1895. RESULTS OF '^ CHALLENGER" EXPEDITION. 9 



In the preparation of the " Challenger " Report, Dr. John 

 Murray rightly made no distinction of nationahty when selecting 

 expert naturahsts to do the work. When a British subject was the 

 best man to deal with a given group, and was ready to undertake the 

 work and put it through in a reasonable time, he was gladly welcomed 

 by Dr. Murray ; when a German, Belgian, Dutch, Scandinavian, or 

 American naturalist seemed to be the fittest person to report on a 

 group, he was enlisted. Thus the volumes contain some of the best 

 work of the most distinguished naturalists of all countries. But there 

 was enough material to occupy many men for many years in study, 

 and not the least important service rendered by the editor has been 

 in bringing forward young zoologists who have won their spurs under 

 his auspices and fully justified his selection. Among such may be 

 mentioned Messrs. S. O. Ridley and Dendy, who took up certain 

 groups of sponges ; Mr. Quelch, who dealt with reef-corals ; Dr. 

 Pelseneer, who had some of the most interesting mollusca intrusted 

 to him ; and Mr. Hoyle, who made himself an authority on the 

 Cephalopoda. It is needless to say that the man who has thus 

 " driven " the " Challenger " team to the successful close of its 

 journey is, though energetic and determined, no ordinary taskmaster. 

 He has gained the esteem, friendship — I may say the affection — of 

 all who have worked with him, whether reverend professors, such as 

 Renard, Haeckel, and Agassiz, or young men fresh from college who 

 have been his assistants. 



The actual results, their amount and importance, will be reported 

 on by others in these pages. But I may be allowed to say what 

 is the bare truth, and that is, that the " Challenger " volumes form a 

 library of zoological literature of the highest kind of excellence, such 

 as has never before been issued in one series, under one editorship, 

 and in so brief a space of time. Our knowledge of the sponges 

 absolutely dates from the great volumes here devoted to this difficult 

 and multiform group. The same is true of the deep-sea fishes and of 

 the crinoids and holothurians. The systematist has to refer first of 

 all to the "Challenger" volume for knowledge of the Pycnogonida, 

 and for complete revision of the various groups of Echinoderma, 

 Crustacea, Hydrozoa, and corals. Nor must we forget the impor- 

 tant contributions to botanical science, or the great advances made in 

 our knowledge of the ocean floor and ocean physics, as well as the 

 light thus thrown on some of the larger problems of geology. 



Britons — I hardly like, since John Murray is a Scotsman, to say 

 Englishmen, though that term really includes as much and perhaps 

 more than the former — may fairly be proud of the whole conception, 

 execution, and carrying through of the " Challenger " Expedition and 

 its results. It was that fine old soldier of Natural Science, Dr. W. B. 

 Carpenter, who thought out and proposed the expedition — all honour 

 to him ! — but honour also to our oft-abused representative Government 

 and Legislature, which cordially voted the supplies for the Expedition 



