2 THE EXPLORATION OF THE SEA [PART I 



A perusal of Chapters II and III of the Narrative of the Voyage, 

 and a comparison of these with an account of the latest voyage of 

 discovery will reveal many improvements in details of apparatus 

 and general methods. Nevertheless there is little essential 

 change. The Challenger voyage was so prodigious an advance on 

 anything that had previously been attempted that a correspond- 

 ing amount of progress will be difficult to attain. If we except 

 the modern quantitative method of attack on problems of marine 

 biology there is little in the aims and methods of any of the 

 latter-day expeditions that is not indicated in the instructions 

 issued by the Admiralty to the Challenger staff. The ship 

 proceeded on her three years' voyage without haste : she sounded, 

 traw^led, dredged and tow-netted, and when she returned a number 

 of English and foreign specialists leisurely investigated the 

 collections made, and collated and studied the data obtained. Ail 

 this remains except the leisure : the modern expeditions sound, 

 trawl, dredge and tow-net, just as the Challenger did, but with 

 improved gear. To complete the parallel the famous Challenger 

 Repo7't still remains as the model on which all subsequent ones 

 have been made. 



The Challenger methods and apparatus have now acquired 

 immortality in the cheaper text-books and I hope to acquire merit 

 by refraining from their further description. A glance over the 

 publications of the expeditions of the last thirty years reveals 

 a host of improved forms of oceanographical apparatus. Every 

 one of these cruises has added a new modification of some 

 a,pparatus and has tacked on to it the name of some member of 

 its staff, so that a catalogue of oceanographical gear would also be 

 a list of the names of those who have taken part in this kind of 

 discovery. For a description of all this apparatus encyclopediac 

 limits would be necessary. How then is a conscientious author to 

 indicate the progress made in this field ? This chapter is, how- 

 ever, only intended to serve as an introduction to a more special 

 aspect of marine study and therefore a somewhat cursory survey 

 of the apparatus of oceanography will suffice. 



The fundamental gear of the science are the sounding machine, 

 the thermometer, the salinometer or its equivalent, the trawl and 

 dredge, and the tow-net. This order is a logical one, since 



