90 Daniel and Mary Merriman 



Bonsyde 



Linlithgow, N.B. 



February 11, 1881 

 Dear Dr. Gunther: 



I am extremely sorry to hear that you are still on the sick list. I hope you will shortly be in 

 condition to resume your work with comfort again. As to future arrangements I will be glad to 

 meet your wishes in every way, as far as I can. 



Yrs faithfully 



C. Wyville Thomson 



Bonsyde 



Linlithgow, N.B. 



March 1, 1881 

 Dear Dr. Gunther : 



Let me introduce to you my Secretary Dr. W. A. Herdman, F.Z.S. — from whom I think you 

 have heard from time to time. 



I will be very much obliged to you if you will let him overhaul your Ascidians. He is doing ours 

 and I know that he is thoroughly up to them. If you can help him in any way you will do me a 

 great favour. Also on all " Challenger " matters talk to him as to myself. 



I sincerely hope that you are now all right again. I hope to be in Town in about a fortnight 



or so. 



Yrs faithfully 



C. Wyville Thomson 



Bonsyde 



Linlithgow 



December A, 1881 

 Dear Dr. Giinther: 



I am getting very anxious about your paper on the deep-sea Fishes and would be very glad 



to see some of the work. Both the Royal Society and the Treasury are expressing some impatience 



and I may be landed in difficulties if some of the promised memoirs are much longer delayed. 



I would be greatly obliged to you also if you would send me a receipt for the Echinoidea sent 



by Agassiz according to his Memoir. 



There are several other Memoirs which will be ready for delivery shortly. 



Believe me 



Yrs faithfully 



C. Wyville Thomson 



Murray (1895) speaks of the fact that the Challenger Reports cover "... about 

 twenty-nine thousand five hundred pages, illustrated by over three thousand litho- 

 graphic plates, copper plates, charts, maps, and diagrams, together with a very large 

 number of wood-cuts ". He goes on to say, " From beginning to end the history of 

 the Challenger Expedition is simply a record of continuous and diUgent work ". In a 

 sense it is just that. But who, most of all, had the perspective and pertinacity to 

 initiate this first real study in deep-sea research ? If Thomson were alive today, it is 

 fair to speculate that he would be astounded at the developments in oceanography 

 since 1879. His was an unusually broad, inquiring mind — to which his writings and 

 editing testify abundantly; his was the imagination that resulted in the Challenger 

 Expedition; and his was the guiding hand that led to the foundation of the modern 

 science of oceanography. In mute testimony, his name appears on the title page of 



