FOUNDERS OF OCEANOGRAPHY 

 AND THEIR WORK 



CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTORY— THE EARLIEST FOUNDERS OF 

 OCEANOGRAPHY 



OceanograpLy, the Science of the Sea, is a subject of 

 modern development though of ancient origin. It is only 

 of recent years that, for very good reasons, it has come to 

 be recognized as a distinct branch of science, an organized 

 body of knowledge. Including, as it does, the study of the 

 sea and its contents in aU aspects — physical, chemical, and 

 biological — it was not until other sciences were sufficiently 

 advanced to admit of their methods and results being 

 appHed to the phenomena of the sea that oceanography 

 became a strictly scientific study. Moreover, the develop- 

 ment of modern oceanography has been largely dependent 

 upon the use of steam, both for the purpose of taking up and 

 maintaining exact observing stations at sea, and also for 

 working the complicated apparatus that is necessary in scien- 

 tific investigation. To show the comprehensive nature of 

 this science of the sea, we need only recall its division into 

 Hydrography, MetaboUsm, Bionomics, and Tidology, in 

 which sections physics, chemistry, biology, and mathe- 

 matics are respectively involved. 



But the foundations of oceanography can be traced back 

 to the earliest times, to the observations of naturaHsts and 

 the records of seamen from the voyages of the Phoenicians 

 onwards. Vasco da Gama, who first reached India by the 



1 B 



