ACADIA Sieur de Monts National Monument: Addresses Upon Its Opening, August 22, 1916 Sieur de Monts Publications II

ADDRESSES
ON THE ESTABLISHMENT
OF THE
SIEUR DE MONTS NATIONAL MONUMENT

PRESIDENT ELIOT

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, LOVERS OF MT. DESERT: We come together here to celebrate a very important step in a long progress—long as we look backward, and longer still as we look forward. Some of us have known this Island for many, many years. The first visit I made to it was just fifty years ago, and I have long been intimate with the Island and its surroundings. Most of us, I suppose, have lived here many years, or at least many summers; but the great event we celebrate today—the taking of nearly half the hills of the Island as a National Monument—has awakened a strong interest also in the Island on the part of single-season visitors, and those who come here for a few days only—or even for a single day. That is an important new fact; because the promoters of the present enterprise are looking forward to a large extension of the National Monument which will greatly add to the interest and attractiveness of this beautiful Atlantic Island at all seasons of the year. The old lovers of the Island expect to welcome many new lovers.

We who have long known the Island know that it is unique on the entire Atlantic coast of the United States, with nothing even to approach it in varied interest and beauty.

Now, the public spirited people who have got together by gift or purchase the lands which constitute today the National Monument have long been hard at work upon the matter—sometimes under discouragements; so they feel that today is a day for rejoicing and mutual congratulation. The labors of years have been brought to a cheerful and hopeful consummation. But these sentiments do not relate to their own experiences and their own happiness alone. One of the greatest satisfactions in doing any sound work for an institution, a town, or a city, or for the nation is that good work done for the public lasts, endures through generations; and the little bit of work that any individual of the passing generation is enabled to do gains through association with such collective activities an immortality of its own. I have been accustomed to work for a University—in fact, I worked for one forty-nine years; but the greatest element of satisfaction in looking back on that work is the sense that what I was enabled to do, with the help of many others, is going to last—as good bricks built into a permanent structure. This is the great satisfaction of all the promoters of the enterprise we meet today to celebrate.

We hope to bear during the meeting something about the different stages of development of this enterprise. I hope we shall appreciate before we leave this hall what long-continued service a few men, and particularly one man, have rendered to this community through this work for the preservation of the Island's hills, woods, and water-supplies. I hope we are going to hear what needs to be done in the future to the same ends. For example, we must understand that other great hills of this Island need to be brought into reservation, to be held first by the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations and then by the Government of the United States. And then I hope we are going to hear from a very competent source of the new interests which are about to be developed in the wild life of the Island, in the trees, shrubs, mosses and flowers, and in the animals that can thrive here on land or in the sea. This undertaking has a large forward look; and before this meeting closes, I think there will have been presented to us a picture of what we, the present enjoyers of the Island, can do for the benefit of coming generations.

Governor O. C. Curtis has sent the following telegram to the Hon. L. B. Deasy:

PORTLAND, MAINE, AUG. 21, 1916.

LEURE B. DEASY,
     BAR HARBOR, MAINE.

It is with sincere regret that I am obliged to inform you that it will be impossible for me to be with you at the noteworthy exercises by which you are to celebrate the establishment of the first national park in the state of Maine on the Island of Mt. Desert, to be known as The Sieur de Monts National Monument. I am pleased, however, to take advantage of the opportunity afforded by this occasion to extend in behalf of the people and state of Maine to you and your committee and to those whose generous acts and earnest efforts have resulted in the realization of a project at once so admirable and so desirable my most sincere congratulations and heartiest greetings.

OAKLEY CURTIS,     
Governor.

I have the honor to introduce to you the Hon. John E. Bunker, Secretary of State for Maine.

HON. JOHN E. BUNKER

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: We have assembled here this summer afternoon for the purpose of formally observing the establishment of a great national park by our Federal Government, but more especially to show our appreciation of the kindness that has made this occasion possible. We have gathered from near and far, not only the residents and summer residents of Mount Desert Island, but visitors from distant states and foreign climes, that by our presence we may record our thanks for the generous devotion that has expressed itself so practically in this enduring Monument.

