EDITOKIAL NOTE. 
This Monograph on Deep-Sea Deposits forms the penultimate volume of the 
Official Eeports on the Scientific Results of the Challenger Expedition. 
The work connected with the examination and study of the samples of 
Deep-Sea Deposits, and the preparation of this Report for the press, have 
occupied a very large part of my time and attention for nearly twenty 
years, and my colleague. Professor A. F. Renard, has also given much of his 
time to the same studies during the past fourteen years. We hope the 
completed work may be regarded as an interesting contribution to our 
knowledge of the ocean, and prove useful to a large number of scientific 
men, as it is the first attempt to deal systematically with Deep-Sea Deposits, 
and the Geology of the sea-bed throughout the whole extent of the ocean. 
There are three Appendices to the volume, — the first containing an 
explanation of the Charts and Diagrams ; the second a Report on the 
Analysis of Manganese Nodules, by John Gibson, Ph.D., of Edinburgh 
University ; and the third Analyses of Deposits and materials from the 
Deposits, by various Analysts. 
The final volume of the Challenger Reports will give a detailed list of 
the organisms procured at each of the Observing Stations, together with 
other summary matter dealing with general questions of Oceanography, and 
will in all probability be published during the course of next year. 
Challenger Office, 45 Frederick Street, 
Edinburgh, November 4, 1891. 
John Murray. 
