Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 77.djvu/450

444 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 a "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 Medusæ.

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 Eeva, 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 uninterrupted area of ocean in the world. Professor C. A. Kofoid collected the protozoa and Dr. Henry B. Bigelow the medusae, 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 medusæ, salpæ and all manner of floating creatures 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 medusæ of this expedition.

This was Alexander Agassiz's last great scientific expedition, although 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