Papyers in Marine Biology and Oceanography, Suppl. to vol. 3 of Deep-Sea Research, pp. 74-91. 



Sir C. Wyville Thomson's correspondence on the "Challenger" 



fishes 



By Daniel and Mary Merriman 

 Bingham Oceanographic Laboratory, Yale University 



HISTORICAL ACCOUNT 



Wyville Thomson's correspondence with Albert Gunther, Keeper of the Depart- 

 ment of Zoology in the British Museum, about the disposition and study of the fishes 

 taken on the H.M.S. Challenger expedition, 1872-1876, and about the publication of 

 results, extended from 1877-1881. In a sense this correspondence centred around the 

 year 1879 — the year in which Henry Bryant Bigelow was born on October 3rd in 

 Boston, Massachusetts.* 



Now-a-days it is common practice to call oceanography a " new " science. The 

 speed with which it has advanced and, accordingly, with which our knowledge of the 

 oceans has increased, is generally recognized. None the less, it is not altogether easy 

 to maintain perspective and to reahze that "... the famous ' Challenger ' reports, 

 which may be said to form the solid base upon which the superstructure of the science 

 of oceanography has since been built " (Russell and Yonge, 1928), began first to be 

 published only three-quarters of a century ago — in short, during the life-time of the 

 man whom this volume honours. For this reason, it is perhaps worth looking with 

 some care at the year 1879, both in its broad and special aspects, before turning to the 

 hitherto unpublished correspondence which is the subject of this paper. 



The second half of the 19th century in Europe was marked by many political and 

 economic changes stemming from the Industrial Revolution. As a result of the Franco- 

 Prussian war (1870-1871) there emerged a united Germany and a unification, too, of 

 the Italian States. Russia had effectively pushed the Turks back into Asia, but the 

 western powers resisted her attempts to obtain Constantinople and a command of 

 the eastern Mediterranean. With the Congress of Berlin in 1878 the independence of 

 the Balkan countries, Montenegro, Servia, and Roumania, was established. And the 

 alliance of Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1879 proved most aggravating to Italy, 

 who feared it would block her potential control of the Adriatic ; to France, who saw 

 it as a blow to her ambition to regain Alsace-Lorraine; and to Russia, who still 

 wanted a foothold in the Balkans and the Mediterranean. China posed problems in 

 the Far East, as the western powers and Russia both tried to gain concessions to her 

 great natural resources. 



In the United States, 1879 was a singularly happy and prosperous year. Crops 

 flourished, manufacturing and trade were stimulated, and the railroads were expanding 

 to meet these demands. We were at peace with the world, except for Indian skirmishes 

 in the west where Sitting Bull had been forced to retreat across the Canadian border. 



* The October 3rd, 1879, edition of the London Times carried an admonition that there were 12 

 different Bostons in the U.S.A., and that the name of the state on the envelope address would facilitate 

 accurate delivery. 



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