406 APPENDIX V 



varied fauna and flora, and of the relations between this infinity 

 of organisms and the medium in which they live. These were the 

 principal problems for the solution of which the voyage of the 

 Challenger and other scientific expeditions were undertaken. 

 Maury's leading object was to explain the conditions that are of 

 practical importance to navigation; his investigations were, in the 

 first instance, applied to utilitarian needs. 



But the physical investigation of the ocean has yet another very 

 important bearing. The difference between a sea climate and 

 a continental climate has long been understood; it has long been 

 known that the sea has an equalizing effect on the temperature of 

 the air, so that in countries lying near the sea there is not so great 

 a difiFerence between the heat of summer and the cold of winter as 

 on continents far from the sea-coast. It has also long been under- 

 stood that the warm currents produce a comparatively mild climate 

 in high latitudes, and that the cold currents coming from the 

 Polar regions produce a low temperature. It has been known 

 for centuries that the northern arm of the Gulf Stream makes 

 Northern Europe as habitable as it is, and that the Polar currents 

 on the shores of Greenland and Labrador prevent any richer 

 development of civilization in these regions. But it is only 

 recently that modern investigation of the ocean has begun to show 

 the intimate interaction between sea and air; an interaction which 

 makes it probable that we shall be able to forecast the main 

 variations in climate from year to year, as soon as we have a 

 sufiiciently large material in the shape of soundings. 



In order to provide new oceanographical material by modern 

 methods, the plan of the Fram expedition included the making 

 of a number of investigations in the Atlantic Ocean. In June, 

 1910, the Fram went on a trial cruise in the North Atlantic to 

 the west of the British Isles. Altogether twenty-five stations were 

 taken in this region during June and July before the Fram's final 

 departure from Norway. 



The exi)cdition then went direct to the Antarctic and landed 



