1873.] President's Address. 63 



It may probably interest some who have not followed out the prepara- 

 tion for these researches to mention briefly what has been done. The 

 ' Challenger' is a steam ship of nearly 1,500 tons burden. Her warlike arma- 

 ments are removed as she is going essentially on a mission of peace. She 

 carries no less than 600 gallons of alcohol, and 120,000 fathoms of line for 

 soundings, with an ample supply of tubes and cups and vessels, all specially 

 designed for bringing up the sand, mud, shells, &c. from the bottom of the 

 ocean. A whole armoury of thermometers and other instruments, dredges, 

 harpoons, cages for animals, Wardian cases for plants, &c, &c, accompany. 

 In addition to the officers who have all been selected for then- special ac- 

 quirements and who will carry on a complete series of magnetic observa- 

 tions, there is Dr. Thomson who is at the head of the scientific part 

 of the expedition ; Mr. Moseley and Dr. Von Seeben as naturalists ; Mr. 

 Buchanan as chemist ; Mr. Wild, as artist, and a skilled photographer from 

 the Koyal Engineers. The route is to be to Gibraltar and Madeira, thence 

 across the Atlantic to Bermuda, east again to the Azores and Canaries ; west 

 to Brazil, Trinidad, and then to the Cape of Good Hope. Thence she will 

 proceed to Kerguelen Island, then to the Antartic ice regions, to Australia, 

 Ne.w Zealand : then she will visit the Coral Islands, New Guinea, Torres 

 Straits, Manilla and Japan. From Japan to Vancouver's Island and thence 

 to Valparaiso, the Magellan Straits, Bio Janeiro, and England, where she is 

 expected to arrive in lh76. 



Surely if such an undertaking can be accomplished in England, the 

 great Government of India can carry out the comparatively petty labours 

 which would be the lot of naturalists working up and down in Indian 

 waters. 



*• Great pressure of other work, and I regret to say impaired health, have 

 prevented my doing more than give you a very brief notice of some of 

 the labours which have engaged the attention of the scientific world in In- 

 dia during the past year. I must ask your indulgence for its many short- 

 comings, and now conclude by thanking you very heartily for the kindly and 

 ready support I have during the year invariably received from the mem- 

 bers of the Society, and by wishing that the coming season may find the 

 Society more prosperous and more successful. Experience of the past leaves 

 no doubt as to the activity of its supporters in their various lines of research. 

 We have only to trust that the needful funds may be available to enable their 

 researches to be brought properly before the public. 



