8 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. [Sess. 
his life’s work should be. So highly were his services as assistant naturalist 
valued, that on the retirement of Sir Wyville Thomson in 1881, he became 
Director and Editor of the Challenger publications, which, on their comple- 
tion in fifty volumes, he truthfully characterised as forming “ the greatest 
advance in the knowledge of our planet since the celebrated geographical 
discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.” It is with the splendid 
results obtained by this great national expedition that Sir John Murray’s 
name will always be associated. His labours in connection with the 
Challenger Expedition, however, did not absorb all his energies. To him 
and his friend Mr Frederick Pullar we are indebted for the initiation 
of a most important work — the Bathymetrical Survey of the Scottish 
Fresh- water Lakes — a work which was carried to a successful conclusion 
under the direction of Sir John Murray and Mr Laurence Pullar. An 
important side issue of this Survey was the observation of seiches in the 
Scottish lochs, the results of which were given in a series of papers by 
the late Professor Chrystal and Dr E. M. Wedderburn. Sir John’s 
continued interest in oceanographical research was shown by his establish- 
ment of marine laboratories on the Firth of Forth and at Millport on the 
Firth of Clyde, while only a year or two ago he financed the deep-sea 
expedition of the Michael Bars in the Atlantic, the direction of which he 
shared with Dr Johan Hjort — the results being published in 1912 in a 
volume entitled The Deaths of the Ocean. His enthusiasm for the cause of 
research was further evidenced b}^ his powerful support of an Antarctic 
Expedition, the subsequent inception of which by the British Government 
undoubtedly owed much to his strenuous advocacy. Nor was his sym- 
pathetic interest confined to such research ; he was always ready to throw 
himself into every movement that had for its object the advancement of 
knowledge in any department of science that seemed to him likely to 
advance the welfare of mankind. He was, for example, a devoted member 
of the Scottish Meteorological Society, and shared in the foundation of the 
Ben Nevis Observatory, which, until it closed, found in him a zealous 
supporter. He likewise rendered important services to the Royal Scottish 
Geographical Society, of which he was President for five years, and during 
his connection with which he was a frequent contributor to the Scottish 
Geographical Magazine. 
His tragic death on 16th March was a great shock to all his friends, and 
was everywhere recognised as a public loss. Although he had attained 
the threescore years and ten, he was still full of vitality — buoyant and 
hopeful as ever, and looking forward with eagerness to further research, 
which he would doubtless have accomplished had life been spared. In 
