GENERAL INTRODUCTION
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the French possess a series of stations=along_.-,b0th -the
Atlantic and .Mediterranean coasts of which-those at
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Rosco and Banyuls respectively arethe most important.
They have recently founded a station atSalammbô in Tunis.
Outside Europe the most important stations are in the
United States 1where the Biological Laboratory at Woods
Hole in Massachusetts (Plate 6) is the largest institution of
its kind in the world;
Close by isthe recently erected
Oceanographical Institution from which investigations are -
made far out into the Atlantic in an ocean—going research
vessel.
Near it is also the laboratory of the United '
States Bureau of Fisheries.
Other important stations are
situated on the Atlantic and Pacic coasts of Canada and
the United States of which perhaps the most interesting is
that of the Carnegie Institution on the Tortugas Islands
in the Gulf of Mexico.
The development of science in
has led to the founding of a series of marine stations
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along their coasts from which valuable work, especially
in connection with sheries ”and oyster culture, is already
being turned out.‘
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LIFE IN THE SEA
The sea is far richer in dierent forms of life than the
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land Or fresh water, many groups of animals being exclu—
‘sively marine.
Since many of the latter may be quite
unknown to readers without special knowledge of biology,
it. seems advisable, before procéeding with the description
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3
of the
zonesbf life in the sea and the_characteristics
of their inhabitants, to give in this introductory chapter
a short Summary of the various groups of marine animals
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and
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Animals
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Distinguished from all other animals, in that they
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of a single
“
cell,” are-the PROTOZOA. - They are extremely