1^4 



NATURE 



[JlNE 6, 1895 



an account ot how m general the collections and the 

 reports on them were disposed, adds the following : — 



■■ From beginning to end the histon- of the Challenger 

 Expedition is simply a record of continuous and diligent 

 work. There were few opportunities for brilliant exploits 

 during the voyage. The daily and hourly magnetic and 

 meteorologic observations, the handling of the ship during 

 the tedious deep-sea investigations, the work connected 

 with the boat excursions and expeditions on land, in 

 addition to the usual operations of the marine surveyor 

 and navigator, all demanded from the naval officers and 

 seamen an amount of care and attention far surpassing 

 what is required during an ordinary commission of one 

 of Her Majesty's ships. The labour connected with 

 preserving, cataloguing, and packing the biological and 

 other collections on board ship was enormous, so also 

 was that involved in their subsequent examination on 

 the return of the expedition and their distribution to 

 specialists in many parts of the world. .AH this was, 

 however, accomplished with success, and the typical 

 •collections have now been deposited without any mis- 

 hap in the British Museum. The m.ijority of the authors 

 •of the special memoirs ha\e spent years in the examina- 

 tion of the collections and in the preparation of their 

 manuscript and illustrations for the press, without other 

 remuneration than either a copy of the Cludlcngcr publi- 

 cations or a small honorarium to cover the outlay necessi- 

 tated by their researches. The payments of the civilian 

 staff have been \er\- moderate, and in my own case, at 

 least, have not covered actual expenditure in connection 

 with the work of the expedition. 



"The great difficulty in carrying through an under- 

 taking of this nature arises from considerations of time. 

 The researches of the specialist tend ever to become | 

 more elaborate : in no case were the authors of the larger 

 special reports able to terminate their work within the 

 • original estimates as to time and bulk. The limitations 

 in reference to expenditure imposed on me by the (".overn- 

 ment often rendered it imperative to curtail the investi- 

 gations, and to cut out matter from the memoirs when, in 

 other circumstances, I would gladly have fallen in with 

 the views of contributors and collaborators. The re- 

 searches and publications connected with the expedition 

 might have been extended in several directions with 

 advantage to science had the allotted time and funds 

 permitted ; as it is, a few collections have not been 

 thoroughly examined, and some observations have not 

 been fully discussed. 



" In June, 1872, I was appointed one of the naturalists 

 of the Challenger when the expedition was being fitted 

 out. During the past twenty-three years my time has 

 been wholly taken up with the work of the expedition 

 and in the study of those subjects which the expedition 

 was organised to investigate. The direction of the whole 

 of the work connected with the publication of the 

 scientific results passed unexpectedly into my hands, 

 and I have done my best in the circumstances to place 

 on permanent record a trustworthy account of the labours 

 of this famous expedition. It has been my earnest 

 ■endeavour to complete the publications in a manner 

 worthy of the naval position and scientific reputation of 

 this great empire. Notwithstanding the troubles, per- 

 sonal sacrifices and regrets necessarily connected with 

 the work, it has been a pleasure and an honour to have 

 taken part in explorations and researches which mark 

 the greatest advance in the knowledge of our planet 

 since the celebrated geographical discoveries of the 

 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries." 



It is hardly possible to speak in a more truthful, simple, 



and dignified manner of one's life's work than here Mr. 



Murray speaks of the work and the difficulties that beset 



the Challenger Expedition, " cujus pars magna fuit." 



NO. 1336, VOL. 52] 



He might have used quite other language, and have felt 

 sure to meet the full acknowledgment of his contem- 

 poraries, and nobody will certainly dispute him the 

 proud sentence with which he finishes the above 

 account. There can hardly be any doubt about 

 the epoch-making importance of the Cluillenger ex- 

 pedition, and if in the first letter of Dr. Carpenter to 

 the Royal Society attention is drawn to an article in this 

 journal '(N.^TirKE, vol. iv. p. 107, 1S71), in which it was 

 stated that the Governments of Germany, Sweden, and 

 the United -States were preparing to dispatch ships to 

 various parts of the ocean, expressly fitted for deep-sea 

 exploration, and the question put forward, whether Great 

 Britain should not step in to do her share in such 

 work, I think it might well be urged now, after (ireat 

 Britain having done her work in the most unparalleled 

 way, that other nations might continue and profit by the 

 experience of the Challenger. Such expeditions may be 

 undertaken by deliberately dividing the task of filling the 

 gaps and lacunes left by the Challenger, one nation taking 

 the .Atlantic, the other the Indian, a third the Pacific, and 

 a fourth especially the .Antarctic .Sea for its investigation 

 and exploration. .A large basis has been laid by the 

 Challenger, capable of bearing any superstructure to be 

 erected on it. Let France and Germany, the I'nited 

 States and Russia take up this work after a mutual under- 

 standing, let Sweden or Norway explore once more the 

 North Polar .Sea, Italy the Red .Sea, and let international 

 organisation add a second chapter to oceanography, 

 after the first has been so well worked out by Great 

 Britain. 



Nevertheless, whatever important results may be 

 arrived at by such repeated expeditions, embodying both 

 principles — division of labour and combination of results — 

 the future of oceanography requires still other means of 

 research. Whenever a new domain of science is opened 

 up, either by the isolated work of a discovering genius, 

 such as Pasteur and Koch, or by combination of rarely 

 found chances, such as the Challenger Expedition oficred, 

 the immediate consequence is that specialisation sets in 

 to work out all the different chapters of the new doctrine, 

 enlarging the basis, multiplying the parts, drawing new 

 conclusions, correcting old ones — in short, bringing 

 about a detailed colonisation of the newly-discovered 

 intellectual areas. But no oceanic or .African colony can 

 live and prosper nowadays without well-established 

 communication with its motherland ; no haphazard visits 

 of travellers can supplant the permanent and systematic 

 exploitation that alone provides those conditions of life 

 which make a colony prosper. .And the same holds good 

 for intellectual colonising, and especially for problems of 

 oceanography. 



If we look over the fifty volumes of the " Challenger 

 Reports," we see, at once, that the lion's share belongs to 

 biology. .More than nine-tenths of them arc purely biolog- 

 ical, and almost all the others include some im|)oilanl 

 biological elements. It is therefore hardly wrong to 

 suppose that the future of oceanography will lie with 

 biology, and with its ways and means for increasing our 

 knowledge. The problems of biology, of course, .ire 

 extremely varied, and many of them may be studied in 

 ever)' inland university. Not so the problems of marine 

 biology, for which the last twenty years have establishetl 



