jfune I, 1876] 



NA TURE 



93 



THE CRUISE OF THE "CHALLENGER" 



TUT ER Majesty's ship ChallengeryidiS despatched towards 

 -*■ •*■ the close of the year 1872, round the world, on a 

 surveying and discovery expedition of a very special 

 character. Her principal object as laid down in her 

 instructions was to determine, as far as possible, the 

 physical and biological conditions of the great ocean 

 basins, the Atlantic, the Southern Sea, and the Pacific. 

 The voyage was undertaken, as we have already said in 

 our short biographical sketch of Prof. Wyville Thomson, 

 chiefly in consequence of remarkable discoveries made 

 during the four previous years, in short cruises, in H.M. 

 gunboats Lightning and Po7-n/pine, liberally detached by 

 the Admiralty, at the instance of the Royal Society, for 

 scientific research, under the direction of Dr. Carpenter, 

 C.B., F.R.S., Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S., and Prof 

 Wyville Thomson, F.R.S. These discoveries seemed so 

 important, not merely in a purely scientific point of view, 

 but also in their bearings on ocean-telegraphy, that the 

 Government determined to follow them up by a deep-sea 

 survey on a more extended scale. 



The Challenger yvdiS fitted out under the superintendence 

 of Admiral Richards, C.B., F.R.S., at that time Hydrogra- 

 pher to the Navy, and in addition to a full naval surveying 

 staff under the immediate superintendence of Capt. Nares, 

 F.R.S., who was afterwards recalled to take command of 

 the Arctic Expedition, a civilian staff of specialists in 

 Natural Science and Chemistry was attached under the 

 direction of Prof. Wyville Thomson. 



The expedition, although by no means sensational, has 

 been thoroughly successful. The Challenger has steadily 

 traversed a track of 69,000 miles, and dunng her absence 

 of three years and a half from England has established 

 362 observing stations, at all of which the depth has been 

 ascertained with the greatest possible accuracy, and at 

 nearly all the bottom temperature has been taken, a 

 sample of the bottom water has been brought up for 

 physical examination and chemical analysis, a sufficient 

 specimen of the bottom has been procured, and the trawl 

 or dredge has been lowered to ascertain the nature of the 

 fauna. At most of these stations serial soundings have 

 been taken with specially devised instruments to ascertain 

 by the determinations of intermediate temperatures and by 

 the analysis and physical examination of samples of water 

 from intermediate depths, the directions and rate of move- 

 ment of deep-sea currents. 



The original arrangements for the cruise have worked 

 in eveiy way smoothly ; the weather throughout has been 

 on the whole favourable ; under the careful management 

 of Staff-Commander Tizard not a shadow of mishap has 

 ever befallen the ship ; there has been a perfect ban accord 

 between the naval men and the civilians ; all the appli- 

 ances for carrying on the different operations, liberally 

 supphed at first, were renewed by the officers of the 

 Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty with the 

 utmost liberality and precision. 



Two events only have seriously affected the interests 

 of the expedition, one, the sad death at sea of Dr. v. 

 Willemoes-Suhm, one of the ablest of the naturalists on 

 the civilian staff, the other the recall of Capt, Nares ; for 

 although Capt. Frank T. Thomson, who joined' the 

 Challenger from the Modeste, did everything in his power 

 to fill his place, Capt. Nares, from his previous scientific 

 training was so eminently fitted to lead such an expedi- 

 tion that his withdrawal in the middle of it was severelv 

 felt. ' 



Leaving England on Saturday the 21st of December, 

 1872, some rough weather was encountered as the Chai- 

 lenger stood for the mouth of the Channel, and crossed 

 the Bay of Biscay. 



