Vol. 6, 1920 
GEOPHYSICS: G. W. LITTLEHALES 
581 
Investigator (1887-1902). 
Discovery (1901-4). 
Scotia (1902-4). 
Sweden 
Vega (1878-80). 
Antarctic (1901-3). 
Holland 
William Barents (1878-84) 
Siboga (1899-1900). 
United States 
Albatross (1883-1920). 
Blake (1876-97). 
Narragansett (1871-3). 
Nero (1900). 
Thetis (1895). 
Tuscarora (1873-6). 
Italy 
Washington (1881-2). 
Vettor Pisani (1882-5). 
Norway 
Voringen (1876-8). 
Fram (1893-6). 
Gjoa (1903-5). 
Michael Gars (1900-20) 
Principality of Monaco 
I'Hirondelle (1885-8). 
Princesse Alice I (1891-7). 
Princesse Alice II (1895-1914). 
Russia 
Vitiaz (1886-9). 
These expeditions and many others of lesser import, operating for the 
most part in seas remote from the countries in which they were fitted out, 
have contributed much of the literature of oceanography in which we find 
set forth the dynamic meteorology and climatology of the ocean, the 
theories of the tides and waves and the observed facts concerning them, 
the depths of the ocean, the temperature, the composition and circulation 
of oceanic waters, the nature and distribution of marine organisms at the 
surface and in the depths, and the origin and distribution of marine de- 
posits over the floor of the ocean. But the ocean is so vast that the ac- 
cumulation of facts of observation concerning it — extensive though it be — 
is but a sparse array in geographical distribution and constitutes but a 
skeleton of knowledge in relation to the configuration of its basins, the 
nature and distribution and thickness and stratification of the deposits 
which cover the bottom, and the physical and chemical properties and 
movements and mode of operation of its waters in producing their effects 
in the economy of the earth. 
It is not alone through expeditions upon the ocean that oceanography 
has progressed; investigations in marine laboratories and institutions of 
research and discoveries in cognate sciences have sometimes yielded more 
advancement than distant and perilous voyages. 
Advancement in the nature of the application of the philosophy of 
method has enabled oceanography to profit in its later stages of develop- 
ment. The system according to which progress is now being sought is 
the study in detail of definite stations in the ocean occupied in concert, 
and, as we hope it will be, by international cooperation, and periodically 
revisited for the purpose of observing the variations of physical condition 
whose import, when it comes to be understood, will enhance all those 
wealth-producing sources which operate in seasonal cycles. Observa- 
