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Fundamental to any study of the organic life of the islands is a thorough understanding of the environment in which it exists, the physical substratum and the atmosphere surrounding it, the geology and meterology of the islands, and, in the case of the marine life, the oceanography of the water about the Islands. A qualitative and quantitative census of the existing animal populations would be attempted and plans at least laid to restore as many of the islands to their former natural condition as possible by the protection of the remaining native fauna and flora and the elimination of inimical introduced rodents, carnivores, and perhaps even herbivores on certain islands where they may enter into serious competition with the endemic species. In this connection, studies in plant, as well as animal, ecology would be undertaken.

The data accruing from the several studies--meterological, biological, geological, and oceanographic--mentioned here and planned as future undertakings would be made available to the Ecuadorian government, to whom they might prove to be of some economic value aside from their purely scientific worth.

In view of the foregoing proposals and the future benefits, scientific and economic, it is believed that the government of Ecuador may be encouraged to extend its full and unqualified cooperation to the project here outlined and yield the necessary permissions and authorizations to the Smithsonian Institution for the construction of the laboratory and the conduct of scientific studies on the Islands and in the adjacent waters.

In order that the proposed laboratory be best located with regard to central location, proper harbor and docking facilities for small boats and the handling of supplies, accessibility to locally produced fresh food, vegetal and animal, it is highly desirable that a thorough-going