12 THE CHANGELESS OCEAN. 



surface of the terrestrial globe, the ocean still exists 

 as it did in that immense eternity; which there can be 

 no doubt, is as much the attribute of the past, as we 

 believe it will be of the ages yet to come. And Lord 

 Byron (though possibly unconsciously) has in fact but 

 finely expressed a great scientific truth, in alluding to 

 the ocean in those remarkable and beautifully poetic 

 lines, when he exclaims: 



" Unchangeable in thy wild waves' play, 

 Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow, 

 Such as creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now." 



Unfortunately our knowledge of these great deeps 

 is necessarily of the slightest. The great expense and 

 difficulty in carrying out scientific investigations in 

 water, at these enormous depths, have hitherto proved 

 an insuperable bar to anything being attempted in 

 this respect, except by a few regularly organized 

 scientific expeditions, specially fitted out for this purpose 

 by the principal naval pow r ers. 



One of the last and most successful of these was 

 the voyage of H.M.S. Challenger under Captain Sir 

 George Nares, R.N., which set out in 1873 and 

 returned in 1876. 



Indeed there can be no doubt that "the largest 

 addition in recent years to our knowledge of the earth, 

 has been made in the ocean; notably by the different 

 expeditions and cruises equipped for the purpose by 

 the British Government." f 



Many interesting and most important facts have thus 

 been ascertained concerning the great deeps, and among 



* Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto iv., Stanza 182. 

 f Encycl. Brit., gth edit., Vol. x., p. 211 (Article "Geognosy"). 



