44 THREE CRUISES OF THE " BLAKE." 



all the question of the existence of animal life at the bottom of 

 the sea at aU depths, — a varied fauna having been discovered 

 by the many casts in deep water at which the expedition dredged, 

 the greatest depth being 2,400 fathoms, then considered an 

 enormous one for the dredo^es. 



But the crownino- work of the Eno-lish in this direction was 

 the " Challenger " expedition. A man-of-war of 2,300 tons was 

 dispatched in 1873, commanded by Sir George Nares, \nth. Sir 

 Wyville Thomson as scientific chief. The " Challenger " ^ was 

 gone three and a half years. She sailed or steamed over 69,000 

 miles, and crossed and recrossed the great oceanic basins, 

 dredging and sounding, and making physical observations at 

 no less than 360 stations. Indeed, the work of the " Chal- 

 lenger " extended over the whole globe. Previous investigations 

 had been undertaken on a more limited scale along the coast of 

 North America, and in the North Atlantic and Arctic regions, 

 by the Norwegian," Swedish, Danish, American, and English 

 nations. 



Any account of the work of the English would be incom- 

 plete without a mention of the important results, published in 

 1862, obtained by Dr. Wallich on the "Bulldog" in 1860. 

 These results, however, received from naturalists but little at- 

 tention. Dr. Wallich advocated the view that the condition of 

 the bottom of the sea was favorable to the existence of animal 

 life at the greatest depths ; unfortunately, the animals collected 

 by him, as well as by Sir James C. Ross, belonged to groups 

 which might live (and do, as we now know) at the surface, or to 

 the starfishes, which we could suppose might have floated out 

 far from the sea-shore, and finally have sunk. An Astrophyton 

 can swim to a certain extent, and starfishes can float for a long- 

 time on the surface of the water, with their suckers uppermost 

 Had, however, naturalists paid sufficient attention to the Re- 

 ports of Alph. Milne-Edwards, and Professor Fleeming Jenkin, 

 concerning the animals found growing attached to the cable laid 

 at a depth of 2,000 fathoms between Sardinia and Africa, the 



^ Additional deep-sea work was also - Voriugen expeditions, 1876 - 1878 

 undertaken by the " Triton " and " Knight (Mohn, Danielssen, and G. O. Bars). 

 Errant" (Murray and Tizard). 



