Dec. 20, 1877] 



NATURE 



145 



THE ''CHALLENGER" IN THE ATLANTIC^ 

 n^HE Challenger left Portsmouth on December 21, 

 -■• 1872, and on the evening of May 24, 1876, she 

 dropped her anchor at Spithead afcer an eventful voyage, 

 I which lasted three and a half years. Shortly after 

 her arrival we gave a sketch of her cruise over the 

 Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The two volumes just 

 published consist chiefly of an abstract of the less 

 technical portions of the journal kept by Sir Wyville 

 Thomson during the first year of the Challenger's 

 voyage, and during the early part of the fourth yeat's 

 voyage, when she was on her way home. During both 

 these periods the Challenger was in the Atlantic, so that 

 we now obtain the record of her survey of this great 

 ocean in a very complete form, and are led to look forward 

 to several additional volumes, in which the account of her 

 cruise in the Pacific Ocean and amongst its fair islands 

 wdl appear. A great deal of credit must be given to the 

 author of these two splendidly illustrated volumes for his 

 so speedily publishing them. A large portion of one of 

 them was actually passed through the press while the 

 Challenger was at sea, and the preparation of the second 

 volume had to be carried on amid the cares not only of 

 professional duties, but also of getting the immense col- 

 lections made into order, and of making arrangements 

 for the thorough working out of the scientific results of 

 the voyage. May we express the hope that his energy 

 will enable him speedily to complete the popular narrative 

 of this cruise thus so auspiciously begun. The strictly 

 scientific records of the Challenger voyage cannot 

 be pubhshed for some time; the working out of old 

 forms, the describing and illustrating of new ones, takes 

 time ; such work, to be done well, must necessarily be 

 done slowly, and hence we all the more urge on Sir 

 Wyville Thomson to let us have, as soon as can be, the 

 completion of the popular narrative of the general: resuhs 

 of his four years' work. This preliminary account is 

 mdeed not solely a popular one, for we find in these two 

 volumes a mass of exact scientific details that will make 

 them always works of reference to the scientific student ; 

 and while some few of the wondrous new species of 

 animals and plants are but incidentally introduced to us 

 their descriptions are often so well written, and their 

 forms are so exquisitely portrayed, as to leave us for the 

 time somewhat independent of their more exact scientific 

 diagnosis. 



In our previous sketch of the voyage of the Challenger 

 we dwelt somewhat in detail on th-? work accomplished 

 by her during the first six months of 1873. About the 

 middle of June in that year she left the Bermudas for the 

 Azores and Madeira, establishing twenty-five stations on 

 her way, some of these showing ocean depths of 2,800 

 fathoms. A few pleasant days were spent (July 1873) 

