182 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



pedition now being fitted out by the British Admiralty for 

 the purpose of investigating the physics and natural history 

 of the deep seas. The vessel selected is the Challenger^ a 

 corvette of 2306 tons, to be under the command of Captain 

 Nares, an experienced and accomplished officer. Second in 

 command is Commander J. P. Maclear, son of Sir Thomas 

 Maclear, late Astronomer Royal at the Cape of Good Hope. 



The scientific staff of the expedition consists, in the first 

 place, of Professor Wy ville Thomson, the director ; under 

 him Mr. J. J. Wild, of Zurich, who will act in the capacity of 

 private secretary. The chemist is Mr. J.Y.Buchanan. The 

 naturalists and collectors are Mr.H. N.Moseley, Dr.VonWil- 

 lemoes Suhm, and Mr. John Murray. The former two will 

 devote their attention particularly to the invertebrates, Mr. 

 Murray taking charge of the vertebrata. The collecting of 

 land and marine plants will be intrusted to Mr.Moseley. An 

 experienced photographer will also form one of the party. 

 A committee of the Royal Society, consisting of the president 

 and officers, together with Dr. Carpenter, Dr. Frankland, Dr. 

 Hooker, Professor Huxley, Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys, Mr. Siemens, 

 Sir William Thomson, Professor Wyville Thomson, Dr. Wil- 

 liamson, and Mr. Alfred L.Wallace, has been formed for the 

 purpose of preparing the necessary instructions. 



The Challenger is an auxiliary screw-steamer of 400 horse- 

 power engines, and carries two cutters, a steam pinnace, a 

 South Sea whaling-boat, a jolly-boat, two gigs, and a dingy. 

 Stages have been erected amidships, from which the dredges 

 will be worked, and immediately aft of the stages is the 

 steam winding-in apparatus. The fore magazine is arranged 

 for stowing a large quantity of alcohol and of bottles for pre- 

 serving the specimens. A chemical laboratory and a work- 

 room for the naturalists have been fitted up, and the alcohol is 

 laid on to the work-room by means of a pipe leading from a 

 metal cistern placed in the nettings. Several hundred miles 

 of best whaling-line have been prepared at Chatham for the 

 service of the dredges, of which there will be about forty. 



The stores include traps of various forms, harpoons, a har- 

 poon-gun, fishing-tackle of all kinds, trawls, trammels, nets, 

 lobster-pots, etc. Special attention is being paid to all the 

 forms of apparatus required for physical research. Among 

 these, somewhat worthy of notice, is a new deep-sea pressure 



