566 



NATURE 



[January 21, 19 15 



but on the day originally named, after the usual 

 morning muster by division, the order was given 

 "Hands make sail," and the ship sailed out of 

 the harbour, much to the chagrin of the engineer 

 staff. This was a good lesson given with tact 

 and judgment. 



During his service in the Resolute he took part 

 in the sledge journeys in search of any remains of 

 Franklin. It is not generally known that Arctic 

 sledging was introduced in order to search all the 

 coasts which could not be reached by the vessels for 

 any token of the Franklin Expedition. The ice near 

 the coast is, as a rule, comparatively smooth, con- 

 sisting of new ice found on the surface between 

 the grounded bergs and the shore line, and this 

 ice is less difficult to travel over than the hum- 

 mocky ice found in areas off the shore where floes 

 get piled up one on the other from various causes, 

 consequently the sledge parties were able to cover 

 long tracts and to delineate the coast line of 

 numerous islands and straits. 



Returning from the Arctic in 1854 he was pro- 

 moted to lieutenant on October 21, and was sent 

 to one of the armour-plated bombs, constructed 

 specially for the war, 1854-6, for service in the 

 Mediterranean. 



From the Mediterranean Nares was transferred 

 to the training-ship for naval cadets, then recently 

 established (i) in the Illustrious, and (2) in the 

 Britannia, and whilst so serving compiled "The 

 Naval Cadet's Guide and Seaman's Companion." 

 Promoted to commander at the end of 1862 he 

 served in the Boscaiven, another training-ship, 

 and was then sent to a paddle-wheel vessel, the 

 Salamander, engaged in keeping open communica- 

 tion with a party of marines established at Cape 

 York. In his voyages backwards and forwards 

 between Sydney and Cape York he did some 

 useful surveying work and on his return to 

 Englan'd in 1867 was selected for the command of 

 the Newport, a vessel commissioned for surveying 

 service in the Mediterranean. The opening of the 

 Suez Canal in i86g necessitated a survey of the 

 Gulf of Suez, and the Newport was selected for 

 this service, and was engaged in it during the 

 winter of 1870—71, but in May, 1871, she was 

 sent to England, and her officers and crew turned 

 over to the Sheerwater, which vessel, under Nares, 

 proceeded to the Gulf of Suez in the autumn of 



1 87 1, and completed the survey from Suez to 

 Koseir by April, 1872. 



On the voyage out the Sheerwater was in- 

 structed to investigate the Gibraltar Strait current, 

 and Dr. W. B. Carpenter embarked on board to 

 assist in that investigation on behalf of the Royal 

 Society. The work was so w^ell done as to mark 

 out Nares for other scientific work, and when, 

 early in 1872, the Admiralty decided to commission 

 a vessel for exploration of the oceanic basins of 

 the world, Nares was chosen to command the ship, 

 and was ordered home to prepare the Challenger 

 for her voyage. Leaving England in December, 



1872, the Challenger executed a series of sections 

 across the Atlantic, and it was then that the 

 system of sections showing the temperature of the 



NO. 2360, VOL. 94] 



ocean from the surface to the bottom was first 

 introduced. Before that time the temperatures 

 were merely plotted in curves. This system of 

 sections gradually revealed the fact that over 

 certain areas the temperature at the bottom re- 

 mained the same, but that in other areas, adjacent 

 to the first area, the bottom temperature differed, 

 although remaining constant over another con- 

 siderable space. From this fact it seemed likely 

 that in areas where at equal depths the tempera- 

 ture at the bottom differed in areas adjacent to 

 each other, the difference was caused by a sub- 

 marine ridge which prevented free circulation. 

 Thus it was known that whilst the Mediterranean 

 had a uniform temperature of from 55° to 56° below 

 a depth of 100 fathoms, the water of the Atlantic 

 adjacent to the Mediterranean decreased in tem- 

 perature gradually to 36°. The soundings in 

 Gibraltar Strait, just outside the entrance between 

 Cape Spartel and the Spanish coast, revealed the 

 existence of a submarine ridge, and it was then 

 considered probable that in all areas differing much 

 in temperature at equal depths the difference could 

 only be accounted for by the existence of sub- 

 marine ridges. 



The Challenger reached the Cape of Good Hope 

 in November, 1873, and in December left for 

 Kerguelen Island to examine a suitable spot for 

 observing the transit of Venus in 1874. This 

 necessitated a triangulation of Kerguelen and a 

 determination of its position. Three weeks were 

 occupied in the work, and records were deposited 

 in cairns to inform the transit of Venus party of 

 the spots considered suitable for the observations. 

 Leaving Kerguelen at the end of January, the 

 Challenger then proceeded to the southward as 

 far as the Antarctic Circle to investigate tempera- 

 tures and depths, and during that cruise, all on 

 board had an opportunity of appreciating the skill 

 of Captain Nares in handling his vessel amongst 

 the icebergs. Gales and snowstorms were not 

 infrequent, and Captain Nares, after considera- 

 tion, adopted the plan of keeping close to a berg 

 under steam, during night, or in mist or snow- 

 storms, and thus preventing the vessel drifting or 

 sailing into danger. Arriving in Melbourne in 

 March, 1874, and at Sydney in April, the ship 

 w^as docked and re-fitted, and it was curious to 

 observe how the copper on the bottom w^as quite 

 corrugated from the strains encountered during 

 the southern voyage. From Sydney the Challenger 

 took other oceanic sections across the southern 

 part of the Western Pacific, from Sydney to 

 Wellington, N.Z., from Wellington to the Fiji 

 Islands, and from the Fiji Islands to Raine Island, 

 Australia. From Raine Island the vessel pro- 

 I ceeded through the Arafura Sea, the Banda Sea, 

 the Sulu Sea, and the China Sea to Hong Kong, 

 at which port she arrived in November, 1874. 

 On this voyage it was again noticed that the area 

 of some parts of the Sulu Sea differed greatly In 

 temperature at the bottom from the adjacent seas. 



At Hong Kong Captain Nares was recalled to 

 England to take command of an expedition about 

 to be organised for Arctic research. 