 at Ponta Delgada, the capital of San Miguel and the 

 chief town of the A9ores. On acccount of the presence 

 of an epidemic of small-pox no delay was made at 

 Madeira, but the vessel's course was struck for the 

 Canaries and Cape de Verde Islands, keeping somewhat 

 parallel to the Coast of Africa until nearly opposite Cape 

 Palmas, when they turned westward and shaped their 

 course to Saint Paul's Rocks. These solitary rocks are 

 nearly under the equator, midway between the coasts of 

 Africa and of South America. They were visited in 1832 

 by the Beagle, and are noticed in Darwin's charmincr 

 Voyage of a Naturalist." Merchant- vessels usually 

 give them a wide berth. They seem to have struck the 

 travellers by their small dimensions ; it being rather under 



J Z '^'T ^°^f ^o °^' ^"^ Ch^l^^'Ser. The At'antic : a Preliminary Account 

 of the General Results of the Exploring Vojage of H M.S. CkallenZ- 

 during the Year 187? and the Early Part of the Year 1876." Bv Sir'c 

 Wyv.lle Ihomso.-,, Knt , LL.D.. F.R.SS. L. and E., &c., Regius Professo^ 

 of Natural History in the University of Ediuburg", and Director of .he 

 Uvihan Sc.en ific Staff of the Challenger Exploring Expedition. Two 

 volum s. Published by Authority cf the Lords O^mims' oners of the 

 Admirahy. (London: Macmillaa and Co., 1877.) "» 01 tfte 



a quarter of a mile from the one end of the group to the 

 other, they form quite little specks of rocks out in mid- 

 ocean. Landing on these rocks was no easy matter. A 

 loop of eight or ten ply of whale-line was passed round one 

 of the rocks ; to this a hawser was run from the ship lying 

 about seventy yards out, with her bows in 104 fathom 

 water ; the hawser was made fast to the whale-line, and 

 the ship thus moored to the rocks. Having landed on the 

 rocks a line was l.iid across the mouth of the cove, which 

 made the landing easier for the next parties. 



Only two species of birds were found on the rocks, the 

 '' booby" (^Sula fusca) and the " noddy " {Sterna stolida), 

 both being widely distributed birds on tropical islands 

 and shores. They were here in enormous numbers, were 

 quite tame, even allowing themselves to be taken up with 

 the hand. The bleeding season was over. No land 

 plants were found, not even a lichen. The terns used a 

 green alga to line their nests ; all the crannies of the 

 rock were crowded with an amphibious crab {Grapsus 

 strigosus), which was much more wary than the birds, 

 though '' wherever a morsel of food came within their 

 reach there was instantly a struggle for it among the 

 foremost of them, and they ambled away with their prize 

 wonderfully quickly : their singular sidelong gait and 

 a look of human smartness about them had a kind 

 of weirdness from its being exhibited through a set of 

 organs totally different in aspect from those to which one 

 usually looks for manifestations of intelligence." 



Leaving these desolate rocks on August 29, the island 

 of Fernando Noronha was in sight on September i, rising 

 like most of the ocean island?, abruptly from deep water, 

 the depth of the ocean within six, miles of the island being 

 more than 1,000 fathoms. This. island presents a most 

 remarkable appearance ; the land is generally not very 

 high, but there is an irregular cliff which rises to a 

 height of about loo feet from the sea, succeeded by undu- 

 lating land and conical hilts, usually covered with 

 luxuriant vegetation. The Peak is an e;xtraordinary- 

 looking mountain, formed of a column of rock which starts 

 up to a height of 600 feet from a more or less level plateau 

 of rock, itself some 400 feet above the sea. There is a 

 village and a citadel, the place being a penal settlement 

 belonging to Brazil. There were at the time on the 

 island nearly 1,400 convicts and a garrisop 0/ 200 soldiers. 

 The convicts enjoyed a considerable amount of liberty, 

 each of them occupying a h.ut, and being allowed to 

 cultivate a little piece of garden ground, though their 

 time and labour from six in the morning until four in 

 the evening belonged to the Governmenf. Sir Wyville 

 Thomson and his assistants were extremely anxious to 

 investigate thoroughly the flora and fauna of this island, 

 but unfortunately the military commandant set his face 

 against this, and the land work had to be abandoned, 



" The coast scenery was here and there very beautiful, 

 little sandy bays with a steep cultivated slope above them, 

 or a dense tangle of trees absolutely imbedded in one 

 sheet of matted climbers, separated by bold headlands of 

 basalt or trap stuff. Besides the tropic birds, there were 

 to be seen beautiful little terns, snowy white, which 

 usually flew in pairs a foot or two apart, one following all 

 the motions of the other, like a pair of paper butterflies 

 obedient to the fan of a Japanese juggler. They could be 

 seen flying over the land, and often alighting upon the 

 trees. The noddy was very common, and the booby wdi 

 in considerable numbers. High upon the cliffs the 

 nests cf the frigate bird {Tachy petes aquila) could be 

 seen, and from time to time these splendid birds moved 

 in slow and graceful circles overhead." No wonder that 

 the author adds, " We lay for some time below the cliffs 

 admiring the wonderful wealth of animal and vegetable 

 life ere we returned slovly to the ship." 



On September 14, as they neared the coast of Brazil, 

 a shower of buttei flies ft 11 on the ship, fluttering in 

 multitudes over it ; and over the sea as far as the eye 



