68 FOUNDERS OF OCEANOGRAPHY 



from the uncertainty felt on the " Challenger " as to the zone 

 from which particular organisms found in the nets had been 

 really obtained. Instruments, invented since, that can be 

 opened and closed at any given depth, will prevent, or at 

 least minimize, any such possible errors in the future. Wire 

 has been substituted for rope in both sounding and dredging, 

 and all the physical and chemical apparatus and methods 

 are now much more reliable and refined than those employed 

 by the " Challenger " pioneers. This is merely the natural 

 result of the progress of science, and especially of such a 

 new and rapidly advancing science as oceanography, during 

 half a century of strenuous endeavour. 



Some of the " Challenger " reports may be found old- 

 fashioned and unsatisfying in transcendental morphology by 

 the student of the present day, but the fifty noble volumes 

 form a zoological library in themselves, and every young 

 specialist on a group of marine animals has still to consult 

 them, and before proceeding to new and no doubt more 

 profound researches, must ascertain what was made known 

 by his predecessors from their work on the collections brought 

 home from the abysses of the ocean by the " Challenger " 

 circumnavigating expedition. 



