84 FOUNDERS OF OCEANOGRAPHY 



the Wyville Thomson ridge — Arctic forms to the North and 

 Atlantic forms to the South — gives us a notable example 

 of the effect of the environment on the distribution of 

 marine forms of life. The results of the " Triton " ex- 

 pedition, written by a number of specialists, were published 

 in the Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. during the next few years, and 

 attracted much attention to the subject. 



Dr. Johan Hjort, the Norwegian oceanographer, referring 

 some thirty years later to these expeditions, said {The Depths 

 of the Ocean, 1912, p. 661) : " In the history of oceanic 

 research possibly nothing has contributed so much to the 

 awakening of this interest as the discovery of entirely different 

 animal communities living on either side of the Wyville 

 Thomson Ridge. Atlantic forms occur to the south and 

 Arctic forms to the north of the ridge, corresponding to the 

 very different thermal conditions on either side." 



During these few years after the " Triton " expedition, 

 and when, in consequence of Sir Wyville Thomson's death, 

 he was given complete charge of the " Challenger " Office, 

 Murray came to occupy a more and more prominent position 

 in the scientific world of the North. When we remember that 

 his earlier fellow-workers and associates at the university 

 were such men as Robertson Smith the theologian, Dittmar 

 the chemist. Sir John Jackson the great contractor, and 

 Robert Louis Stevenson ; and his later friends, after the 

 return of the " Challenger," were such men as Agassiz, 

 Turner, Crum-Brown, Tait, Renard, Haeckel, Geikie, Blackie, 

 Masson, Buchan, and Lord McLaren, we can understand the 

 stimulating intellectual atmosphere he lived and worked 

 in, and to which he doubtless contributed as much as he 

 received. 



We now come to a period of great local scientific activity, 

 when Murray exercised a notable influence in the university 

 scientific circle and took a leading part in every new move- 

 ment. He was a prominent member of the Royal Society of 

 Edinburgh, and of the Scottish Meteorological and Geo- 



