THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
WuHK ur THK 
Oiui.us> - «.an 
Kxrrmnox. 
Ti rl w r Expedition has played a very large part in all the recent advances 
an.. graphical knowledge. The Official Reports on the Scientific Results of the 
; ; x : , ■ ■ i i. di al more or less directly with all those branches of knowledge which, we 
• v, cii, constitute the science of oceanography. In order to fully .appreciate the 
, -nli - it which science has arrived in our own time, it is essential to cast a retrospective 
, at the i«leas and opinions held by past generations of explorers and philosophers. 
I i iv proposed to preface this volume, containing a summary account of the work 
; board the Challenger, with a somewhat detailed account of the gradual develop- 
,,t (if knowledge concerning the ocean. Even a rapid chronological exposition of the 
n.ar h of ideas on the science of the ocean cannot completely ignore the progress of 
v Tices. Discove ries in astronomy and physics have often had more influence 
. 1 the progress of oceanography than the most perilous and distant voyages. Facts 
’ r\i d 1-y the ancients have sometimes directed the thoughts of modern investigators; 
’ r i 1 1 lt periods of apparent lethargy great ideas have germinated in some superior minds. 
/?.— OCEANOGRAPHICAL VIEWS OF THE ANCIENTS. 
Kxovucdge or 
PklMITIVB 
Peorue*. 
Vrr»< or the 
Hnurr. 
in. . veil, a xpeditions of the heroic ages created great enthusiasm among the 
poet- of antiquity. Their narratives of the first nautical expeditions are of great 
K-.-rcst to the historian and literary man, for the ancients knew well how to clothe 
primitive records of civilisation and commerce with all the charm of their language 
il l ! imagination, hut they teach us nothing from the point of view of thescience 
f tiv ' . The Pacific islanders, at the present time, are probably in the same phase 
i p: . - v re the civilised nations at the birth of navigation. The Polynesian 
i - 1 bl i ■ to steer his boat to a safe port in a known group of islands, but he knows only 
ro ite. and lie departs not from it. Should a current carry him away, he is forced 
■ " a i In Ipl'K-Iy over the surface of the boundless ocean. His knowledge is quite 
•1 tin r. i- no scientific union among its different parts. The sea, for him, is 
uply i me a ; . - of transport, and a vast reservoir for the supply of his alimentary 
In ill- infancy of humanity, as to-day among savages, there was no geography, 
• 1 p. ntly, no H'ientific notions on oceanography. It is only as man rises from 
a' ry mi I through barbarism to a state of civilisation, and as commercial relations 
i • . l.-lvd, that ideas, at first vague and uncertain, can be traced concerning the 
phenomena of the ocean. 
Tin . I -1 wi i tings - ontain very few topographical details. The conceptions of the 
•' h p< oj ! about nature were extremely vague. The Hebrews were not a maritime 
p! ", and < >n -< •queiitly we do not find in biblical literature any ver)" definite 
m r-L' 'rdiiiLT the sea. The following passages: “He hath compassed the waters 
