170 STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE, ETC. 



organised a staff of scientific observers, helped 

 in every way by the naval officers (for it was an 

 Admiralty expedition), has left any country for 

 so prolonged and exhaustive investigation into 

 the economics of the ocean. The " Challenger " 

 Expedition set a standard in fact it practically 

 established a new science, a science of which 

 Sir John Murray was, in a way, the arch-priest. 

 As the introduction to the narrative of " The 

 Cruise of the ' Challenger ' " recites : " The vast 

 ocean lay scientifically unexplored. All the efforts 

 of the previous decade had been directed to the 

 strips of water round the coast, and to enclosed 

 or partly enclosed seas. Great things had certainly 

 been done there, but certainly far greater things 

 remained to be done beyond/' This considera- 

 tion led to the conception of the idea of a great 

 exploring expedition which should circumnavigate 

 the globe and if possible find out the conditions 

 of life at the surface of the sea, at the inter- 

 mediate depths, and also at the profound abysses 

 of the ocean. Sir John Murray's main interest 

 in the expedition was at first physical and 

 geological rather than biological, though he soon 

 acquired a real knowledge of animals, at any 

 rate in so far as they affected the problems which 



