Vlll 



Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



absence his grandfather died, and Murray arrived home two days after the 

 funeral to find that — unlike Loudon Dodd — he had been cut out of his 

 grandfather's will with less than the proverbial shilling. It was the 

 experience he gained on this Arctic voyage and during his subsequent work 

 on the "West Coast of Scotland in the years 1869 and 1870 which qualified 

 him for his next post. 



Murray's great chance in life came when the Government decided, on the 

 recommendation of the Eoyal Society, to equip a surveying ship, the 

 " Challenger," for scientific research and to send her round the world. " The 

 ' Challenger' was a spar-decked corvette of 2306 tons, with auxiliary steam 

 to 1234 horse-power," and was well adapted for the scientific purposes to 

 which she was devoted for four years. The scientific staff was under the 

 direction of Prof, (afterward Sir) Wyville Thomson, of Edinburgh University, 

 and at first John Murray was not included on it ; but at the last moment, 

 owing to the failure of one who had been chosen, on the earnest advice of 

 Prof. Tait, John Murray was selected for the vacant post. Tait especially 

 dwelt upon the fact of Murray's resourcefulness and readiness, and considered 

 he would be a very useful man to have at hand in case of any difficulties 

 with natives or other possible sources of trouble. It was characteristic of 

 Murray to embark on such an enterprise at a moment's notice, when there 

 was almost no time to get together his scientific or personal "kit." 



But the science of the depths of the sea and the science of oceanography 

 were in those times inchoate. The first great expedition to investigate the 

 physical, the chemical, the geological, and the biological conditions of the 

 great ocean basins was sent out in 1872 by the Government of this country, 

 then under Mr. Gladstone, and in that year H.M.S. " Challenger " left 

 England with a staff of scientific observers to traverse the salt waters of 

 the globe. From that date until the present time no such complete and 

 organised a staff of scientific observers, helped in every way by the naval 

 officers (for it was an Admiralty Expedition), has left any country for so 

 prolonged and exhaustive an investigation into the economics of the ocean. 

 The " Challenger " Expedition set a standard — in fact it practically estab- 

 lished a new science, a science of which Sir John Murray was, in a way, 

 the arch-priest. 



The " Challenger " Expedition had predecessors, though on a much smaller 

 scale. Maury had done a great deal in the way of the study of the ocean, 

 especially in so far as concerned its depth and the ocean currents. 

 Dr. Wallich on H.M.S. " Bulldog," surveying the route for the proposed 

 Transatlantic cable, added much to our knowledge, and there were others. 

 The immediate precursors of the expedition of the " Challenger " were 

 a series of voyages made by the " Porcupine " and " Lightning " under the 

 scientific guidance of Dr. W. B. Carpenter, Mr. Gwyn Jeffries, and Prof. 

 Wyville Thomson. Dr. W". B. Carpenter took an immense interest in the 

 question of deep-sea temperatures, and read a number of papers to the 

 Eoyal Society dealing with all existing data accumulated down to 1870, and 



