PREVIOUS WORK 133 



As we have said, Rennell (1832) applied the name 'South Atlantic current' to the more definite 

 drift of the trade wind offshore. Later, Findlay (1867) called the current the ' South African current', 

 a name also used by Dankleman (1878). This name referred to the whole water movement off the west 

 coast of South Africa, and this again was termed the ' Sud-atlantische Stromung ' by Pechuel-Loesche 

 (1882). In a later paper, however, cited by Schott (1931), Pechuel-Loesche uses the name 'Benguela- 

 stromung'. The Africa Pilot, Part II, 1939, distinguishes two current systems, the South-east Trade 

 Wind Drift, and the Benguela current inshore, and as stated previously we have chosen to follow this 

 nomenclature throughout this paper. 



Of the more recent expeditions to the South-west African region, that of the Valdivia has con- 

 tributed most to our knowledge of the biology of the region. The majority of their stations lay further 

 from the coast than we could have wished, but nevertheless their observations have helped to lay a 

 basis for later work. In collating these observations Schott (1902) was able to summarize the existing 

 data on the physical phenomena of the region, but of all the ' Valdivia's ' work that part which has been 

 of most service to our present investigations is the great advance in the taxonomy of many of the 

 southern subtropical organisms which resulted from her collections in adjacent waters. Karsten's 

 report on the phytoplankton (1906), which quotes from Schimper's field notes, has been a constant 

 help in working up the microplankton. 



The voyage of S.M.S. 'Mowe' in 191 1 was more strictly concerned with surveying the coastal 

 regions, and some valuable physical and chemical data were collected. Evidently no biological ob- 

 servations were made. The physical data have been dealt with by Schott, Schultz and Perlewitz (1914) 

 and later by Franz (1920, 1921) who considered at length the seasonal fluctuations of the current. 



Our knowledge hitherto of the oceanographical phenomena of the region is, however, based 

 principally on the extensive work of the Deutsche Atlantische Expedition 'Meteor'. The data 

 collected by the 'Meteor' enabled Defant (1936) to investigate the mechanism of the current system, 

 while numerous papers, among which Hentschel's work is outstanding, have provided an under- 

 standing of the general biology of the region. The 'Meteor's' work will be referred to later (p. 134). 



Systematic collecting by the vessels of the Discovery Committee, which in these waters was mostly 

 during the winter months and off the southern part of the South-west African coast, has aided the 

 identification of our material, and has also been a guide to the extent to which species found in 

 abundance in the Benguela current are peculiar to that region, or are merely local concentrations of 

 wide-ranging oceanic forms. In this way both Hendey's report (1937) on the Plankton Diatoms of the 

 Southern Seas, and John's report (1936) on the southern species of the genus Euphausia, help in the 

 interpretation of the 'William Scoresby's' collections. 



Much pioneer work has been carried out by the South African Division of Fisheries and Marine 

 Biological Survey under the direction of Dr J. C. F. Gilchrist and latterly by Dr C. von Bonde 

 and his successors. Dr K. H. Barnard of the South African Museum has been particularly active 

 among the many specialists working upon this material, and although the collections rarely extended 

 north of the Orange river, they form the basis of our knowledge of many species extending farther 

 north. Boden's account (1950) of the coastal plankton diatoms from Cape Peninsula to Lambert's 

 Bay has been a constant help. 



Work on analogous conditions elsewhere has, of course, advanced our knowledge of the basic 

 physical and biological factors important in upwelling regions. Schott's work (1902, 1931, 1942, 

 1 951) on the Peru current and upwelling regions generally, has done much to show how closely 

 analogous the different upwelling regions are. Gunther's account (1936) of the work of the 'William 

 Scoresby ' in the Peru current, gives details of the current pattern, mortality phenomena and dis- 

 coloration of the sea, all of which are closely mirrored in the Benguela data. 



