-ACT) 
lo 
c. 2 
M'S 
PREFACE. 
The important objects for which H.M.S. Challenger 
was placed at the disposal of a scientific staff 
under the direction of Professor Sir Charles Wyville 
Thomson, F.R.S., the gratifying results obtained by 
the full investigation of the bed of the ocean, and 
the vast amount of information gathered by visits to 
distant lands very rarely explored, render the cruise 
of the Challenger highly interesting and instructive 
to the British public. 
Under these circumstances, I have been induced 
by numerous friends to revise my daily journals, and 
publish in a concise and readable form a continuous 
narrative of this celebrated voyage. 
In this volume I shall not in any way interfere 
with the scientific results, beyond simply naming 
them in a cursory and general way, leaving to 
