NA TURE 



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THURSDAY, MARCH lo, 1921. 



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Oceanographic Problems. 



T may be taken for granted that a new Chal- 

 lenger expedition, such as was suggested by 

 Prof. W. A. Herdman in his presidential address 

 to the British Association at Cardiff last 

 August, would have for its general objects 

 just those of the great voyage of 1872-76. 

 One must remember that only an infini- 

 tesimal part of the ocean floor has been 

 investigated by all the deep-sea exploring 

 voyages yet organised. On the whole, then, 

 a new expedition ought to make soundings, 

 take temperature observations, trawl and 

 •dredge, etc., adopting the same attitude to- 

 wards these matters as that already taken. The 

 traverses across the great oceans would, of course, 

 be different ones, so that new stations would be 

 investigated — except where it may be desirable 

 to check some of the former results — and here 

 and there it may be found advisable to study 

 some relatively small area intensively — that is, to 

 make the observing stations much closer together 

 than over the rest of the traverses. This ought 

 to be practicable, for the improvements in the 

 gear employed and in its management have been 

 so great since 1872 that much more work should 

 certainly be done in the same time than was pos- 

 sible on board the old Challenger. Just because 

 of the enormous improvement in apparatus, it 

 NO. 2680, VOL. 107] 



would be advisable to repeat much of the work of 

 the former expedition, especially in areas that have 

 not been touched by any of the later voyages. 



Confirmation of many of the old results is abso- 

 lutely necessary ; for instance, much is to be learned 

 by repeating the observations made by the German 

 plankton expedition of i88g, especially in other 

 areas than the Sargasso Sea. Such results would 

 be of immense theoretical significance if they were 

 obtained by the newer methods that have been 

 developed, because of the criticism of Victor 

 Hensen's original methods of quantitative plank- 

 ton research. The same remarks may be made 

 with reference to the collection of water samples 

 from the surface and at all levels down to the 

 sea-bottom. The activities of the nitrogen- 

 bacteria were practically unknown in 1872, but 

 they have been studied very closely since. 

 Even the methods for the estimation of atmo- 

 spheric gases dissolved in sea-water have been 

 greatly improved, and a general study of the dis- 

 tribution of these at the bottom of the deep 

 oceans would give information of great value in 

 tracing movements of water-masses on the large 

 scale. Something has been done since 1872 on 

 the bacteria of the oceanic oozes and the over- 

 lying water, but mainly in rather shallow water 

 and on a very limited scale; a big series of such 

 samplings over the ocean far from the land cannot 

 fail to have enormous interest. This, of course, 

 is work that must be done on board ship, and 

 will require exhaustive preliminary research into 

 methods adapted to the rather trying conditions. 

 With, however, a modern ship, electric incubators, 

 refrigerating machinery, and so on, there is no 

 insuperable difficulty. What may be really trouble- 

 some will be the elaboration of a thoroughly sound 

 method of collecting samples of water and ooze 

 from great depths by means that will satisfy a 

 critical bacteriologist. 



Thus, it may be agreed, the general outlook 

 ought to be very much what it was in 1872, 

 except that the most careful attention should be 

 paid to methods, especially such as have been 

 developed to an extent that the Challenger men 

 of science of 1872 could not have anticipated. It 

 is possible also that some of the devices adopted 

 during the anti-submarine warfare of the last few 

 years may have great potentialities, and if any 

 confidential information of such promise is in 

 existence it should be considered. 



The results of the old Challenger expedition 

 had, it is well known, certain important economic 



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