In the absence of His Excellency, I am proud to extend to you the greetings of the great State I have the honor to represent today, and to bring you the congratulations of our Governor. All honor and credit to those whose generosity and persevering work have resulted in an accomplishment so great. The story of the founding of Maine's National Park will be told to generations yet unborn. May they also learn the purpose and gain the spirit of its founders.

PRESIDENT ELIOT

The next speaker has been identified with the legal work involved in obtaining the great reservations which until a few days ago were in the hands of the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations. He knows the history of the enterprise; he also knows what the meaning of the undertaking has been in the minds of those who promoted it. I call on the Hon. L B. Deasy.

HON. L. B. DEASY

MR. CHAIRMAN: Not forgetting the many who have rendered valuable assistance, who have made generous donations of land and gifts of money to buy land, the chief credit for the establishment of this National Park belongs to two men.

It owes its inception as a public reservation to the far-sightedness and public spirit of the distinguished chairman of this meeting.

It owes its successful accomplishment and ultimate transformation into a National Park to the energy, the persistence, the unfailing tact, the consecrated altruism of George B. Dorr.

The movement for the creation of a great public reservation on Mt. Desert Island started in 1901, when, at the suggestion of Dr. Eliot the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations was organized under the general law. Two years later, in 1908, the organization of this corporation was confirmed by a special Act of the Maine legislature. The purposes of the Corporation as stated in this Act were to receive, hold, and improve for public use lands in Hancock County which by reason of historic interest, scenic beauty, or any other cause, were suitable for such an object.

It was not until 1908, however, eight years before the proclamation of the National Monument, that the Trustees received their first gift of land, the Bowl and Beehive tract on Newport Mountain, from Mrs. Charles D. Homans of Boston, a member of the earliest group of summer residents upon the Island. That same fall, through the initiative of Mr. Dorr and the gift of Mr. John S. Kennedy of New York, the summit of the Island—the old hotel tract upon Green Mountain, belonging to the heirs of Daniel Brewer—was acquired, to pass this summer into the Nation's keeping as the highest point upon our eastern coast.

Dry Mountain, Newport and Pickett Mountains, Pemetic—the only one that still retains an Indian appellation—Jordan, Sargent, and the Bubbles, in whole or in at least their summit portions, followed steadily as the seasons passed, with the gorges and high-lying lakes that they include, till in 1914 an undivided tract, that seemed to Mr. Dorr and President Eliot worthy of offering to the Nation, had been secured.

Mr. Dorr went to Washington accordingly that spring and decided, on the strength of encouragement given him by the Secretary of the Interior, the Hon. Franklin K. Lane, to seek its acceptance by the Government under what is known as the Monuments Act, passed in 1906 under President Roosevelt, and widely since then made use of by the Government in western portions of the country—this Act being one which authorizes the administration, upon the recommendation of the Secretary of the Interior, to set aside by Presidential proclamation lands of "historic, pre-historic, or scientific interest" as National Parks, when previously owned by it or freely offered to it from a private source.

Two further years were spent in active work, in extending the Park's boundaries and securing its approaches, and in studying and clearing the land titles of the tract, to bring them up to the high standard that the Government requires.

In early June this year, 1916, Mr. Dorr again returned to Washington, taking with him all necessary deeds for the Government's acceptance, and, aided by the hearty support of Secretary Lane and his Assistant Secretary in charge of Parks, Mr. Stephen T. Mather, obtained President Wilson's approval of the Park, the proclamation creating it being signed by him on July 8th.

The establishment of this Park guarantees that it will be perpetually open for the use of the public, not as a matter of sufferance but as a matter of right; it guarantees that it will be protected against devastation, against commercial exploitation; it guarantees that its animal, bird, and plant life shall be conserved, something that could not be accomplished under private or even corporate ownership. These guarantees are worth far more than the Park has cost.

