Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 86.djvu/313

Rh most important astronomical research institutions in the world. The waters of the Pacific ocean teem with life which forms a rich material background for the investigations of the marine naturalist that can be prosecuted under unusually favorable climatic conditions. This accounts for the presence of a chain of biological laboratories stretching from San Diego to Puget Sound. In the Mohave Desert, fossils have recently been discovered that throw important light upon the evolution of animal forms in the old as well as in the new world. Northern California possesses not only the one active volcano in the limits of the United States but has long harbored the last living representative, for years unknown and neglected, of a tribe of Indians that, in contact for half a century with the frontiers of civilization, continued to live the life of the stone age. It is doubtful whether this remarkable contrast of cultures shows itself anywhere else in our country.

The barriers that have isolated the Pacific coast have more or less successfully shut out tradition. The freedom with which social and political experiments have been made in this region is only paralleled by the experimentation that has drawn the eyes of the world to the pioneer communities of New Zealand and Australia, That freedom to experiment which is the life of science, the necessary companion to discovery, is usually denied in our older communities to social and political pioneers. Whether for good or ill, the citizens of the Pacific states have in numerous cases voted themselves this freedom. The impressive record of the fruits of their boldness will speak in this number for itself.

The Panama Canal will break in upon a certain long remoteness. It will overcome geographical barriers. It will bring new elements to the population that will inevitably produce effects upon social and political institutions. What effects and how? The west is awaiting this new experiment with keen zest and high hopefulness.

the Pacific coast of the United States is remote from the centers of population of this country, it has been difficult for members of the American Association living within this area to attend the annual meetings in eastern cities. Meanwhile, members on the Pacific coast have made substantial contributions to the progress of science, and the strength of their interest in 1 organized science has been shown by the federation of sixteen societies organized within this region into the Pacific Association of Scientific Societies about four years ago. Four successful annual meetings of the Pacific Association have been held, one at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, two at the University of California, Berkeley and the latest meeting in May, 1914, at the University of Washington, Seattle.

In extending the work of the American Association actively on the Pacific coast it was felt that any new organization must cooperate with the work of organizations already on the ground. Plans for the merging of the Pacific Association of Scientific Societies with a Pacific Division of the American Association have accordingly been completed. A constitution drafted for the Pacific Division has been approved by the American Association and ratified by eleven of the constituent societies of the Pacific Association.

The affairs of the Pacific Division i have been placed in charge of the Pacific Coast Committee of the American Association of which the chairman is Dr. W. W. Campbell, director of the Lick Observatory, and president of the American Association for 1915. The first meeting of the Pacific Division will be held in 1916, and thereafter annual meetings will occur successively in the cities west of the Rocky Mountains. The Pacific Division as an organization consists of all members of the American Association residing within