94 FOUNDERS OF OCEANOGRAPHY 



the past three months shooting over the moors nearly every 

 day ! Some people say even that I am a wonder ! but who 

 can tell what I'll be like in two years. Men over seventy 

 years are likely to break down, then what a nuisance I would 

 be to every one ! 



" I would, of course, appreciate the honour, but honours 

 are not worth much to an old man. The only question would 

 be, a real service to Science, and would it be a duty. At my 

 age it can hardly be a duty, I have no message to give to the 

 world ! ! I honestly think some young scientific man would 

 do the trick very much better. I'll consider it. I'll be in 

 London, Piccadilly Hotel, the first ten days of December, and 

 could perhaps see you. 



" I reaUy very much appreciate your desire to honour 

 me. It is really very good of you. It is not quite out of the 

 possible that I may be in the Pacific in 1914 in a boat of my 

 own. I would have been there now had the cost not been 

 much greater than I, at first, calculated." 



At the inauguration of the new Zoological Laboratories 

 of the University of Liverpool in November, 1905, Sir John 

 Murray was one of the honoured guests of the university, 

 and after the formal opening by the Earl of Onslow, Sir John 

 gave a short address upon oceanography, the first lecture to 

 be dehvered in the zoology lecture theatre of the university. 

 A few years later, in 1907, the university conferred upon him 

 the honorary degree of Doctor of Science. 



We now come to Sir John Murray's last great scientific 

 expedition — a four months' cruise in the North Atlantic, in 

 the summer of 1910— a very notable achievement for a man 

 in his seventieth year. The investigating steamer " Michael 

 Sars " was built by the Norwegian Government in 1900, on 

 the lines of a large high-class trawler of about 226 tons, but 

 specially fitted out for scientific work imder the direction of 

 Murray's friend. Dr. Johan Hjort. At Murray's request 

 this vessel was lent, with her crew and equipment, by the 