This great Park lies midway between Northeast Harbor, Seal Harbor and Bar Harbor. It is equally accessible to them all. All have a common interest in it. It reaches out to each of these resorts and binds them together into one community.

But to him who possesses imagination and vision, the opening of this Park has a wider and deeper significance. That these mountains, standing at the very edge of the Continent, looking out across the ocean far beyond our Country's domain, should remain in private ownership, bought and sold by metes and bounds and used for private gain, is incongruous. That they should be held by the Nation in trust for all its people is their appropriate destiny.

The man who lives in the interior of the country has very little to remind him of the Federal Government under which he lives. He has the postage stamp and the income tax, but scarcely anything else. But go with me upon the crest of any one of these hills in the National Park and look seaward; upon every headland a light-house; upon every sunken ledge, a buoy or spindle; the safe road or channel along the whole coast marked by buoys; and when the fog curtain falls, the Nation does not forget its children upon the water, but guides them to safety by signals.

It is fitting that the Nation should be given this unique post of vantage, these mountains by the sea from which its most beneficent work may be observed. It is fitting it should hold them in trust for the public, because of the lessons they teach of ancient geologic history and Nature's ways; because of the exceptional variety and interest of the life they shelter, plant and animal; and because of their historic association with the early exploration of our coast and its attempted occupation by the French.

We do well, therefore, to celebrate this occasion; we do well to express our appreciation of the work done by Dr. Eliot and Mr. Dorr, and of the important co-operation of the Secretary of the Interior and his associates; but let us remember that all these efforts might have come to naught had it not been that he who had to render the final decision and do the final act was a man big enough to pause amidst the multitudinous duties and besetting cares of his great office to give this matter consideration, and clear-visioned enough to perceive its real worth and value.

PRESIDENT ELIOT

In evidence of the interest which the President of the United States has taken in the cause and object of the meeting today, I read this telegram from President Wilson:

THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, D. C., Aug. 17, 1916.
MR. GEORGE B. DORR,
     BAR HARBOR, MAINE.

Mrs. Wilson and I warmly appreciate your kind message but it is only too evident to me now that the constant demand of public duties upon my time will prevent our having the pleasure of visiting the new park this summer.

WOODROW WILSON.

We are to hear next from Bishop Lawrence, who, I am sure, will speak some words of congratulation on the achievement we are this day commemorating; I have a hope that he will indicate to us also how considerable sums of money for the carrying on of our project can be raised.

BISHOP LAWRENCE

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, MR. ELIOT: My present duty is that of congratulation. Whom shall I congratulate? Why ourselves, of course! It is always pleasant to congratulate ourselves on any happiness that comes to us. In the first place, then, please try to recall the thought that came into your mind as you heard of this National Park. President Eliot claims, and has the right I think to claim, seniority here; but others of us, too, are running close back to fifty years ago this summer. But whether we go back a single year or fifty there is not one of us here who has not some delightful association with this spot. And when we heard the President had signed that proclamation I think our first impression was relief. No one now can come down and spoil these lands the Government has taken under its protection. No fire can sweep through them. We are content in the thought that they are in the hands of the Government, and, knowing how it has administered other parks, we therefore congratulate ourselves that the Nation has assumed control, feeling assured that what it has taken will remain forever beautiful.

In the second place, may we not congratulate those who have been instrumental in the creation of the Park? Undoubtedly; but that has been so well expressed by Mr. Deasy that it is needless to say more. That these mountains should have remained endangered so long when it was clear that private ownership might claim them is a mystery. That more people have not come forward and given of their wealth to save them is a wonder. Transfer the value of a thousand feet in New York City, covered with nothing but steel and mortar, to one of these mountains, and a large part of it is bought. How small that sum compared with the happiness that it will give. Think of the good sense and joy of giving as some have given, and of the opportunity that remains to give as others will give. For we may be confident that this Park will not remain bounded with its present lines, but will increase until in time it covers the beautiful parts of the whole Island.

