INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. XX111 



between Sardinia and Algiers was lifted, in 1860, from a depth of 

 60-1000 fathoms, no less than 15 different species of animals were 

 found on it. This was a discovery to fire enthusiasm, and Britain 

 led the way in following it up. In 1868 Wyville Thomson began 

 his explorations on the Lightning, and proved that most of the 

 types of backboneless animals were represented at depths of at least 

 600 fathoms. Soon followed the similar cruise of the Porcupine, 

 famous inter alia for the discovery of Bathybius, which many 

 sceptics regard as a mare's nest. From various quarters the quest 

 after the deep-sea fauna began to be prosecuted. 



It is now more than a score of years since the world-famous 

 Challenger sailed from Portsmouth with Wyville Thomson, Moseley, 

 John Murray, and Willemoes-Suhm as naturalists. During three 

 and a half years the explorers cruised over 68,900 nautical miles, 

 crossed the Atlantic no less than five times, reached with the long 

 arm of the dredge to depths equal to reversed Himalayas, raised 

 treasures of life from over 500 stations, and brought home spoils 

 over which the savants of Europe have hardly ceased to be busy, 

 and the records of which, now completed under Dr. Murray's editor- 

 ship, form a library of about forty huge volumes. 



The Challenger expedition was important not only in itself, but 

 in the wave of scientific enthusiasm which it raised. From Germany 

 went forth the Gazelle ; Norway sent the Voringen to Spitzbergen ; 

 America has despatched the Tuscarora, the Blake, and the Alba- 

 tross; from Sweden the Vega and the Sophia sailed to Arctic seas: 

 Count Liechtenstein's yacht Hertha explored Adria; the Prince of 

 Monaco's Hirondelle darted hither and thither; the French sent 

 forth the Travailleur and Talisman; the Italians the Vettor Pisani 

 and Washington; Austria and Hungary organized the Poli for 

 work in the Mediterranean; the Germans again have recently 

 specialized in investigating the Plankton, or surface-life of the ocean; 

 and so, with a range even wider than we have indicated, the wave 

 of enthusiasm has spread, one of the latest barques which it has 

 borne being the Prince of Monaco's, which was specially built for 

 marine exploration. 



Specialism in travelling has, of course, gone much further. 



