4 EXPEDITION OF THE "ALBATROSS," 1S99-1900. 



meeres," ^ has followed the same principle, and has in no way recognized 

 the names which appear on the "Clinilengor" bathymetrical chart or the 

 earlier charts of Peterniaun, issued in 1877, or in the charts issued by the 

 U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. In order to prevent a possible future 

 confusion, the Germans have deliberately created it; for Professor Supan 

 objects on " national grounds " to Sir John Murray's proceeding of '• tagging 

 the oceans as if they were Anglo-Saxon dominions," and insists that such 

 a proceeding " can never receive general recognition." Professor Supan 

 considers the Anglo-Saxon method " as impracticable because in the future 

 it may burden the memory of the sciiool children of the next generation." 

 If we are to have a remodelling of the oceanic bathymetrical nomenclature, 

 it seems as if we were attempting it with very insufficient data, at least 

 as far as the Pacific is concerned. Professor Supan himself has called 

 attention to the fact that the bottom of the Pacific Ocean is far less uni- 

 form in depth than would appear from the earlier cliarts ; and certainly 

 the great blank spaces left between the lines of soundings make it suffi- 

 ciently clear how tentative all our attempts to chart the deptlis of the 

 Pacific must be for some time to come. Of course, I do not in any way 

 wish to object to a more strict liinilation of the hydrograj)hic terms ])ro- 

 posed by Dr. Supan, many of which have naturally in the earlier days of 

 deep-sea explorations been applied somewhat vaguely. In the meantime 

 basins, deep.s, and ridges, such as are sketched and named on the earlier 

 charts, will gradually disappear as subsequent explorations show them to 

 be connected ; others again will be subdivided as our knowledge of the 

 depths of the oceans becomes more accurate. 



No geographer has as yet attempted for land names to make such a 

 sweeping reform as that proposed by the Germans. It is true that the 

 great oceanic realms are common property, and have not as yet, like the 

 islands scattered in the Pacific, become included in regions of English, 

 French, German, or American influence. But it will appear to an Anglo- 

 Saxon as natural, from a national standpoint, to adhere to his nomenclature 

 as it seems important to the German, for the same rea.son, to ado])t a differ- 

 ent system. To a naturalist accustomed to have such questions settled for 



1 retermann's MiUeil., Bd. 45, 1899, p. 177. 