I feel that we may congratulate Mr. Dorr on having had the privilege of being one to whom the achievement of a great thing has come, and that we may add the thanks and congratulations, too, of future generations. People will gather here from all parts of this country, from all parts of the world. New England has won these mountains and none henceforth can take them from her. To my mind this Park is fitted remarkably to be a park for urban people. I feel oppressed by big national parks. Their distances are too great. They do not appeal to one's capacity for achievement. But here we have hills which those accustomed to city life may mount, and walks they may use to gain strength. Here we have a park naturally formed in its smallness of distances, in its quintessence of beauty, to help city-dwelling men to gain new energy for heavy work in winter.

PRESIDENT ELIOT

Bishop Lawrence certainly has given us a pleasing picture of the results of the conservation of the Island for ourselves, for our descendants, and for the world at large; but it apparently slipped his mind to tell us how the money we yet need is to be raised. I take his place on that subject with one item. A lady spoke to me after our meeting in the Union church at Northeast Harbor last Sunday, and said she wished to send me a check to be applied to the preservation of this beautiful Island. The next day I got a note from her.

"Dear Mr. Eliot:

Enclosed please find my check to be used towards the preservation of the mountains of this wonderfully beautiful Island, which we old Northeasters love."

I found in the note a check for one thousand dollars.

Before I call on the next speaker I venture to correct one statement in the otherwise entirely accurate remarks of Mr. Deasy. He attributed to me the early conception of what might be done here for the developing of a noble public park, thereby securing for future generations this Island as a great health and pleasure resort. He did me more than justice. The conception in my mind was derived from my son, the landscape architect, who died in 1897. Moreover, the conception of a Hancock County Board of Trustees, which has been applied on this Island, was copied from the Massachusetts Board of Trustees of Public Reservations which my son not only conceived, but carried into effect. So it is to my son, and not to me, that the merit of the conception belongs.

I have, however, had a continuous function with regard to the work of the Hancock County Trustees of Public Reservations, of which I have been President. This function has been one of consultation, advice, encouragement, and now and then incitement; but this advice, this encouragement has been addressed to just one person, Mr. George B. Dorr, the principal worker in the enterprise, one great step of which we are now celebrating. I hope Mr. Dorr will say a few words to you not only on the nature of the enterprise itself, but on the future work which ought to be done for it; because he is not only a man of persistent enthusiasm and devotion to whatever he undertakes for the public good, but also a man of wise and far-reaching vision. I present to you Mr. George B. Dorr.

GEORGE B. DORR

MR. CHAIRMAN:

My thought turns forward, rather, to the great opportunity that springs from what is now achieved, than back toward the past, save for the memory of those I would were here to be glad with us at this first stage attained. It is an opportunity of singular interest, so to develop and preserve the wild charm and beauty of a spot thus honored by the Nation that future generations may rejoice in them yet more than we; and so to conserve, and where there is need restore, the wild life whose native haunt it is that all may find delight in it, and men of science a uniquely interesting field for study.

For both purposes we need more land, as anyone may see by studying the Park and Reservation bounds on Dr. Abbe's wonderfully illuminating relief map. We have begun an important work; we have succeeded until the Nation itself has taken cognizance of it and joined with us for its advancement; let us not stop short of its fulfilment in essential points. Adequate approaches to the National Monument, which men and women from the country over will henceforth come to see, should be secured. The areas adjoining it that are fertile in wild life—exceptional forest tracts, wild orchid meadows and natural wild-flower areas of other type, the pools haunted by water-loving birds, and the deep, well-wooded and well-watered valleys that lie between the mountains—are necessary to include in order to make the Park what it should be, a sanctuary and protecting home for the whole region's plant and animal life, and for the birds that ask its hospitality upon their long migrations. Make it this, and naturalists will seek it from the whole world over, and from it other men will learn similarly to cherish wild life in other places.

