SIR JOHN MURRAY 169 



that the bottom fauna, which is uncommonly 

 varied and rich, lived upon the organisms which 

 fall down from above. In the same year the 

 telegraphic cable between Sardinia and the African 

 coast broke. Fleeming Jenkin, who must have 

 been Professor of Engineering at Edinburgh about 

 the time Sir John Murray was a student and 

 long afterwards, recovered part of the broken 

 cable from a depth of 1,200 fathoms. With it 

 sponges, worms, molluscs, and polyzoa were 

 brought to the surface. This was regarded by 

 Professor Airman as " having afforded the first 

 absolute proof of the existence of highly organised 

 animals living at a depth of upward of 1,000 

 fathoms/' 



But the science of the depths of the sea and 

 the science of oceanography were in these times 

 inchoate. The first great expedition to investi- 

 gate the physical, the chemical, the geological 

 and the biological conditions of the great ocean 

 basins were sent out in 1872 by the Government 

 of this country, then under Mr. Gladstone, and 

 in that year H.M.S. " Challenger " left England 

 with a staff of scientific observers to traverse 

 the salt waters of the globe. From that date 

 until the present time no such complete and 



