No. 2. [From Report of the Sixth International Geographical 

 Congress, held in London, 1895.] 



A RETROSPECT OF OCEANOGRAPHY IN 

 THE TWENTY YEARS BEFORE 1895 



ADDRESS TO THE OCEANOGRAPHICAL SECTION OF THE 



SIXTH INTERNATIONAL GEOGRAPHICAL CONGRESS, 



HELD IN LONDON, 1895; REVISED AND AMPLIFIED 



I. 



THE Geographical Congress meets in London at an opportune 

 time, when the publication of the Challenger Reports has just 

 been completed by the appearance of the summary volumes. 

 This great work marks an epoch in the science of geography, 

 and deserves some words of notice here. The history of the 

 "Challenger" expedition is well known to all students ol 

 oceanography, which, as a special science, dates its birth 

 from that expedition. It must be remembered that when 

 the "Challenger" expedition was planned and fitted out, 

 the science of oceanography did not exist. The chief men 

 to whose influence the expedition was due Carpenter, Huxley, 

 Wyville Thomson are dead. Those who at present are most 

 active in the furtherance of the science did not take any interest 

 in oceanography then, and, notwithstanding the voluminous 

 reports of the voyage, it is impossible for the student of to-day 

 to realise what were the views and expectations twenty years 

 ago which determined the procedure of the "Challenger" 

 in breaking ground in the vast dominion of the sea. In the 

 few remarks which I have to offer here, I propose to illustrate 

 this in one or two cases. Isolated observations of a physical 

 and biological nature had been made by many observers 

 previous to the summer expeditions of the "Lightning" and 

 "Porcupine" belonging to the British navy, and the "Pome- 

 rania" belonging to Germany. The most remarkable of these 

 were the researches of the "Bulldog," when surveying the 

 route for the first Atlantic cable. The route followed by the 

 " Bulldog" did not lead across any water which would now 

 be called very deep. Out in mid-ocean, and away from the 

 influence of land, the mud brought up was calcareous, and 



