398 



Messrs. Carpenter, Jeffreys, and Thomson [Nov. 18, 



Resolved, — That a Committee be appointed to report to the Council on 

 the measures it will be advisable to take in order to carry the foregoing 

 resolution most advantageously into effect. The Committee to consist 

 of the President and Officers, with Dr. Carpenter, Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys, 

 and Captain Richards. 



February 18, 1869. 

 Read the following Report of the Committee on Marine Researches : — 



" The Committee appointed by the Council on the 2 1 st of January, to 

 consider the measures advisable for the further prosecution of Researches 

 into the Physical and Biological Conditions of the Deep Sea in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the British Coast, beg leave to Report as follows : — 



" The results obtained by the Dredgings and Temperature-Soundings 

 carried on during the brief Cruise of II. M.S. ' Lightning' in August and 

 September 1868, taken in connexion with those of the Dredgings recently 

 prosecuted under the direction of the Governments of Sweden and of the 

 United States, and with the remarkable Temperature-Soundings of Captain 

 Shortland in the Arabian Gulf, have conclusively shown — 



"1. That the Ocean-bottom, at depths of 500 fathoms or more, pre- 

 sents a vast field for research, of which the systematic exploration can 

 scarcely fail to yield results of the highest interest and importance, in re- 

 gard alike to Physical, Biological, and Geological Science. 



" 2. That the prosecution of such a systematic exploration is altogether 

 beyond the reach of private enterprise, requiring means and appliances 

 which can only be furnished by Government. 



" It may be hoped that Her Majesty's Government may be induced at 

 some future time to consider this work as one of the special duties of the 

 British Navy ; which possesses, in the world-wide distribution of its Ships, 

 far greater opportunities for such researches than the Navy of any other 

 country. 



"At present, however, the Committee consider it desirable that the 

 Royal Society should represent to Her Majesty's Government the import- 

 ance of at once following up the suggestions appended to Dr. Carpenter's 

 c Preliminary Report' of the Cruise of the * Lightning,' by instituting, 

 during the corning season, a detailed survey of the deeper part of the 

 Ocean-bottom between the North of Scotland and the Faroe Islands, and 

 by extending that survey in both a N.E. and a S.W. direction, so as 

 thoroughly to investigate the Physical and the Biological conditions of the 

 two Submarine Provinces included in that area, which are characterized 

 by a strongly marked contrast in Climate, with a corresponding dissimi- 

 larity in Animal Life, and to trace this climatic dissimilarity to its source ; 

 as well as to carry down the like survey to depths much greater than have 

 been yet explored by the Dredge. 



" This, it is believed, can be accomplished without difficulty (unless the 

 weather should prove extraordinarily unpropitious) by the employment 



