854 SIR JOHN MURRAY. 



name is inextricably bound as a recognized leader. The work of 

 Pourtales, in 1867-1869, off the Florida coast in the Corwin and Bibb, 

 had stimulated among scientific men the interest in deep sea explora- 

 tion. This was further aroused by se^•eral English expeditions under 

 the joint charge of Thomson, Carpenter and Jeffreys. 



When, in December, 1872, the Challenger set out on her famous 

 voyage, under the leadership of Sir Wyville Thomson, to explore the 

 oceans of the world, Murray was appointed one of the three principal 

 assistants. On the return of the Challenger from her cruise of nearly 

 four years, he was made chief assistant in the colossal labor of publish- 

 ing the Reports of the expedition. At the death of Sir ^Yyville 

 Thomson in 1882, it was freely predicted that the work would never 

 be finished. But Murray was appointed editor, rose superior to all 

 obstacles and vicissitudes, and finally brought the enterprise to a 

 successful conclusion by issuing the last of the fifty volumes in 1895. 



He will probably be best remembered by his work in connection with 

 the Challenger Expedition. The labor of editing the. Reports was one 

 of which the difficulty has perhaps not been fully realized. It could 

 never have been completed without first class powers of organization 

 and great determination of purpose. And it required skill and tact 

 of the highest order to keep in hand the small army of specialists who 

 were working on the reports in every quarter of the globe. Not the 

 least of his troubles were his constant struggles to extract money from 

 a grudging Treasury, that felt its patience sorely tried by the length 

 and expense of the undertaking. At one stage of the proceedings 

 Murray- forced the Government to produce the necessary funds by 

 threatening to finish the work at his own personal expense. 



Murray used to say that he was the only man who had read every 

 word of all the volumes. To carefully read all the page proof was in 

 itself no light task. 



With the assistance of Renard of the University of Ghent, he him- 

 self studied the deep sea deposits collected by the expedition. The 

 result of this work was published as one of the volumes of the Report. 

 This gave to science the first minute description of the deposits on the 

 bed of the oqean, and disclosed the extreme slowness with which some 

 of them are accumulating. 



His active" mind ga^•e him a wide sympathy for many scientific 

 activities. Among the several fields in which his services to science 

 were important, should be mentioned his bathymetrical survey of 

 the fresh-water locks of Scotland. This work he conducted for many 

 years with a capable corps of observers. These investigations were 



