Shows the close relation between ecology and geology. The process standpoint is emphasized and the past is interpreted in terms of processes now in operation. ADAMS, CHAS. C. 1908. Some of the Advantages of an Ecological Organization of a Natural History Museum. Proc. Amer. Associa. Museums, Vol. I, pp. 170-178. II. THE VALUE AND METHOD OF ECOLOGICAL SURVEYS “I cannot too strongly emphasize the fact ... that a comprehensive survey of our entire natural history is absolutely essential to a good _working knowledge_ of those parts of it which chiefly attract popular attention,--that is, its edible fishes, its injurious and beneficial insects, and its parasitic plants. Such a survey, however, should not stop with a study of the dead forms of nature, ending in mere lists and descriptions. To have an _applicable_ value, it must treat the life of the region as an organic unit, must study it _in action_, and direct principal attention to the laws of its activity.”--S. A. FORBES. 1883. Natural history surveys have come down to us from the early days of zoölogy. These surveys have been of many kinds and have ranged from the adventurous accounts of early and daring explorers to those of such naturalists as Belt, Bates, Wallace, and Darwin, onward to the voluminous accounts of the “Biologia Centrali-Americana,” and in the _Challenger_ reports. These surveys have contributed greatly to our knowledge of the fundamental facts of zoölogy and to the training of naturalists.