Jan, i8, 1877J 



NATURE 



255 



10. The surface current was determined as far as 

 possible. 



11. At a few stations an attempt was made to ascertain 

 the direction and rate of movement of water at different 

 depths. 



The numerical results of observations yielding such are 

 now available in the logs, in the various reports of the 

 Admiralty, and in the note-books and official journals of 

 the naval and civilian scientific officers attached ' to the 

 expedition. 



The samples of the bottom procured by the sounding- 

 instrument were carefully preserved in tubes or in stop- 

 pered bottles, either dry ; or wet, with the addition of 

 alcohol. 



The samples of bottom and intermediate waters were 

 determined as to their specific weight ; in some samples 

 the amount of carbonic acid, and in others the amount of 

 chlorine, was determined ; in others the contained gases 

 were boiled out and sealed in tubes for future examina- 

 tion ; and a large number of samples were reserved in 

 stoppered bottles for analysis. 



The mud and minerals and inorganic concretions 

 brought up by the dredge or trawl were preserved in 

 large quantity in boxes or jars for examination and 

 analysis. 



The collection of invertebrate animals is of great ex- 

 tent ; and from most of the species being undescribed, 

 and from the great peculiarity of the distribution of the 

 fauna of the deep sea, it will perhaps yield the most gene- 

 rally interesting results. 



The invertebrate animals from the deep-sea stations 

 were, with few exceptions, placed in jars of rectified spirit, 

 closed with stoppers smeared with a mixture of tallow and 

 wax, covered over with bladder, and the tops painted with 

 a black varnish. The animals of different groups were 

 in many cases roughly selected at each dredging, and put 

 into different jars ; but frequently, in order to save jars 

 and spirit, it was necessary to put the whole result of one 

 dredging into one or two jars, the animals of all groups 

 mixed. Each jar was marked outside with the locality 

 and the number of the station ; and the station number, 

 written with a black pencil on a slip of parchment, was 

 placed within each jar. The collection on its arrival in 

 this country was thus arranged geographically. It came 

 home in most excellent order. 



To insure accuracy so far as possible, the observing 

 stations have been numbered from i to 354, and a num- 

 ber corresponding to the station is on every sample of 

 every description, and on every record of the result of 

 observations for every station ; and the same number 

 is carried through the whole series of journals and other 

 books kept by the members of the Civilian Scientific 

 Staff. 



It is now our object, in preparing a scientific account 

 of the voyage, to describe these investigations, and to 

 give their 1 esults in detail ; and to develop, as far as 

 possible, the bearings of these results upon one another, 

 and upon the broad problems of physical geography and 

 hydrography. 



For this purpose it is necessary that the various nume- 

 rical results should be reduced and tabulated ; that the 

 samples of soundings should be examined chemically and 

 microscopically ; that the samples of water and of air 

 should be analysed ; and that the animals procured by 

 the dredge should be most carefully catalogued as to 

 localities, and the forms new to science described. 



The data for the physical and chemical work are in few 

 hands, and these chiefly at head-quarters. It is especially 

 for the assistance of the naturalists dealing with the deep- 

 sea fauna that these notes are drawn up. 



Prof. Agassiz, Mr. Murray, and I have now gone over 

 the whole of the collection of marine invertebrate animals 

 in spirit ; and we have separated the zoological groups 

 from one another for each station, and re-arranged the 



collection in zoological order. Each jar, therefore, now con- 

 tains animals of one group only {eg. Ophiurids or A ley 0- 

 narians), to be described by one person. Each jar has 

 within it a station number, which refers to the specimens 

 which are loose in the jar ; but in many cases, to save 

 space, and to lessen the number of large jars, there are in 

 the same jar several packets done up in muslin, each 

 packet containing animals of the same zoological group 

 from another station, and each packet having within it its 

 own station number. 



The jars will be placed in the hands of the naturalists 

 who undertake the description of the different groups in 

 their present condition ; and in order to secure uniformity 

 and the safety of the collection, they are requested — 



1. To go carefully over the whole collection intrusted to 

 them, and to select a first series, including all unique 

 specimens and a sufficient number of specimens of those 

 of which there are several duplicates, to illustrate their 

 geographical distribution ; and to associate with each 

 species a particular numlaer, by which number that species 

 may be always referred to afterwards — at all events, until 

 it has been described and named. This is the collection 

 which is to be described and figured, and it is ultimately 

 to be placed as a collection of types in the British 

 Museum. It will usually be desirable, for the purposes of 

 description and illustration, to put the specimens of the 

 first series into rectified spirit in clear glass bottles ; and 

 I will arrange in each case how the bottles are to be pro- 

 vided and the expense defrayed. This collection must be 

 retained by the describer until the description of the 

 whole is finished. 



2. To select at the same time a second set, consisting 

 of a complete series of duplicates, numbered to corre- 

 spond with the numbers attached to the first series 

 species for species, and to pack them either in separate 

 bottles or in packets in muslin, a number of packets 

 together in one store bottle. This set to be returned to 

 me for reference. 



3. To pack up again all the duplicates from the differ- 

 ent stations, each species from each locality either in a 

 separate bottle or in a muslin packet, with the station 

 number and the number corresponding with the type 

 specimen of the species along with it. It will greatly 

 facilitate matters if this general duplicate collection is 

 returned to me along with the first series of duplicates, 

 whenever the collection has been gone over, and the first 

 series for description selected out. 



4. For easy reference, each naturalist who undertakes 

 the working out of a group will be provided with a large 

 number of small vellum labels, marked thus : — 



(Asteridea.) 



(Station.) 



and he need simply enter, with a dark pencil, the number 

 which he has associated with the particular species, and 

 the number of the station where the specimens were 

 found ; and put the label ifiio the bottle or the muslin bag, 

 as the case may be. 



Special arrangements must be made in every individual 

 case as to publication, but it is the general intention 

 that the account of the voyage shall be in a series of 

 volumes quarto, of the size of the Philosophical Transac- 

 tions of the Royal Society. It will probably consist of — 



I. Two volumes, containing — (i) such a general account 

 of the voyage, and such hydrographic details, illustrated 

 by charts and sections, as may be necessary for the clear 

 comprehension of the scientific observations ; and (2) a 

 full discussion of the general results of the voyage, physical 

 and biological. To these volumes will be appended tables 

 of the routine observations in meteorology, &c., made 

 during the voyage. 



