PREFACE 



At the International Congress for the Exploration of the Sea 

 held on the invitation of the Swedish Government in Stockholm 

 in 1899, Sir John Murray was the chief British delegate, and 

 acted as president of the physical and chemical section, which 

 drew up a programme of work for the proposed investigations 

 in the North Sea and in the Norwegian Sea. Although his 

 official connection with these marine researches came to an end 

 with the close of the first Congress, it is well known that he 

 has followed with great interest all the proceedings of the 

 International Council during the past ten or twelve years. 



In the year 1909 he chanced to visit Copenhagen at a time 

 when one of the annual meetings of the Council was going on, 

 and was invited by the members to take part in some of their 

 deliberations. In the course of the conversations which 

 followed he expressed the opinion that systematic observations 

 in the Atlantic might throw much light on some of the problems 

 then being studied in our more northern seas. 



Subsequently Sir John Murray wrote to me that if the 

 Norwegian Government would lend the "Michael Sars " and 

 her scientific staff for a four months' summer cruise in the 

 North Atlantic, he would pay all the other expenses. 



When this proposal was laid before the Norwegian Govern- 

 ment it was favourably received, and within a few weeks a 

 satisfactory financial agreement was drawn up and adopted. 

 My scientific colleagues. Professor Gran, Dr. Helland- Hansen, 

 Mr. E. Koefoed, and Captain Thor Iversen, who had long been 



