constructed for the purpose. The baskets have
handles, but these are quite superfluous except to lift them from the
boats, for in the transit to the laboratory the baskets are carried,
as almost everything else is carried in Naples, on the head. To the
novitiate it seems a striking risk to pile baskets of fragile glass and
even more fragile specimens one above another, and attempt to balance
the whole on the head, but nothing could be easier, or seemingly more
secure, for these experts. Arrived at the laboratory, the jars are
turned over to Signer Lo Bianco and his assistants, who sort the
material, and send to each investigator in the workrooms whatever he may
have asked for.

Of course surface-skimming is not the only method of securing material
for the laboratory. The institution owns a steam-launch named the
_Johannes Mueller_, in honor of the great physiologist, which operates
a powerful dredge for securing all manner of specimens from the
sea-bottom. Then ordinary lines and nets are more or less in requisition
for capturing fish. And in addition to the regular corps of collectors,
every fisherman of the neighborhood has long since learned to bring
to the laboratory all rare specimens of any kind that he may chance to
capture. So in one way and another the institution makes sure of having
in tribute all that the richly peopled waters of the Mediterranean can
offer. And this well-regulated system of collecting, combined with the
richness of the fauna and flora of the Bay of Naples, has no small share
in the success of the marine laboratory. But these, of course, were
factors that Dr. Dohrn took into account from the beginning.

Indeed, it was precisely with an eye to these important factors that
Naples was selected as the site of the future laboratory in the days
when the project was forming.

The Bay of Naples is most happily located for the needs of the
zoologist. It is not too far south to exclude the fauna of the temperate
zone, yet far enough south to furnish a habitat for many forms of
life almost tropical in character. It has, in short, a most varied and
abundant fauna. And, on the other hand, the large colony of Neapolitan
fishermen made it certain that skilled collectors would always be at
hand to make available the wealth of material. It requires no technical
education to appreciate the value of this to the original investigator,
particularly to the student of life problems. A skilful worker may do
much