SKETCH OF SIR C. WYVILLE THOMSON. 695 



the surveying-ship Lightning was granted, and with it a cruise was 

 made in the North Atlantic Ocean in August and September, 1878. 

 Among the results of the exjDedition was the procuring of evidence 

 that animal life was varied and abundant at depths of between six and 

 seven hundred fathoms ; that great masses of water at different tem- 

 peratures were moving about, each in its particular course ; and that 

 many of the deep-sea forms of life were closely related to fossils of 

 the Tertiary and Cretaceous periods. 



In 1869 the surveying-ship Porcupine was lent for exploration, 

 and made a survey of the west coast of Ireland, under the scientific 

 direction of Mr. Gwyn Jeffries, and of the Bay of Biscay and the 

 track of the Lightning's survey under Professor Thomson. The Por- 

 cupine was lent again in 1870, but Professor Thomson was prevented 

 by ill-health from engaging in the surveys, and they were conducted 

 to Gibraltar by Mr. Gwyn Jeffries, and in the Mediterranean by Dr. 

 Carpenter. By the time the Porcupine's survey was completed, and 

 under the promptings of the results obtained in the previous surveys, 

 an extensive scientific interest in work of this kind was awakened. A 

 representation was made to the Government by the council of the 

 Royal Society, urging that an expedition be dispatched to investigate 

 the great oceans and take an outline survey of their bottoms. The 

 proposition received general support, and was acceded to by the Gov- 

 ernment, who granted the Challenger, a main-deck corvette of 2,300 

 tons, for the use of the expedition. 



Captain G. S. Nares, R. N., was called from the survey of the Gulf 

 of Suez to take charge of the vessel, and the second place in command 

 was given to Commander J. P. Maclear, R. N., son of the late Astron- 

 omer Royal at the Cape of Good Hope. Professor Thomson was given 

 the scientific direction of the expedition, and took as his associates 

 Mr. J. J. "Wild, of Zurich, private secretary ; Mr. J. Y. Buchanan, of 

 Edinburgh, chemist ; and Mr. II. A. Moseley, Dr. von Willemoes 

 Suhm, and Mr. John Murray, naturalists. The vessel was fitted up 

 with all the appliances which the forethought of the naval experts 

 and scientific men interested in the preparation for the expedition 

 could devise for making the delicate and often complicated observa- 

 tions which were to be undertaken, some of which had hardly been 

 attempted before on other than an experimental scale. The plans 

 were prepared by the Admiralty in conjunction with a committee of 

 the Royal Society, and reasonable liberty of variation from them, when 

 circumstances might make it expedient, was allowed to the two chiefs. 

 The personal composition of the expedition was changed during the 

 voyage by the recall of Captain Nares, to take charge of an Arctic 

 expedition, and by the death of Dr. Willemoes Suhm. Otherwise 

 the plan was carried out essentially as arranged in the beginning. The 

 special object of the expedition was to investigate the physical and 

 biological condition of the great ocean-basins. 



