggestions of President Eliot, who a few years ago