The influence of such work, beneficent in every aspect, travels far; and many, beholding it, will go hence as missionaries to extend it. We have a wonderful landscape, to deepen the impression, and, now that the Government has set its seal of high approval on it, wide publicity will be given to all that we accomplish.

By taking the opportunity given us by the richly varied topography of the Island, by its situation on the border between land and sea, by the magnificent beginning made, and the Government's co-operation, we can do something now whose influence will be widely felt. And here I wish to say a word which falls in singularly well with the thought of the far-reaching influence this work may have.

Charles Eliot, Dr. Eliot's older son, was a landscape architect of rare ability and enthusiasm. Moved by a public spirit that he derived alike from his own nature and the home influences that helped to form him, he initiated in Massachusetts the system of Public Reservations on which our own was modeled. To him Mt. Desert owes that debt of leadership, while he, in turn, might never have been awakened to the value and importance of such work had it not been for the inspiration, the love of nature and the quickened consciousness of beauty, drawn from boyhood summers passed upon it.

During the early summer, when I was at Washington working on this matter of the Park's establishment and was plunged for weeks together in its oppressive heat, it struck me what a splendid and useful thing it would be if we could provide down here, in a spot so full of biologic interest and unsolved biologic problems, so rich in various beauty and locked around by a cool northern sea, a summer camp—some simple summer home—for men of science working in the Government bureaus, in the museums and universities. They would come down to work, as Henry Chapman and Charles Sedgwick Minot used to do, on a fresh field of life, bird or plant or animal, and then go back invigorated, ready to do more valuable work the whole winter through in consequence of this climatic boon and stimulating change.

This is one opportunity. Another, which is urgent, is to secure now, while it may be done, tracts of special biologic interest not yet secured, irreplaceable if lost in private ownership or through destruction of their natural conditions,as well as adequate approaches to the National Park, convenient and scenically worthy of the national possession to which they lead. Both of these are essentially important at this time. No one who has not made the study of it which I have can realize how truly wonderful the opportunities are which the creation of this Park has opened, alike in wild life ways and splendid scenery. To lose by want of action now what will be so precious to the future, whether for the delight of men or as a means to study, would be no less than tragic.

Do not, therefore, look on what has been accomplished as other than a first step attained upon a longer way, which should be followed only the more keenly for the national co-operation that has been secured, the national recognition won.

PRESIDENT ELIOT

You see, ladies and gentlemen, that this celebration of an important step in the progress of a large public work has inevitably brought in the mention of simple domestic loves, of transmitted affections and dispositions.

I want to read at this stage a letter which I received this morning from Professor Francis G. Peabody, who has now his summer residence at Northeast Harbor, but who used to live in Bar Harbor. All through his early married life he was a resident at Bar Harbor.

MY DEAR PRESIDENT ELIOT:

I am prevented by a cold from attending the meeting at Bar Harbor today, but wish to express my keen interest in its purpose.

To one who has tramped over these hills almost every summer for forty-six years, the assurance that this privilege is to be secured for all later generations is a peculiar happiness; and I trust that the obligation laid on residents along the Western shore to guard their mountains and water-supplies may be as obvious and imperative as it has been to their neighbors at Bar Harbor and Seal Harbor.

May I add one personal reflection? Mr. and Mrs. Charles Dorr were, from my point of view, late comers to Bar Harbor, having settled there not more than forty years ago; but they were the first to discover the possibilities of the shore for landscape-gardening, and to transform the wild beauty surrounding their hospitable home into a well-ordered and unspoiled park.

How happy it would now make these devoted parents to know that among the names to be forever associated with the unique loveliness of this Island was that of their beloved son!

Cordially yours     
FRANCIS G. PEABODY.

Mr. Peabody has in this letter referred to the need of guarding other mountains—Brown Mountain, Robinson Mountain and Dog Mountain.

