Ohituary Notice of Sir C. Wyville Thomson 261 



Jeffreys, and Professor Wyville Thoinsoii, for llic purpfjse of 

 obtaining a sample of the fauna of the deeper waters of the 

 North Atlantic. The dredgings resulted in the discoveiy of 

 many new animals, and important observations were made 

 on submarine currents and temperature. Sir Wyville, who 

 took a very active part in the work of these tentative expe- 

 ditions, became their historian in his well-known " Depths of 

 the Sea." 



On the retirement of Professor Allman, he was elected 

 Eegius Professor of Natural History in the University of 

 Edinburgh. He originated the practical teaching of zoology 

 in connection with his class, which he raised to a very high 

 place in the estimation of the students. For some years his 

 course of lectures was more numerously attended than any 

 other in the University. 



During the first two years of his professoriate in Edinburgh, 

 his time was largely occupied in working out the zoology of 

 the expeditions of 1868-9. These results, and those of similar 

 Swedish and American scientific voyages, led him strongly to 

 desire and to urge that the Government should despatch an 

 expedition, on so grand a scale, that the conditions of life in 

 the greatest ocean depths might be examined. The Eoyal 

 Society took the matter in hand, using its powerful influence 

 with the Admiralty for the same object. This agitation at 

 last resulted in the equipment of the famous " Challenger " 

 expedition, and Wyville Thomson, to whom the credit of 

 originating the expedition undoubtedly belongs, w^as ap- 

 pointed Director of the Civilian Scientific Staff. 



The details of the voyage of the " Challenger," which were 

 followed with constant interest not only by the scientific but 

 also by the general public, are so much matters of common 

 knowledge, that we need not here dwell on them. The vessel 

 was absent from England three years and a half, traversing a 

 course of 68,899 miles in the Atlantic and Pacific, visiting 

 Australia, the Malay Archipelago, and penetrating as far 

 south as the Antarctic ice-barrier. Soundings were taken 

 and dredgings were carried on at 362 stations, the first of 

 these being established on the 30th December 1872, the last 

 on May 6, 1876. 



