86 FOUNDERS OF OCEANOGRAPHY 



order or announcing some result ; the next was the figure of 

 the portly Abbe waving a courteous greeting with his per- 

 petual cigar. Then there were the two assistants, Mr. F. 

 Pearcey, who had himself, as a boy, taken part in the great 

 expedition, and had been retained as assistant curator of the 

 collections at the " Challenger " Office ; and Mr. James 

 Chumley, the secretary. Murray and Renard were hard at 

 work at the microscope or at chemical reactions in test-tubes 

 over Bunsen burners, Pearcey was preparing fresh samples 

 to be examined, and Chumley was noting down results. 

 There has probably never been in recent years such a small 

 laboratory, so poorly equipped, which has turned out such 

 epoch-making results. Everything absolutely essential was 

 there, but nothing in the least extravagant. The place 

 looked, with its plain boards and deal tables and sinks, 

 more like an overcrowded scullery than an oceanographic 

 laboratory. 



But even in his busiest years at the " Challenger " Office 

 Murray never gave up wholly his work at sea. He was a 

 good hand at " roughing it " and making the best of circum- 

 stances, and no one could have had a greater appreciation of 

 the open-air life. The practical work that he did, more or 

 less periodically all the year round, on the west coast of 

 Scotland, from his little yacht " Medusa," is a good example 

 of careful planning and resolute carrying out. 



It seems that while working at the results of the " Chal- 

 lenger " and other deep-sea expeditions, it occurred to 

 Murray that for the purpose of comparison a detailed ex- 

 amination of the physical and biological conditions in the 

 fjord-like sea-lochs of the West of Scotland might yield valu- 

 able information. He accordingly built a small steam-yacht 

 of about 38 tons, called the " Medusa," fitted up with all 

 necessary apparatus for dredging and trawhng and for taking 

 deep-sea temperatures and other hydrographic observations. 

 This little vessel was, in fact, fully equipped for oceano- 

 graphical investigations in the neighbourhood of land, and 



