34 



NATURE 



[March io, 1921 



consequences, and this aspect of the new expedi- 

 tion should certainly be kept in mind. Here we 

 are immediately concerned with the purely scien- 

 tific interest of a renewed exploration of the ocean, 

 but fishery research provides biological data of 

 theoretical interest, and so it is quite properly a 

 part of the programme of a deep-sea expedition 

 on the great scale. One remembers, also, that 

 such economic-marine exploration has been 

 asked for by the owners of deep-sea fishing 

 vessels ; that the steam vessels employed in trawl- 

 ing always tend to become more and more power- 

 <ful and to go further afield ; that methods of con- 

 servation may quite conceivably make the pro- 

 ducts of tropical or polar seas accessible to the 

 whole world (so that Dr. W. S. Bruce 's idea of 

 utilising penguin eggs as food for Europe is by 

 no means absurd) ; and that British commercial 

 enterprise is quite capable of establishing fisheries 

 in any part of the world, if it is assured 

 that there is a reasonable chance of success. 

 One remembers that it was the exploration 

 of the Stanton Banks off the Western 

 Hebrides by Capt. Tizard in the Triton that led 

 to the suggestion that fishing vessels might 

 go there. The result was the sending of trawlers 

 by Mr. George Moody, of Grimsby, and the sub- 

 sequent exploitation of the now well-known Dhu 

 Artach fishing-grounds. Mr. Tate Regan made 

 the suggestion at the recent British Association 

 meeting that an enormous area of sea-bottom off 

 the South American coasts might be explored with 

 much gain to ichthyology, but there may also be 

 great potentialities for fishing in such a survey ; 

 and no doubt there are other promising regions 

 that might also be examined. One must not forget 

 that the modern steam trawler had not been " in- 

 vented " when the old Challenger sailed, and so 

 such an object as we suggest here was probably 

 not in the minds of her officers and naturalists. 



There are certainly many other lines of investi- 

 gation that are either new or present themselves 

 to us now in a new way. One feels, for instance, 

 that the mode of origin of coral reefs, atolls, 

 barriers, etc., has still to be investigated on a 

 really comprehensive scale, and with all the 

 methods of modern physical and biological chem- 

 istry. In this connection speculation and theory 

 have far outrun observation to the extent that one 

 is appalled at the task of examining the various 

 hypotheses that have been made and of tackling 

 the enormous literature. Some really big investi- 

 gation of this subject is now imperative (if only 

 NO. 2680, VOL. 107] 



from the point of view of the unhappy teacher of 

 zoology !). There is probably (one finds it difficult 

 to be sure) no adequate investigation of the 

 physical chemistry of the water of a lagoon, con- 

 sidering such matters as COj-equilibrium between 

 atmosphere and sea; changes in hydrogen-ion 

 concentration ; the effect of pelagic organisms, 

 and their variability in abundance, upon these 

 functions ; the precipitation of calcium car- 

 bonate from solution by bacteria (work which 

 is suggested by Drew's incomplete investiga- 

 tions in the Tortugas), and so on. In fact, 

 the outlook upon coral formation and the 

 growth of reefs is now entirely different from 

 what it was in 1872. What is the rdle of com- 

 mensal algae and the Putter method of nutrition 

 of marine animals, for instance? And, in this 

 connection, how do deep-sea animals really feed? 

 There are no satisfying observations upon this 

 point. 



These considerations point to one direction in 

 which the general methods of the old expedition 

 ought to be revised. It is absolutely essential that 

 a new voyage should be world-wide and compre- 

 hensive — more so than was the old voyage— and, 

 given a well-chosen ship, this ought to be prac- 

 ticable. But, none the less, intensive investiga- 

 tion of relatively small areas is required — not such 

 investigations as those of the Mediterranean, the 

 ^gean, and the Baltic, for example (these ought 

 to be the work of local expeditionary forces), but 

 rather prolonged examination of oceanic islands, 

 atolls, parts of a continental coast that have 

 special significance, and so on. This can be at- 

 tempted only by detaching parties (one or two men 

 of science with assistants) from the ship and leav- 

 ing them at such scientific, strategic points with all 

 the materials and apparatus necessary for the re- 

 search — whatever it may be. Perhaps a dozen or 

 so such landing parties placed here and there over 

 the world, relieved at intervals by the parent ex- 

 pedition and taken care of, would be almost as 

 valuable to science as the main expedition. They 

 could study temperature and salinity variations 

 and meteorological phenomena, set up tide gauges, 

 collect, analyse, and so on — there is no end to the 

 work to be done. 



This suggests a matter of organisation which 

 may well be neglected : the personnel of the ex- 

 pedition must — if all that is suggested here is 

 attempted — be rather large, and it could not pos- 

 sibly be obtained just now. It can be raised, 

 given two years' notice of the certainty that an 



