The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1903-07-09
A MARINE
LABORATORY
MAY BE ESTABLISHED HERE FOR
STUDY OF MARINE LIFE
The Situation Now Being Investigated by
Prof. Kincaid, of the State University.
To Be an Important Scientific Station.
Character and Scope of Work.

Prof. Trevor Kincaid, professor of
zoology in the State University, is here
investigating the advantages offered
by this locality as desirable location
for a marine laboratory to be estab-
lished this summer in connection with
the biological department of the uni
versity. Prof. Kincsid, though the
youngest professor in the university in
point of age ie one of the oldest in
point of service, having for nine years
been connected. with the institution,
through which he worked his way az
a student. He Is one of the leading
entomologists OF the west and is recog-
nized as the foremost authority on the
insect life of this state and Alaska, his
first Alaskan researches having been
made in 1897, when he spent the sum-
mer among the islands of the Aleutian
peninsular in company with DIR. David
Starr Jordan, president of Stanford
University and the greatest living
authority on fishes and other forms of
marine life. Two years later he was a
member of the Hartman scientific ex-
pedition which spent the summer in
vestigating all forms of natural life
along the Alaskan coast and accumu-
lating vast fund of scientific informa-
tion about the great northland The
personnel of the expedition included
thirty-five of the most celebrated scien-
lists and naturalists of the country,
representing all phases of scientific re-
search in its relation to natural history.
The expenses of the expedition were
borne by E. HI. Hartman, the great
railway magnate; and the valuable
scientific collections gathered were pre-
sented to the National Museum in
Washington. On this trip Prof Kin.
caid gathered specimens of 1000 diff
ferent insects, of which 343 were previ-
ously unknown.
The undertaking i'm which Prof. Kin
caid is now engaged and in which he
is associated with Prof. Foster, of the
department of botany of the university,
has for its purpose the establishing of a
laboratory at which students of BIZ
ology, both at the local university and
from eastern institutions, may have
the opportunity of studying in their
live state the flora and fauna indigen-
Gus to Puget Sound. There are only
two marine laboratories on the Pacific
coast, one maintained by Stanford
University al Monterey, Cal, and the
other on Vancouver island, in British
Columbia. supported by the University
of Minnesota. The authorities of the
University of Washington regard the
adjunct as one of the most important
features taken on in recent years. In
time, it is believed that. it will become
the center for students from all parts of
the country. The professors have four.
points on the Sound which they are
considering as possible locations. They
are Port Townsend; Friday Harborj a
point near Anacortes, on FidaIgo island,
and Port Orchard bay, Kitsap county.
This point is thus far considered the
most desirable, being richest in marine
life, the only question concerning it be-
ing as to whether the bottoms of the
bays are of such character as to make
deep dredging practicable. A test will
be made in the bay here today.
Prof. Kincaid has already made his
ir at Port Townsend and
vicinity. He was not stranger to
this locality before his present visit,
having spent several days here two
wears ago and been much attracted
then by the advantages of the situa-
ton. In the Post-Intelligencer of last
Saturday he is quoted as saying:
"Such a laboratory as we propose to
establish will be of great value and i'm
portance, both to the state and the
university, and have no doubt will
become a center for skill and talent
from the leading colleges Of the coun-
try. The advantages of laboratory
on the Sound over one located almost
apywhere else i'm the world Is that the
Sound possesses greater variety of