1873 

 On the 3rd of Januarj', 1873, passing Cape Roca and 

 the lovely heights of Cintra, she was quietly steaming 



up the Tagus, and cam6 to anchor off Lisbon. Lisbon 

 was left on the 12th, and a series of dredgings and 

 examinations of bottom temperatures were made off 

 Cape St. Vincent in from 400 to 1,200 fathoms. Gibraltar 

 was reached on the i8tb, and left on the 26th. The 

 weather was now pretty moderate, and there was a very 

 fairly successful week's sounding, trawling, dredging, and 

 taking temperatures between the Rock and Madeira, 

 which latter station was reached on the 3rd of February. 

 Some of the dredgings made at this period appear to have 

 been most successful, and a number of strange new forms 

 of animal life were found, among these a fine new species 

 of Venus's Flower-basket {Euplectella suberea). Fig. i, 

 a Bryozoon {Naresia cyathus), (see figure, vol. vii. p. 387) 

 of singular beauty, which was dedicated to Capt. Nares, 

 some wondrous forms of Sea-Urchins and Lily-Stars, and 

 specimens of a species of " Clustered Sea-polype," since 

 described by Dr. Kolliker under the'name of Umbellularia 

 thomsoni, an animal of great scientific interest. 



But two days were spent at Madeira, and the Chal- 

 lenger was off Teneriffe early on the morning of the 

 7th, too early to attempt the ascent of the famous Peak, 

 and rather too early for natural history work, still col- 

 lections, both geological and zoological, were made, a 

 series of dredgings were successfully tried between Tene- 

 riffe and Palma, past Gomera and Hierro, and a great 

 number of observations as to temperature were taken. In 

 the matter of meteorological observations we may men- 

 tion that the officers of the Expedition seem to have 

 excelled ; the number of observations amounted during 

 the first twelve months of the cruise to upwards of 50,000. 

 Very considerable depths were found off the Canary 

 Islands, extending sometimes to upwards of 1,700 fathoms } 

 but the greatest depth found in this part of the Atlantic 

 was one of 2,500 fathoms off Cape St. Vincent. 



At Teneriffe the regular work of the Expedition 

 may be said to have commenced. All the time be^ 

 tween leaving home and arriving off the Canaries 

 had been more or less devoted to getting the varied 

 machinery into order, and in settling the direction and 

 scope of the parts the members of the civilian staff had to 

 play ; so at Santa Cruz the old journals were closed, and 

 the numbering of the stations and the other entries were 

 comrnenced afresh, with some alterations the result of 

 additional experience. A section was now to be carried 

 right across the Atlantic from Teneriffe to Sombrero, the 

 latter a little speck of an island north-west of Anguilla, 

 and one of the group of Virgin Islands, themselves a 

 portion of the West Indies. Sombrero was reached on 

 the 1 5th of March, just a month from the time of leaving 

 Santa Cruz. The distance between the two islands is 

 about 2,700 miles, and along this line twenty-three sta- 

 tions were selected, at which most careful observations 

 were made as to depth, condition, and temperature of 

 bottom. During one of these dredgings, ai.d at a depth 

 of 1,500 fathoms, several specimens of a magnificent 

 sponge .belonging to the Hexactinellidas were found at- 

 tached to the branches of an Isis-Iike coral, and nestling 

 among the fibres of the sponge were star-fishes, annelids, 

 and Polyzoa. Often during this cruise, when the weather 

 was calm and hot, the tow-net was used 011 the surface. 

 It would seem that the greater number of the pelagic 

 forms retire during the heat of the day to t'le depth of a 

 few fathoms, and come up in the cool of the evening and 

 in the morning, and in some cases in the night. The 

 larger phosphorescent animals were frequently abundant 

 during the night round the ship and in its wake, while 

 none would be taken during the day. One day (the 26th of 

 February), the morning being bright and clear and the swell 

 not heavy, the ship being some 1,600 miles from SombrerOj 

 and in lat. 23° 23' N., long. 32° 56' W., the sounding-line 

 mdicated a depth of 3,150 fathoms, and the bottom was 

 found to consist of a perfectly smooth red clay, containing 

 scarcely a trace of organic matter. This was the greatest 

 depth as yet met with, and the material from the bottom 



