THE AGE OF FISHES 177 



Just as the right moment produced a Columbus to crystal- 

 lize into a successful voyage the thoughts and speculations of 

 other men, so Wyville Thompson was the man to translate 

 into pioneer explorations the growing interest in the mysteries 

 of ocean life in the ocean. After the preliminary^ successes of 

 the Lightning and Porcupine cruises in the eastern Atlantic he 

 finally succeeded in organizing the greatest of all expeditions 

 in marine science, the voyage of H.M.S. Challenger. During a 

 period of three and a half years, between 1872 and 1876, this 

 2,000-ton corvette travelled nearly 70,000 miles in the Atlan- 

 tic, Pacific, and Antarctic Oceans, collecting plankton with 

 the Muller net at varying depths, dredging sea life and rocks 

 from the bottom, and studying the changing chemistry and 

 physics of sea water. The scientific results of this famous voy- 

 age, which laid the very foundations of oceanic biology, were 

 of enormous importance; and so voluminous that the pub- 

 lished reports of the expedition weigh nearly a quarter of a 

 ton. Among other things the Challenger expedition found that 

 Forbes was wrong in thinking the deep ocean floor to be com- 

 pletely barren of hfe. Many new and strange worms, sea 

 cucumbers, sea shells, and sea stars were dredged up from the 

 deep-sea bed. 



The knighthood bestowed on Sir Wyville Thompson was 

 richly deserved. The voyage of the Challenger was only the 

 prelude to a whole series of scientific expeditions, just as 

 Columbus's voyage touched off a flood of commercial traffic 

 to the west. In the United States two Swiss naturalists, Louis 

 Agassiz and Louis Francois de Fourtales, did much to extend 

 marine biological research in the western Atlantic. Alexander, 

 the son of Louis Agassiz, was scientific director of the Blake 

 (already mentioned in connection with the investigation of 

 ocean currents ) , and later of the Albatross, which cruised the 

 Atlantic coast before proceeding to the Pacific. Notable con- 

 tributions were also made by the German Victor Hensen, who 



