Our cruise would not have occurred without the advice and support of Ken Miller, Dick Kroon (Chair, Extreme Climates PPG), and the unknown others who helped to guide the drilling proposal through the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) review process.

The Leg 199 scientific party gratefully acknowledges the hard work, professionalism, and dedication of the ODP, Transocean Sedco Forex, Schlumberger, and Catermar shipboard staff. The enthusiasm and accumulated years of experience and expertise that they brought to bear in our aid were crucial to achieving our scientific objectives. In particular, we wish to extend our sincere thanks to Ron Grout, Wayne Malone, Pepé Estevez, Joe Attryde, and Sam McLellan and their teams for their support in dealing with all that the Pacific Paleogene seafloor threw at us. Their flexibility and willingness to respond in "real time" to iterative drilling plans were crucial to the goal of recovering sediments suitable for the production of continuous paleoceanographic records.

The patient, careful, and thorough work of the shipboard and shore-based curational teams of Bruce Horan, Paula Weiss, and John Firth helped us to get the most out of the sediments that we recovered, and we extend special thanks to them for their support in dealing with the numerous sample-intensive critical boundaries.

The ODP shipboard technical staff provided the critical scientific support that we needed and kept the laboratories functioning smoothly. The quality and clarity of this Initial Reports volume were greatly improved by the painstaking care and attention to detail of Michiko Hitchcox on the ship and the entire shore-based ODP publications group.

The co-chiefs wish to express their thanks to the shipboard scientists who worked so hard to make the leg a scientific success and a special note of thanks to Tom Janecek, staff scientist and stratigraphic correlator, for juggling two jobs with such good humor. And, we thank Carlota Escutia for being willing, if not always able, to join in our adventure.

Finally, we thank those pioneering paleoceanographers and paleoclimatologists whose work on Paleogene problems continues to inspire our science.