August 26, 1920] 



NATURE 



8i5 



Carpenter, that the British <iovernment, through the 

 influence of the Koyal Society, was induced to place 

 at the disposal ol a committee of scientific experts, 

 lirst the small surveying steamer Lightning in iSbb, 

 and then the more erhcient steamer Jt'orcuptne in the 

 two succeeding years, for the purpose of exploring the 

 deep water ot the Atlantic from the Faroes in the 

 north to Gibraltar and beyond in the south, in the 

 course of which expeditions they got successful hauls 

 from the then unprecedented depth of 2435 fathoms, 

 nearly three statute miles. 



It will be remembered that Edward Forbes, from 

 his observations in the Mediten-anean (an abnormal 

 sea in some respects), regarded depths of more than 

 300 fathoms as an azoic zone. It was the work of 

 Wyville Thomson and his colleagues. Carpenter and 

 Gw\n Jeffreys, on these successive dredging expedi- 

 tions to prove conclusively what was beginning to be 

 suspected by naturalists, that there is no azoic zone 

 in the sea, but that abundant life belonging to many 

 groups of animals extends down to the greatest 

 depths of from four to five thousand fathoms — nearly 

 six statute miles from the surface. 



These pioneering expeditions in the Lightning and 

 Porcup'.ne — the results of which are not even yet fully 

 made known to science — were epoch-making', inas- 

 much as they not only opened up this new region to 

 the systematic marine biologist, but also gave glimpses 

 of world-wide problems in connection with the physics, 

 the chemistry, and the biology of the sea which are 

 only now being adequately investigated by the modern 

 oceanographer. These results, which aroused intense 

 interest amongst the leading- scientific men of the 

 time, were so rapidly surpassed and overshadowed 

 by the still greater achievements of the Challenger 

 and other national exploring expeditions that followed 

 in the seventies and eighties of last century, that 

 there is some danger of their real importance being 

 lost sight of; but it ought never to be forgotten that 

 they first demonstrated the abundance of life of a 

 varied nature in depths formerly supposed to be azoic, 

 and, moreover, that some of the new deep-sea animals 

 obtained were related to extinct forms belonging to 

 the Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary periods. 



It is interesting to recall that our Association played 

 its part in promoting the movement that led to the 

 Challenger Expedition. Our general committee at 

 the Edinburgh meeting- of 1871 recommended that the 

 president and council be authorised to co-operate with 

 the Royal Society in promoting " a circumnavigation 

 expedition, specially fitted out to carry the physical 

 and biological exploration of the deep sea into all the 

 great oceanic areas"; and our council later appointed 

 a committee consisting of Dr. Carpenter, Prof. 

 Huxley, and others to co-operate with the Royal 

 Society in carrying out these objects. 



It has been said that the Challenger Expedition 

 will rank in history with the voyages of Vasco da 

 Gama, Columbus, Magellan, and Cook. Like these, 

 it added new reffions of the globe to our knowledge, 

 and the wide expanses thus opened up for the first 

 time, the floors of the oceans, though less accessible, 

 are vaster than the discoveries of any previous 

 exploration. Has not the time come for a new 

 Challenger expedition? 



Sir Wyville Thomson, although leader of the ex- 

 pedition, did not live to .see the completed results, and 

 Sir John Murray will be remembered in the history 

 of science as the Challenger naturalist who brought 

 to a successful issue the investigation of the enormous 

 collections and the publication of the scientific results 

 of that memorable vovage ; these two Scots share the 

 honour of having- guided the destinies of what is still 

 the greatest oceanographic exploration of all time. 



NO. 2652, VOL. 105] 



In addition to taking his part in the gerveral work i 



of the exfKidition, Murray devoted special attention ; 



to three subjects of primary importance in the science j 



of the sea, viz. : (i) The plankton or floating life of i 



the oceans, (2) the deposits forming on the sea- i 

 bottoms, and (3) the origin and mode of formation of 

 coral-reefs and islands. It was characteristic of his 



broad and synthetic outlook on Nature that, in place i 



of working at the sj)eciography and anatomy of some ! 



group of organisms, however novel, interesting, and I 



attractive to the naturalist the deep-sea organisms ; 



might seem to be, he took up wide-reaching general ■ 



problems with economic and geological as well as j 



biological applications. \ 



Each of the three main lines of investigation — \ 



deposits, plankton, and coral-reefs — which Murray \ 



undertook on board the Challenger has been most \ 



fruitful of results both in his own hands and in those : 

 of others. His plankton work has led on to those 



modern planktonic researches which are closely bound \ 



up with the scientific investigation of our sea-fisheries. , 



His work on the deposits accumulating on the floor 

 of the ocean resulted, after years of study in the 



laboratory as well as in the field, in collaboration with 1 



the Abb6 Renard, of the Brussels Museum, after- , 

 wards professor at Ghent, in the production of the 



monumental "Deep-Sea Deposits" volume, one of ' 



the Challenger reports, which first revealed to the \ 



scientific world the detailed nature and distribution of ' 



the varied submarine deposits of the globe and their ! 



relation to the rocks forming the crust of the earth. \ 



These studies led, moreover, to one of the romances ' 

 of science which deeply influenced Murray's future 



life and work. In accumulating material from all ; 

 parts of the world and all deep-sea exploring expedi- 

 tions for comparison with the Challenger series, some 

 ten years later, Murray found that a sample of rock 



from Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean, which ' 



had been sent to him by Comdr. (now Admiral) i 



Aldrich, of H.M.S. Egeria, was composed of a valu- i 



able phosphatic material. This discovery in Murray's ] 



hands gave rise to a profitable commercial under- ; 



taking, and be was able to show that some years ago • 



the British Treasury had already received in royalties ; 



and taxes from the island considerably more than the i 



total cost of the Challenger Expedition. \ 



That first British circumnavigating expedition on ' 



the Challenger was followed by other national ex- ^ 



peditions (the American Tuscarora and Albatross, the \ 



French Travailleur, the German Gauss, National, and | 



Valdivia, the Italian Vettor Pisani, the Dutch Siboga, \ 

 the Danish Thor, and others) and by almost equally 



celebrated and important work bv unofficial oceano- ] 



graphers such as Alexander Agassiz, Sir John Murray \ 

 with Dr. Hjort in the Michael Sars, and the Prince 

 of Monaco in his magnificent ocean-^oing- yacht, and 



by much other good work by many investigators in ' 



smaller and humbler vessels. One of these supple- ' 



mentary expeditions I must refer to briefly because i 



of its connection with sea-fisheries. The Triton, 1 



under Tizard and Murray in 1882, while exploring \ 



the cold and warm areas of the Faroe Channel •. 



separated by the Wyville Thomson ridge, incidentally ■ 



discovered the famous Dubh-Artach fishing-grounds, i 



which have been worked by British trawlers ever ! 



since. | 



Notwithstanding- all this activity during the last ^ 



forty years since oceanography became a science, ' 

 much has still to be investigated in all seas in all 



branches of the subject. On pursuing any line of i 



investigation one very soon comes up against a wall i 



of the unknown or a maze of controversy. Peculiar ! 

 difficulties surround the subject. The matters inves- 

 tigated are often remote and almost inaccessible. Un- 