Mr. Dorr spoke to us of another development which ought to take place on this Island—the study of its wild life of all sorts, its trees, shrubs and flowers, marine animals and land animals. Such studies add greatly to the interest of such a place as Mount Desert, both for adults and for children; and they afford exquisite delights to the people of whom Bishop Lawrence spoke as urban.

In Mr. Dorr's work to secure these reservations on Mt. Desert and put them in the hands of the Government he has found need of advice from scientific experts in all branches of natural history. This occasion would have been incomplete unless we had been enabled to hear from one of these scientific experts. I present to you Dr. Alfred G. Mayer, Director of the Department of Marine Biology of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

DR. ALFRED G. MAYER

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:

There is something essentially American in this gift to the Nation, American in the sense that it must ever remain stimulating and constructive in regard to the character of its recipients, never arresting as so often were the gifts of older times. Yet was it an English friend of our land, Smithson—a lover of freedom and a man of noble dreams—who first established this modern form of giving in our country, when he bequeathed to it in his will funds for the establishment of the Smithsonian Institution.

At first men feared the very breadth of possibility it opened; but a great and leading spirit, Joseph Henry, so shaped this possibility into definite achievement that today no other single agency for the advancement of science upon this continent has succeeded so largely in constructive work as the Smithsonian. How fortunate you are, then, in having similarly, as founders of this present enterprise, two other great and leading spitits—our famous and distinguished chairman, Charles W. Eliot, and his far-sighted associate in this project, George B. Dorr.

For it is a project that contemplates far more than its mere gift of land, important though that be.

To Natural Science this gift, carried to its competion according to the plans now made, should prove inestimable; and it is as a naturalist that I must look upon these beautiful forests with their soft green moss and clustering ferns, and on the old gray rocks that bear so rich a growth of lichens.

But it is a meeting ground not of floras only; both the Canadian and Appalachian faunas meet here too, and so rich in bird life is it that Mr. Henry Lane Eno, ornithologist of the new National Park, tells me he has noted more than 140 species of birds during his residence at Bar Harbor, a wonderful list for any single area. Fully a hundred of these are land birds, many of whom will soon become delightfully tame under the Nation's kindly and protecting care. The rest are wanderers along the coast and strangely interesting, often, in form and habit.

The scientific study of this region is singularly rich in interest in many fields, with its fascinating geologic history, its glacial scars upon the ancient rocks, its grand fjord, Somes Sound, its splendid sea-cut cliffs and deep ravines; while the forest, with its "murmuring pines and hemlocks," its golden autumn foliage and dark green spruces, its density and interesting forest floor, is to me in its wild state the most attractive in the world.

Alone among the nations we possess a coast line extending from the pine trees to the palms, from the gray and all but arctic waters of Maine to the sparkling blue sea of Florida's Gulf Stream.

Our Government has, strangely, never established a permanent laboratory north of Cape Cod for our fisheries' benefit, yet no richer or more promising field for biological work exists than that offered by these fruitful northern waters, nor a more desirable and practical station for such work than that offered by the tract of sheltered and deep-watered coast at Mount Desert now dedicated to the memory of Dr. S. Weir Mitchell.

How deeply we need more information respecting our fisheries is all too evident. Why was it that in 1911 our fishing fleet obtained not more than one quarter of its usual and expected catch of Cod? Think of the millions that might be saved, the loss and misery averted, could we but predict the fisheries catch as we now do the crops on land. In Norway, where the study of the practical problems of the sea has made more headway than with us, they are able even to predict in accurate measure the seasonal growth of trees along the coast, and to determine ahead the earliness or lateness of the spring by observing the temperature of the neighboring ocean waters. Similarly a relation has been discovered between the abundance of those floating plants, the diatoms, and the fluctuations of the herring in the North Sea.

Many a problem of vital import to our race awaits the solution of these ocean problems, and the science of marine biology, with all the advance that it has made, is yet but in its infancy.

