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2. A RETROSPECT OF OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE TWENTY 

 YEARS BEFORE 1895. Address to the Oceano- 



graphical Section of the Sixth International Geo- 

 graphical Congress, held in London, 1895. [From 

 the Report of the Sixth International Geographical 

 Congress, held in London, 1895] ..... 28 



The meeting of the Geographical Congress in 

 London coincides with the completion of the Reports of 

 the "Challenger" Expedition. Reminiscences of the 

 inception of that expedition and of the men who were 

 most closely identified with it. 



The view generally held before the "Challenger" 

 sailed was that the chalk formation was still going on 

 at the bottom of the ocean ; whence the doctrine of " the 

 Continuity of the Chalk " ...... 29 



Discovery of the ochres of iron and manganese as 

 a submarine formation in February, 1873 . . . 31 



The Birth-day of Oceanography. When the "Challen- 

 ger" sailed from Portsmouth in December, 1872, there 

 was no word in the Dictionary for the department of 

 Geography in which she was to work, and when she 

 returned to Portsmouth in May, 1876, there was a heavy 

 amount of work at the credit of the account of this 

 department, and it had to have a name. It received 

 the name Oceanography. It follows that the science of 

 of Oceanography owes its birth to the "Challenger" 

 Expedition. 



On the way from Portsmouth to Teneriffe the work 

 on board consisted in getting everything and everybody 

 into working order. The work of the expedition proper 

 began when the ship sailed from Teneriffe, and the first 

 official station of the expedition was made to the 

 westward of that island on i5th February, 1873. It 

 was not only the first official station of the expedition, 

 but it was the most remarkable. 



Everything that came up in the dredge was new; 

 the relation between the result of the preliminary 

 sounding and that of the following dredging was new; 

 and, further, from the picturesque point of view, it was 

 the most striking haul of the dredge or trawl which was 

 made duriner the whole voyage. 



