MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. 



63 



obtained. Instruments, invented since, that can be opened 

 and closed at any given depth will prevent, or at least minimise, 

 any such possible errors in the future. Wire has been sub- 

 stituted for rope in both sounding and dredging, and all the 

 physical and chemical apparatus and methods are now much 

 more reliable and refined than those employed by the 

 " Challenger" pioneers. This is merely the natural result of the 

 progress of science, and especially of such a new and rapidly 

 advancing science as Oceanography, during forty years of 

 strenuous endeavour. 



Some of the " Challenger " reports may be found old- 

 fashioned and unsatisfying in transcendental morphology by 

 the student of the present day, but the fifty noble volumes form 

 a zoological library in themselves, and every young specialist 

 on a group of marine animals has still to consult them, and 

 before proceeding to new and no doubt more profound 

 researches must ascertain what was made known by his 

 predecessors from their work on the collections brought home 

 from the abysses of the ocean by the " Challenger " circum- 

 navigating expedition. 



Antedon rosaceus—l and 2 nat. size, 3 magnified* 