Let us hope that the guiding spirit of this foundation, George B. Dorr, and his wise counsellor, Dr. Eliot, may be given opportunity to establish it safely upon this larger basis, now that its first and hardest stage has been completed, and to continue the undertaking in like spirit to the past till a priceless heritage be secured to future generations, in an enduring opportunity for important work in a locality so favorable.

PRESIDENT ELIOT

The address to which we have just listened contains so many points of interest, so much of science and suggestive thought, that we must all hope that we may be enabled to read it. It ought to be printed for wide circulation.

This congratulatory meeting is now ended. We part with rejoicing in our hearts at what has been accomplished, and I am sure also with strong hope that the good work will be vigorously carried forward.

The following letter received from Dr. Mayer since the meeting is published here as adding, by a fresh expression, to the already great interest of his address.

Gloucester, Mass., August 28, 1916.

Dear Mr. Dorr:

During my recent stay with you at Oldfarm I was able to inspect the shores and to make surface hauls in the waters surrounding Mt. Desert. The tests I made show clearly that the water off Salisbury Cove is practically free from contamination by Bar Harbor or other sewage; and your intended station there, with its well protected anchorage and ready access to the sea, constitutes a far better site for a laboratory than any one of those now occupied by our Fish Commission at Woods Hole, Beaufort, or Key West; for, good as these sites are in some respects, none of them are immediately adjacent to the pure waters of the open ocean.

The tide-pools are far richer in marine life than those of Newfoundland and compare favorably with those of Eastport, Maine, before that region became contaminated by sewage. The marked variety, too, in the character of the shore, with its rocky tide-pools, its muddy or gravelly beaches, its luxuriant growth of Fucus, Laminaria and other sea weeds, and the shade of the well-developed sea-caves in the cliffs, are all of them important factors, rendering the site superior to that of Newport in its best days for a Marine Laboratory.

The surface "tow" showed that the floating life is that of the cold Shore Current which creeps down our coast from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Cape Cod, and of which a remnant even reaches Cape Canaveral in Florida. Now, in August, the animals are sub-arctic in character, but in the spring and early summer I should expect to find many truly arctic forms maturing rapidly in the warming waters around Bar Harbor. Curiously, our Government has never established a permanent laboratory for the study of the sea north of Cape Cod, yet this region is that of the Cod and Haddock fisheries par excellence, and, with the exception of the oyster, nearly every great fishery centers off the New England Coast north of Cape Cod. Thus your intended laboratory on Mt. Desert would meet a long-felt want.

With our Country's past history in marine exploration, with such names behind us as Maury, Boche, and the Agassizs, father and son, we should not now be content to permit the little nation of Norway to surpass us; yet this it has done, and able as our men of science are they are powerless in the absence of support for such researches.

It is a great work, accordingly, that you and the public-spirited men associated with you are contemplating, and I hope if you do establish such a laboratory on Mt. Desert Island in connection with the Sieur de Monts National Monment it will be one worthy of your aim and sufficiently endowed to enable it to conduct research work of international importance that will bring back once more to our Country the honorable position it once had of leadership in the study of the sea, its physics, its chemistry and its life.

I have not spoken of the land, for this may be beyond the scope of the statement you desire from me; but nowhere along our entire coast is there such varied terrestrial environment as is afforded by your abrupt, rocky mountains, post glacial meadows of peat, your lakes and fjords, and your dense forests of Mt. Desert. A meeting place for both the Canadian and Appalachian faunas, it offers suitable habitats for a remarkable range of animal life. The smallness of the Island, in view of this, is a decided advantage, enabling one to travel readily from one environment to another of a wholly different character. It should afford a remarkable opportunity, also, for experimental plant-acclimatization, and with the co-operation of our Department of Agriculture interesting results should be achieved in this direction. In your gardens even now we find plants from the Carolinas growing by the side of others from Labrador.

In the name of science I wish you all success, and shall esteem it a delight to render all service in my power to aid your project for the advance of learning and the appreciation of that rare beauty which is our Country's own.

Yours truly,     
ALFRED G. MAYER.