NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. xlix 



" Porcupine " by a highly interesting series of soundings and dredgings in the Medi- 

 terranean and current observations in the Strait of Gibraltar. Dr. Carpenter resumed 

 the study of this region in the following year in the " Shearwater," commanded 

 by Captain G. S. Nares, afterwards Captain of the Challenger, and this expedition was no 

 less interesting or important than those that went before. 



The chemical and physical work of the " Porcupine " expeditions was not so 

 satisfactory as might have been expected. Marine chemistry was so entirely new, that a 

 great deal of preliminary work had to be done in order to gain the experience necessary 

 for further more accurate experiments ; and it was in the way of suggesting improvements 

 for future use that the chemical work of the " Porcupine " was most valuable. 



In December 1871 and early in 1872 the U.S. Coast Survey steamer "Hassler," 

 under the scientific direction of Professor Louis Agassiz, dredged in considerable depths 

 off the coast of South America. 



About this period appeared an important work by Delesse on the lithology and 

 distribution of marine deposits, 1 in which the littoral formations of the coast of France are 

 described in detail, and our knowledge of the deeper deposits of the North Atlantic arc 

 reviewed. 



This introductory chapter is not intended as a history of marine scientific research ; 

 its purpose is merely to trace the gradual growth of knowledge of the physical 

 and biological conditions of the ocean up to 1872, and to recall some of the more 

 important of the earlier researches which have been allowed to fade from the attention 

 of the scientific public. More emphasis is laid on the beginning of the various 

 enterprises than on their subsequent development, and prominence has been given 

 throughout to the work carried on by British investigators. It is not on account 

 of any notion that the expeditions despatched by other countries were less im- 

 portant at the time, or productive of less permanent results, that the older cruises 

 of the " Astrolabe," of the "Venus," and the "Bonite," and the more modern ones 

 of the "Eugenie," the "Novara," the "Magenta," and other vessels have not been 

 dwelt upon. It is because the line of researches which had a direct bearing on the 

 despatch of the Challenger could be indicated sufficiently clearly without entering into 

 greater detail. 



The cruises of the " Porcupine " proved that there was life at vast depths in the sea, 

 and that, with a little care, this life could be investigated by ordinary and well known 

 means. The results, taken in conjunction with the conclusions of the contemporary 

 German North Sea Expedition, also showed the great importance of a careful study 

 of the physical, and especially the chemical, as well as the biological, conditions of 

 the sea. 



1 A. Delesse, Litholofrfe <lu Fond ties Mers, Paris. 1871. 



