of Dr. Wyville Thomson, F. R. S. (Professor of Natural History in Edinburgh University by rights, but at present detached for duty in partibus), whose business it is to turn all the wonderfully-packed stores of appliances to account, and to accumulate, before the ship returns to England, such additions to natural knowledge as shall justify the labor and cost involved in the fitting out and maintenance of the expedition.
Under the able and zealous superintendence of the hydrographer, Admiral Richards, every precaution which experience and forethought could devise has been taken to provide the expedition with the material conditions of success; and it would seem as if nothing short of wreck or pestilence, both most improbable contingencies, could prevent the Challenger from doing splendid work, and opening up a new era in the history of scientific voyages.
The dispatch of this expedition is the culmination of a series of such enterprises, gradually increasing in magnitude and importance, which the Admiralty, greatly to its credit, has carried out for some years past; and the history of which is given by Dr. Wyville Thomson in the beautifully-illustrated volume entitled "The Depths of the Sea," published since his departure:
"In the spring of the year 1868, my friend Dr. "W. B. Carpenter, at that time one of the vice-presidents of the Royal Society, was with me in Ireland, where we were working out together the structure and development of the Crinoids. I had long previously had a profound conviction that the land of promise for the naturalist, the only remaining region where there were endless novelties of extraordinary interest ready to the hand which had the means of gathering them, was the bottom of the deep sea. I had even had a glimpse of some of these treasures, for I had seen, the year before, with Prof. Sars, the forms which I have already mentioned, dredged by his son at a depth of 300 to 400 fathoms off the Loffoden Islands. I propounded my views to my fellow-laborer, and we discussed the subject many times over our microscopes. I strongly urged Dr. Carpenter to use his influence at headquarters to induce the Admiralty, probably through the Council of the Eoyal Society, to give us the use of a vessel properly fitted with a dredging-gear and all necessary scientific apparatus, that many heavy questions as to the state of things in the depths of the ocean, which were still in a state of uncertainty, might be definitely settled. After full consideration, Dr. Carpenter promised his hearty cooperation, and we agreed that I should write to him on his return to London, indicating generally the results which I anticipated, and sketching out what I conceived to be a promising line of inquiry. The Council of the Royal Society warmly supported the proposal; and I give here in chronological order the short and eminently satisfactory correspondence which led to the Admiralty placing at the disposal of Dr. Carpenter and myself the gunboat Lightning, under the command of Staff-Commander May, E. N., in the summer of 1868, for a trial cruise to the north of Scotland, and afterward to the much wider surveys in H. M. S. Porcupine, Captain Calver, E. N., which were made with the additional association of Mr.
Gwyn Jeffreys, in the summers of the years 1869 and 1870."
[1]
- ↑ "The Depths of the Sea," pp. 49, 50.
