HISTORICAL SKETCH OF DEEP-SEA WORK. 43 



In Great Britain, ever since the time of Forbes, dredging ex- 

 peditions have been undertaken, limited, however, to the more 

 shallow regions accessible by private means. The reports of the 

 dredging committee of the British Association have made the 

 names of Gwyn Jeffreys, of Norman, of Barrett, and Andrews, 

 familiar to students of marine zoology, while in this country the 

 shore dredgings of Stimpson, Dr. Ayres, Lieutenant Kurtz, and 

 of expeditions sent out by the Cambridge Museum form the 

 beginning of American investigations. 



The successful deep dredgings of the Norwegian, Swedish, 

 and American expeditions were followed by the English expedi- 

 tions with which the name of Wyville Thomson will forever be 

 associated. 



Sir Wyville Thomson, who visited Norway to examine the 

 collection of deep-sea animals made by the elder and younger 

 Sars, from depths varying between 350 and 500 fathoms, could 

 not fail to be struck with the variety of the fauna they had col- 

 lected. The discovery of Rhizocrinus, a small stalked crinoid, 

 the representative of a family of fossil sea-Hlies, which had be- 

 come extinct with the chalk, opened to him a vista of what 

 might be accomplished by a systematic exploration of the great 

 ocean abysses. He had the great satisfaction, in connection 

 with Dr. Carpenter and Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys, to see in succession 

 the " Lightning," " Porcupine," " Valorous," and " Shear- 

 water " placed at their disposal. These explorations culminated 

 in the " Challenger " expedition, one of the most remarkable 

 scientific explorations sent out by any government. 



In 1868, the " Lightning " with Thomson and Carpenter ex- 

 plored the regions between the Faeroes and Scotland, and made 

 successful hauls to a depth of 680 fathoms. The two following 

 years the " Porcupine " was placed at the disposal of Messrs. 

 Carpenter, Jeffreys, and Thomson, and more extended explora- 

 tions were made off the coast of Ireland, the Bay of Biscay, in 

 the Atlantic, off Spain, and in the Mediterranean. The ship 

 was provided with the improved Miller-Casella thermometer for 

 taking the temperatures. These expeditions may be said to 

 have awakened in European naturalists general interest in the 

 importance of such investigations, and to have settled once for 



