28 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



as a permanent Assistant Naturalist in charge of the collection ; and he would not be paid for %VTiting in 

 addition to his salary. I am prepared to describe certain groups of Echinoderms and Sponges 



7. The assistance I should require in working up the collections and publishing the results for the five years 

 after the 1st May 1877 would be, so far as I can at present judge : — 



(1) An Assistant Naturalist, to take charge of the collections, and to regulate the details of their 

 distribution and their issue to and return from those who are working up the different branches ; I 

 would ask that Mr Murray be retained for this purpose, and his present salary be continued, with 

 £100 a year in addition for lodging money. 



(2) An Assistant to look after the correspondence and accomits, and to take the mechanical and 

 detail part of the editing. I should ask for him a salary of £300 a year, and I should wish to have 

 his choice and appointment in my own hands, and he would require to be a capable man of business, 

 with an intelligent idea of Natural Science. 



(3) A working Assistant ; and I should ask to retain Poarcey in this capacity, at a salary of £100 

 a year. 



(4) A contingent sum for additional assistance when required, spirits of wine and jars, travelling and 

 petty expenses, &c., £400 a year. If the responsible charge of the arrangements remain in my hands, 

 it will take up the whole of my time which is not occupied with my official duties in Edinburgh ; 

 and of course I cannot be expected to undertake it without sufficient remuneration to guarantee me 

 against loss. These constant expenses being met, I think that the remainder of the £4000 would 

 cover those of authorship and illustration. 



8. I have no special views as to the ultimate distribution of the specimens. It seems evident that the full 

 and complete series should go to the British Museum; but as it is that series which must be specially 

 described and illustrated, I do not think that the whole can possibly reach the Museum for at least three 

 years. In looking over the collections, it would be very desirable that a second set of duplicates of objects of 

 public interest, not required for description, should be sent at once to the British Museum. 



9. I must take this opportunity of repeating what I said in a former letter addressed to the Hydrographer, 

 that it seems to me, considering the very close connection between those parts of the work of the expedition 

 which have been conducted chiefly or wholly by the Naval Officers (I refer more particularly to Hydrography 

 and Meteorology) and those parts which have been under the more special charge of the Civilian Staff, that it 

 would make the result more satisfactory, and prevent a mass of unnecessary repetition, and possibly otherwise 

 unavoidable discrepancy and error, if one or two of the Naval Scientific Staff were associated with us in pre- 

 paring the general Report. 



(Signed) C. Wyville Thomson, 



Director of the Civilian Scientific Staff. 



Captain Frank T. Thomson, 



H.M.S. Challenger. 



On the 5th of September 1876 I received a letter from the Secretary of the 

 Admiralty, informing me that the whole question of the arrangements connected with 

 the publication of the Challenger Report, and the disposal of the collections, had 

 heen transferred from the Admiralty to the Treasury, and I was requested to com- 



