NATURE 



529 



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1873 



THE GREAT CIRCUMNAVIGATING EX- 

 PLORING EXPEDITION 



PREPARATIONS for the expedition which is about 

 to be despatched by the Admiralty for the purpose of 

 dredging, sounding, and otherwise scientifically investi- 

 gating, the deep sea, have been for some months past in 

 active progress, and are now rapidly approaching com- 

 pletion. The vessel set apart for the purpose is H.M.S. 

 Challenger, a main-deck corvette of 2,306 tons, now lying 

 at Sheerness. Her commander is Capt. G. S. Nares, 

 R.N., well known as the author of a valuable work on 

 seamanship, greatly in use in the Royal Navy. Capt. 

 Nares has seen a great deal of active service, including 

 exploration in the Arctic regions, and he has left the 

 charge of the Survey in the Gulf of Suez for the purpose 

 of taking charge of the present expedition. Second in 

 command is Commander J. P. Maclear, R.N., son of Sir 

 Thomas Maclear, late Astronomer Royal at the Cape of 

 Good Hope, who has also seen a great deal of service in 

 various parts of the world, and whose name is familiar to 

 our readers from his having taken part in the Eclipse 

 Expedition to Spain, and also in that to Ceylon. 

 Commander Maclear will undertake the magnetic ob- 

 servations, which will form part of the work of the 

 Expedition. The other naval officers are — ist Lieut., 

 Pelham Aldrich ; 2nd Lieut., Arthur C. Bromley ; 3rd 

 Lieut., George R. Bethell ; Navigating Lieut., Alfred E. 

 Tizard; Sub- Lieutenants, H. C. Sloggett and Lord George 

 -Campbell ; Pay-master, R. R. Richards ; Chief Engineer, 

 James H. Ferguson. 



On the scientific staff of the Expedition, the following 

 have received appointments from the Admiralty, bearing 

 date Oct. 1872:— Prof. Wyville Thomson, F.R.S., &c.. 

 Director of the Scientific Staff. Under him the follow- 

 ing have been appointed : — Mr. J. J. Wild of Zurich, 

 who will accompany Prof. Wyville Thomson as private 

 secretary. (Mr. Wild was for some time private secre- 

 tar>' to the Abbe Moigno, and is an accomplished 

 artist) ; Mr. J. Y. Buchanan, M.A., Edinburgh, Chemist 

 to the Expedition. (Mr. Buchanan has been until 

 now Senior Assistant in the Chemical Laboratory of 

 Edinburgh University, and has had the advantage 

 of pursuing the study of his subject in Germany, 

 at Leipsig and elsewhere) ; Mr. H. N. Moseley, M.A., 

 Oxon, Naturalist (Mr. Moseley is a pupil of Prof. RoUe- 

 ston, and has been enabled, by a Radcliffe Travelling 

 Fellowship, to study biology further at Vienna and Leip- 

 sig : he was a member of the late Echpse Expedition to 

 Ceylon) ; Dr. Von Willemoes Suhm, Naturalist (Dr. Von 

 Willemocs Suhm, who has been some time Assistant to 

 Prof. Von Siebold, of Munich, is a distinguished natu- 

 rahst, and is well known from his papers in Siebold and 

 Kolliker's "Archiv" on Annelids) ; Mr. John Murray, of 

 Edinburgh University, Naturalist (Mr. Murray, a Canadian 

 by birth, has had great experience in taxidermy and the col- 

 lection and preservation of Vertebrata generally, has tra- 

 velled in Canada, and has also been far into high latitudes 

 on a whaling cruise). Prof. Wyville Thomson will of 



No. 157— VOL. VI. 



course devote all his time not consumed by the superin- 

 tendence of the scientific investigations in their various 

 branches, preparations of reports, &c., to zoological work. 



Of the three Naturalists, Dr. Von Willmoes Suhm and 

 Mr. Moseley will undertake especially the In vertebrata 

 procured during the expedition, whilst Mr. Murray will 

 direct his attention principally to the Vertebrata. Mr. 

 Moseley will also undertake botanical collection whenever 

 an opportunity presents itself of landing in interesting 

 locaUties, and all the scientific staff will give to this branch 

 of biological investigation as much of their time as pos- 

 sible. Alg;i3, &c., obtained by dredging and otherwise at 

 sea, will also be entrusted to Mr. Moseley. An experienced 

 photographer, a noncommissioned officer of Engineers, 

 forms one of the party. The expedition is under the 

 immediate direction of the hydrographic department of 

 the Admiralty. 



The Admiralty authorities having applied to the Royal 

 Society for advice in the conduction of the expedition, a 

 committee of the Society was formed for the purpose of 

 considering the subject, and counselling the Admiralty 

 in the matter. The Committee consists of the President 

 and Officers of the Royal Society, with Dr. Carpenter, 

 Dr. Frankland, Dr. Hooker, Prof. Huxley, the Hydro- 

 grapher of the Admiralty, Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys, Mr. 

 Siemens, Sir William Thomson, Prof. Wyville Thomson, 

 Dr. WiUiamson, and Mr. Alfred R. Wallace, and has the 

 power of adding to its number. 



The C/tallt-ii'^c'r has had her timbers put in thorough 

 repair, and has been specially fitted out for the work for 

 which she is intended. She has an auxiliary screw, with 

 engines of 400-horse power (nominal), and carries about 

 one month's coal. She carries two cutters, a steam pin- 

 nace, a South Sea whaling or surf boat, a jolly boat, two 

 gigs, and a dingy. Stages have been erected amidships, 

 from which the dredges will be worked, and immediately 

 aft of the stages is the steam winding-in apparatus. Prof. 

 Wyville Thomson has been several times down to the ship 

 to give directions for the special airangements for scientific 

 work. The fere magazine is prepared for the stowage of the 

 large quantity of spirits which will be required for the pre- 

 servation of natural history specimens, and of the many 

 thousand stoppered bottles which will contain them. A 

 chemical laboratory and naturalist's workroom have been 

 fitted up in the afterpart of the vessel ; and spirit is laid 

 on to the workroom by means of a pipe leading from a 

 metal cistern placed in the nettings. Several hundred 

 miles of best whaling line have been prepared at Chat- 

 ham for the Challenger, for dredging, and she carries 

 about forty dredges. Amongst the stores are traps of 

 various forms, harpoons, a harpoon gun, and fishing 

 tackle of all kinds, including trawls, trammels, a seine, 

 shrimp-nets, fish-traps, and lobster-pots. From the latter, 

 used in deep water, great results are expected ; and it is 

 not improbable that living specimens of Nautilus may 

 thus be procured. Prof Wyville Thomson is now super- 

 intending the construction, in Edinburgh, of the various 

 forms of apparatus required for physical research. Seve- 

 ral beautiful instruments of this nature have been devised 

 by Mr. Buchanan ; and notably a new deep-sea pressure- 

 gauge, and an instrument for bringing up samples of 

 water from the bottom, which is provided with two taps 

 which are closed by the contact of the apparatus with 



