50 FOUNDERS OF OCEANOGRAPHY 



In selecting specialists to prepare the reports, Thomson and 

 his successor Murray very wisely chose the best men avail- 

 able, irrespective of nationality. Consequently, the fifty 

 quarto volumes of reports contain some of the best work of 

 the most distinguished naturalists of all countries. It was 

 not, however, until twenty years after the expedition that the 

 last of these volumes was issued, and the last of the collections 

 was safely deposited in the British Museum. 



It is unfortunate that the man of science has so frequently 

 to make a choice between the necessary work of administra- 

 tion and original research. Let us trust that he does not 

 invariably select the work for which he is least fitted. Sir 

 Wyville Thomson was given little time for either. In the 

 few years of work that remained before his health gave way, 

 he was so occupied with his many and varied duties as 

 director of the Commission and editor of the reports, that 

 there was little time for the original work he had planned to 

 do in connection with the collections of Stalked Crinoids and 

 of Hexactinellid Sponges — the two groups that he had 

 reserved for his own investigation, and upon which he was an 

 acknowledged authority. 



He was knighted in 1876, and was awarded one of the gold 

 medals by the Royal Society. In 1877, he dehvered the Rede 

 Lecture at Cambridge, and in the following year presided 

 over one of the sections of the British Association at Dublin. 

 It was during these years, after the return of the expedition, 

 that I was privileged to know him, first as a senior student 

 and young assistant and then as naturalist on the 

 " Challenger " Commission, when I had priceless oppor- 

 tunities of becoming acquainted with the wonderful 

 collections, and with the* distinguished men from all countries 

 who came to Edinburgh to study them and to consult with 

 Sir Wyville Thomson and with his Chief Assistant, Dr. 

 Murray, afterwards Sir John. To mention just a few of 

 those I recollect most vividly, either at the " Challenger " 

 Office or at Sir Wyville's hospitable house of Bonsyde, 



