12 THE SEAS 



dredgings were made in the great abyss, and nets towed 

 in the water layers between the surface and the bottom. 



The information obtained gave work to a large body of 

 specialists and resulted in 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. 



These results placed the science on a sure footing, and 

 later expeditions went out with a good idea of the conditions 

 to be expected, so that plans could be laid for special 

 problems of interest that had to be tackled. Better 

 instruments were invented and, most important of all, 

 wire came into general use replacing the old bulky ropes, 

 Alexander Agassiz being the first to use it on the voyages 

 of the Blake, from 1877 to 1880. 



Expeditions sailed from many countries, and since the 

 time of the Challenger some of the more important were the 

 Deep Sea expedition of the Germans in the Valdivia, and 

 the voyages of the National and Deutschland from the same 

 country ; the cruises of the Norwegian vessel, the Michael 

 Sars, under Professor Hjort, and Sir John Murray of 

 Challenger fame ; the famous voyages of Captain Scott 

 and of Sir Ernest Shackleton, and many others. 



Recently two very important cruises have been com- 

 pleted. That of the Discovery, Captain Scott's old ship, 

 which has been carrying out oceanographical work in the 

 South Atlantic and studying the life-history of the whale 

 under the auspices of the Falkland Islands Dependencies ; 

 and that of the German cruiser, the Meteor, which has been 

 engaged in making a complete survey of the ocean bed 

 of the South Atlantic by means of echo-sounding, and taking 

 many hundred water samples to study the current system 

 of the ocean. 



In the year 1901 was formed what is known as the 



