Sir C. Wyville Thomson's correspondence on the "Challenger" fishes 75 



England, it is said, was not so happily situated that year. There were wide crop 

 failures and a continuing depression. Ireland, with the loss of her potatoes due to 

 adverse weather, was agitating for Home Rule and land rent reforms; the situation 

 was so acute that the American Irish were sending 510,000 a week towards relief in 

 the homeland. England was fighting in Afghanistan to protect her affairs in India. 

 She was also engaged in military operations in South Africa to keep this portion of 

 her Empire. And she was even sending warships to the west coast of South America, 

 where Chile and Peru were fighting, in order to guard her "... interests in guano 

 for the fields of Yorkshire ". However, England's firm policy of colonization was to 

 stand her in good stead. In addition to India and South Africa, she had acquired 

 control of the Suez Canal, and had long since colonized Australia, New Zealand, 

 Tasmania, and Canada — this, as other countries, notably Spain, had tended to lose 

 their colonial domains. In a different context, Charles Darwin at the age of 70 in 

 1879,* just twenty years after the publication of The Origin, was doing the experi- 

 mental work at Down which led to the publication in 1881 of The Formation of 

 Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms, to be received "... with what 

 struck Darw^in as 'laughable enthusiasm'" (Moore, 1955). And the " episco- 

 phagous " Huxley had turned to more peaceful pursuits and was preparing to publish 

 The Crayfish (1880). It was not, after all, such a bad year for England. 



Perusal of the London Times in the year 1879 yields amusing coincidence with 

 today. The New York Herald was sponsoring a naval vessel's exploration of the 

 North Pole.f The Macon (Georgia) Telegraph reported, and got space in the London 

 Times on January 1, 1879, that there was a remarkable phenomenon on the Florida 

 coast where "... dark, reddish water " was killing fish and creating "... a 

 pestilential stench "; the account went on to state, " We have no other explanation 

 of the poisoning " (reported to have extended as far as 150 miles into the Gulf) " than 

 that it comes from inland waters — the everglades predominantly. ..." Panama 

 had a revolutionary outbreak. The stevedores on the piers of New York were striking. 

 A large underground cave in Algeria was found to contain blind fish.ij: Even the book 

 titles have a familiar ring : we read reviews of " The Sea, its Stirring Story of Adventure, 

 Peril, and Heroism " by F. Whymper. " The Broad, Broad, Ocean ", " Notable 

 Voyages ", and " Episodes of the Sea " are a few others of the spate. And another Mr. 

 Whymper** was bringing out " The Ascent of Matterhorn ". 



We are also struck by many changes. In 1879 Woolworth opened his first store in 

 Utica, New York (in 1955 the Woolworth Company reported its sales for the previous 

 year at an all time high of $721,312,990). In 1879 Harvard College offered 112 

 scholarships varying from $40 to $350— today it offers over 1,000 scholarships at 

 an average worth of nearly $700 each. In 1879 the Shah of Persia was planning to 

 undertake a pilgrimage to Meshhed with 10,000 troops, while this year the Shah's 



* " It was on . . . February 12, 1809 that the other man who along with Charles Darwin was 

 most profoundly to influence their time, and perhaps the future, was born— Abraham Lincoln "' 

 (Moore, 1955). 



t See for comparison, Walter Sullivan's articles about the Atka expedition to Antarctica in 

 preparation for International Geophysical Year, 1957, in the New York Times. January-March. 1955. 



± Some 37 years after the discovery of the famous Kentucky Blind-fish. Amhyhpsis xpclaeus, 

 whose origin the National Geographic Society states in 1955 " . . . is a mystery to naturalists ". 



** Edward Whymper, 1840-191 1, English Alpinist and wood engraver, who found a route up the 

 Matterhorn in 1865. 



