40 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



and Wyville Thomson, again through the Council of the Royal 

 Society, to induce the Government to equip a deep-sea ex- 

 pedition on a really grand scale to explore and make known 

 the conditions of life in the great oceans. This resulted in the 

 famous circumnavigating expedition in H.M.S. "Challenger," 

 and Professor Wyville Thomson as the chief originator of the 

 expedition was appointed Director of the civilian scientific 

 staff on board. 



The {; Challenger " Expedition will rank in history with 

 the voyages of Vasco da Gama, Columbus, Magellan and Cook. 

 Like these it added new regions of the globe to our knowledge, 

 and the wide expanses thus opened up for the first time — 

 the floors of the oceans — were vaster than the discoveries of 

 any previous exploration. 



H.M.S. " Challenger " was a spar-deck corvette of 2,306 

 tons displacement, with auxiliary engines of 1,234 indicated 

 horse-power. She sailed in December, 1872, and returned in 

 May, 1876, and during these 3^ years she traversed about 69,000 

 miles in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and penetrated as 

 far south as the iintarctic ice barrier. Soundings and dredgings 

 or trawlings were taken at 362 stations, and enormous 

 collections, such as the scientific world had never seen before, 

 of marine organisms large and small, and of samples of bottom 

 deposits and of water from all depths and all latitudes, were 

 brought home for detailed investigation. As Sir Ray Lankester 

 has said, " never did an expedition cost so little and produce 

 such momentous results for human knowledge." A number of 

 preliminary reports written during the voyage were sent from 

 the " Challenger " by Wyville Thomson, as Director, to the 

 Hydrographer of the Admiralty, and were published by the 

 Royal Society in 1875 and 1876*. Some were written by the 

 Director himself, others were reports to him by the other 

 members of the Scientific Staff. Thus, Moseley reported on 



* See especially Proc. Roy. Soc, No. 170, 1876. 



