REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, 1920-21. XX1 
ship, which it is hoped would be undertaken by the Admiralty) this should lie 
between 200,000/. and 300,000/., with a bias toward the higher figure. It is to 
be observed that the expenditure would be spread over a number of years. 
Publication of Results. 
In this connection suitable arrangements for the adequate publication of the 
results of the expedition must be borne in mind, ‘The working out and 
publication of the results of the Challenger Expedition are stated to have cost 
about as much as the expedition itself, and a similar expenditure may be 
anticipated in the present case. 
Preservation of Specimens. 
The natural repository of type specimens collected during the expedition 
would be the British Museum (Natural History Department), while duplicate 
specimens should be offered to museums, universities, etc., in various parts of the 
Empire. 
The Committee trust at this stage to obtain such assurance from H.M. Govern- 
ment of their support as will justify them in reporting to their Council that the 
organisation of the expedition is to be proceeded with. Having regard to the 
world-wide and therefore Imperial character of the investigations proposed, to 
which they have already called attention, and to the valuable assistance which 
could be rendered locally to the expedition by the Governments of the Dominions 
whose territories border upon the great oceans, they venture to suggest to 
H.M. Government that the subject of the expedition is one which might properly 
be brought to the notice of the Imperial Conference. 
SCHEDULE. 
Subjects for Investigation. 
To give some idea of the amount and variety of scientific work that might be 
undertaken by such an expedition, the following may be mentioned as some of 
the chief recommendations which have been received from representatives of the 
various Sections of the Association concerned :— 
(1) In the departments of marine biology and physiology extensive 
investigations are required of fish and fisheries in the interest of food sup- 
plies. These include a very wide range of inquiry, which may be sum- 
marised thus: the effects of temperature and other conditions on the distri- 
bution and life of organisms; the distribution of the plankton (which includes 
organisms of first-rate importance as food for fishes which supply food for 
man); ocean currents in relation to fisheries (just enough is known as to the 
influence of variations in the great oceanic currents upon the movements and 
. abundance of migratory fishes to make evident the need for further and more 
complete investigation of the subject); the physiology of deep-sea and other 
oceanic animals; the investigation of marine alge, both coastal and 
planktonic ; marine bacteria ; bio-chemical investigation of the metabolism cf 
the sea (this is perhaps the department of oceanography which deals with 
the most fundamental problems and which is most in need of immediate 
investigation) : the question of the abundance of tropical plankton as com- 
pared with that of temperate and polar seas, the distribution and action of 
denitrifying bacteria, the variations of the plankton in relation to environ- 
mental conditions, the factors which determine uniformity of conditions 
over a large sea area from the point of view of plankton distribution, the 
supply of the necessary minimal substances such as nitrogen, silica, and 
phosphorus to the living organisms, and the determination of the rate of 
production and rate of destruction of all organic substances in the sea— 
these are some of the fundamental problems of the metabolism of the ocean ; 
