ARRIVE AT SHEERNESS . 
383 
May we anchor in English waters, after an absence 
of three years and a half. 
A few days more, and we are at Sheerness and 
Chatham, amidst all the bustle and excitement at- 
tendant on returning stores and paying off. 
Thus the cruise has been successfully accomplished, 
and the intentions of the expedition happily achieved. 
That it will exalt our national reputation to a very 
considerable extent, in one of the most popular 
branches of the service, cannot for a moment he 
doubted.* The completion of surveys ; the success 
of soundings ; configuration of the depths of the 
great ocean, with its nature and temperatures, and 
the composition of its bottom, have all been inves- 
tigated and carried out by the hydrographic staff ; 
and Professor Thomson and his talented assistants 
may well be complimented on their labours, which 
have contributed such an abundance of material to 
the various departments of natural history and the 
other scientific branches under their direction. 
By-and-by, when all these subjects shall have been 
investigated, and opinions formed from the nu- 
merous and valuable collections sent home from time 
to time, then — and only then — will a true idea be 
obtained of the activity and research of each member 
of the expedition during the course of the voyage. 
* The Geographical Congress held at Paris, August 1875, awarded 
to the members of the Challenger Expedition a first class medal as a 
token of admiration for the work done by them in the cause of science. 
