III. 



The Last of the " Challenger." 



THERE is a little picture on p. 1,608 of this last volume 1 of the 

 " Challenger " Reports, full of pathetic meaning to all who love 

 the sea, to every naturalist who has gone down to the sea in ships. 

 It represents H.M.S. " Challenger " in 1895, a dismantled hulk, the 



" last scene of all, 

 Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.' 



It is hard to realise that we have reached the last of the noble 

 volumes that chronicle the doings of the " Challenger." Twenty- 

 three years ago she sailed on the great voyage that has made 

 discovery of regions of our planet comparable only with those of 

 Columbus, Gama, and Magellan. Little more than a quarter of a 

 century ago three-fifths of the globe, covered by the ocean, was 

 barely known to us, and the " Challenger " and other expeditions 

 have now broken up this great deep of ignorance, with results 

 " measureless to man," but set forth in a series of volumes, the mere 

 bulk of which conveys an adequate impression of their gravity. 

 There are two classes of men who ought to inspect these volumes : 

 the grumbler, belonging to the demi-monde of science, who wails that 

 the British " Government does nothing for science," who points to 

 this foreign undertaking and that foreign state-aided system of educa- 

 tion in science; and the " pure and blameless taxpayer " who wants 

 to see his money's worth, something not bricks and mortar, that 

 makes for national progress in discovery. The intelligent foreigner 

 could probably help us all to a better appreciation of the magnitude 

 of our great scientific institutions, not the least of which has been the 

 "Challenger" voyage and the recording of its oceanographical 

 results. 



The first portion of this volume is devoted by Dr. John Murray 

 to a history of oceanography, dealing successively with an account 

 of the aims and limits of oceanography, a historical treatment of the 



1 " Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. ' Challenger.' " 

 " A Summary of the Scientific Results," by John Murray. 

 " Report on the Specimen of the Genus Spirula collected by H.M.S. 



Challenger," by the Right Hon. T. H. Huxley, F.R.S., and Professor Paul 



Pelseneer. 

 " Report on Oceanic Circulation," by Alexander Buchan, M.A., LL.D., 



F.R.S.E. 2 vols. Printed for H.M. Stationery Office, 1895. 



