Science |pragress. 



New Series. No. 4. July, 1897. Vol. I. 



THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



THE study of the sea and Its inhabitants owes much of 

 its extraordinary fascination to the fact that all our 

 gains in knowledge are the outcome of methods of groping 

 for the truth by the aid of instruments hid from sight for 

 the most part, and resembling in their operation the 

 ventures of the gambler. The voyager who, on a clear 

 night, surveys the heavens and the deep sea beholds two 

 regions of research in which natural knowledge is increased 

 in very diverse ways. The marvellous certainty with 

 which the astronomer can foretell the movements and even 

 the existences of heavenly bodies, stands in sharp contrast 

 with the element of chance which enters into the pursuits 

 of the student of life in the deep sea. The naturalist is 

 content to dip into this great lucky-bag with the pleased 

 expectation that he will be rewarded. His methods of 

 capture, primitive in their simplicity, or crude in their 

 complication, are themselves in contrast with the perfected 

 instruments and methods of examination brought to bear 

 on the spoils of his victory over this intractable element. 



The great sea-captains and explorers from the earliest 

 times were geographers in search of fresh lands who used 

 the sea as a means of transport, and all the tradition of 

 mystery which grew up in their minds, and is still part of 

 every seaman's nature, survives and tinges even the scien- 

 tific work of examining the physical and biological conditions 



of the ocean. It is still the unexpected that happens to the 



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