NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. 21 



APPENDICES TO CHAPTER I. 



APPENDIX A. 



Official Correspondence with reference to the Challenger Expedition. Extracted from the Minutes of 



Council of the Royal Society. 



March 2lst, 1872. 



Read the following communication from the Admiralty : — 



"Admiralty, 2nd March 1872. 

 "Sin, — In reply to your Letter of the 8th of December 1871 conveying a representation from the 

 President and Council of the Royal Society that advantages of great importance to Science and Navigation 

 would result from equipping an Expedition for the Examination of the Physicial Conditions of the Deep Sea 

 throughout all the Great Oceanic Basins, and for other special objects therein named, — 



" 2. I am commanded by my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to acquaint you, for the information 

 of the President and Council, that they have had the subject under their consideration, and have decided to 

 fit out one of Her Majesty's ships to leave England on a Voyage of Circumnavigation towards the close of the 

 present year, in prosecution of the objects specified in your letter. 



" 3. I am further desired to inform you that their Lordships will be prepared to receive from the President 

 and Council of the Royal Society any suggestions that they may desire to make on the Scientific Equipment of 

 the Vessel, the Composition of the Civilian Scientific Staff, or any other Scientific matter connected with the 

 Expedition upon which that body may desire to offer their opinion. 



" I am, Sir, 



" Your obedient Servant, 



" Thos. Wolley." 

 " The Secretary to the Royal Society." 



Resolved, — That the Letter from the Admiralty be referred for consideration and for report to the Council, 

 to a Committee consisting of the President and Officers, Dr. Carpenter, Dr. Frankland, Dr. Hooker, 

 Professor Huxley, the Hydrographer of the Admiralty, Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys, Mr. Siemens, Sir William 

 Thomson, Dr. Wyville Thomson, Dr. Williamson, and Mr. Alfred R. Wallace, with power to add to 

 their number. 



June 20th, 1872. 



In reference to the arrangements to be made for the Circumnavigatory Expedition, for which H.M.S. 

 Challenger has now been put in commission, the Committee presented the following Report to the Council, viz. : — 



" The Committee suggest that the President and Council should direct a Letter to be written to the 

 Secretary of the Admiralty to the following effect : — ' That it appears desirable that the Scientific gentlemen 

 who are to accompany the Challenger Expedition should be selected at an early date and their salaries decided 

 on, in order that they may be enabled to make the necessary arrangements for an extended absence from England. 



