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FOUNDERS    OF   OCEANOGRAPHY 
AND   THEIR   WORK 


FRONTISPIECE. 


[Photo  by  Euwix  THOMPSON". 

The  Native  Land — and    Sea — of  Edward  Forbes. 


FOUNDERS     OF^^^ 

OCEANOGRAPHY 
AND  THEIR  WORK 

AN  INTRODUCTION  TO    THE 
SCIENCE   OF   THE  SEA 


BY 

SIR   WILLIAM    A.   HERDMAN 

C.B.E.,  F.R.S.,  D.Sc,  LL.D.,  etc. 

EMERITUS   PROFESSOR   OF  NATURAL  HISTORY  AND   SOMETIME   FIRST 
PROFESSOR   OF   OCEANOGRAPHY   IN   THE   UNIVERSITY   OF   LIVERPOOL 


WITH    MANY    ILLUSTRATIONS 


LONDON 
EDWARD  ARNOLD  &  CO. 

1923 

[All  rights  reserved] 


Made   and  Printed  in  Great  Britain  by 
Butler  &  Tanner  Ltd.,  Frame  and  London 


PREFACE 

This  is  not  a  textbook  of  Oceanography.  The  compre- 
hensive textbook,  drawing  contributions  from  various 
branches  of  science — ranging  from  astronomy  to  biology — 
has  still  to  be  written,  and  possibly  the  time  to  write  such 
an  encyclopsedic  work  on  the  sea  has  not  yet  come.  But 
it  is  not  too  soon  to  let  the  young  university  student,  and 
the  intelligent  public  in  general,  know  that  the  oceans 
present  wonderful  phenomena  and  profoundly  interesting 
problems  to  the  observer  and  the  investigator,  and  that  a 
science  of  the  sea  having  its  roots  in  the  remote  past  has 
of  recent  years  developed  greatly  and  is  now  growing  fast 
into  an  organized  body  of  interrelated  knowledge. 

I  have  myself  lived  through  the  period  that  has  seen 
the  development  of  the  Natural  History  of  the  Sea  into  the 
Science  of  Oceanography,  and  have  known  intimately 
most  of  the  men  who  did  the  pioneer  work.  There  can  be 
but  few  others  now  living  who  have  worked,  as  I  did,  along 
with  Wyville  Thomson  and  John  Murray  in  Edinburgh 
more  than  forty  years  ago,  and  that  is  my  justification 
for  the  introduction  in  the  earlier  chapters  of  some  personal 
impressions  of  these  and  other  nineteenth-century  oceano- 
graphers.  And  even  in  regard  to  that  earlier  pioneer 
Edward  Forbes,  although  I  could  not  have  known  him 
personally  as  he  died  several  years  before  I  was  born,  still 
in  my  boyhood  and  early  youth  in  Edinburgh  some  of  his 
old  friends,  realizing  my  keen  interest  in  the  subject,  talked 
to  me  of  their  lost  hero,  his  ways  and  his  work.  So  that 
I  almost  came  to  believe  that  I  also  had  known  him  and 


vi  PREFACE 

heard  him  discourse  in  glowing  words  of  starfish  and 
nudibranchs  at  the  Isle  of  Man,  of  the  graceful  medusae 
of  the  Clyde  sea-lochs  and  of  dredging  with  Goodsir  and 
MacAndrew  in  the  Hebrides — and  so  felt  that  I  too  had 
dwelt  in  Arcady. 

The  book  is  really  based  upon  a  course  of  about  twenty 
public  lectures  given  in  the  winter  of  1919-20  while  I  held, 
for  the  first  year,  the  newly  established  Chair  of  Oceano- 
graphy in  the  University  of  Liverpool.  The  purpose  of  the 
lectures  was  to  put  before  my  colleagues  and  students  what 
I  regarded  as  the  scope  and  nature  of  this  new  university 
subject,  and  to  interest  the  public  of  Liverpool  in  the  deeper 
knowledge  of  the  seven  seas  that  mean  so  much  to  that 
great  port,  by  giving  examples  of  the  phenomena  and  some 
explanation  of  the  methods  of  investigation  of  the  problems 
of  the  ocean. 

The  book  follows  the  same  lines.  The  first  half-dozen 
chapters  are  in  the  main  biographical,  dealing  with  the 
lives  and  work  of  some  of  the  leading  men  who  have  made 
our  science  ;  and  those  were  selected  in  regard  to  whom 
I  had  something  to  say  at  first  hand.  The  remaining 
chapters  treat  of  subjects  rather  than  men,  and  here  again 
I  have  had  to  be  eclectic  and  have  deliberately  limited 
myself,  in  the  almost  science-wide  as  well  as  world-wide 
range  of  Oceanography,  to  those  matters  in  which  I  was 
myself  most  interested,  and  about  which,  as  one  had  found 
in  lectures  and  conversation,  the  intelligent  non-specialist 
inquirer  for  information  in  regard  to  the  sea  wanted  to  know 
more.  The  treatment  of  the  matter,  then,  is  not  intended 
to  be  exhaustive  even  in  the  subjects  chosen.  The  aim 
is  rather  to  show  that  the  field  of  inquiry  is  wide  and  varied, 
that  the  phenomena  observed — many  of  them  familiar  to 
ocean  voyagers — are  all  matters  requiring  scientific  in- 
vestigation and  are  frequently  interdependent,  so  that  the 
explanation  of  one  requires  a  knowledge  of  another,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  migratory  fish  and  the  distribution  of 


PREFACE  vii 

plankton,  or  the  American  Tile-fish  and  the  movements 
of  the  GuK  Stream  ;  and  tether  that  Oceanography  has 
practical  applications,  such  as  those  bearing  on  the  sea- 
fisheries  and  the  possible  cultivation  of  our  barren  shores, 
all  requiring  further  exploration,  in  the  hope  that  man 
in  the  future  may  become  less  of  a  hunter  and  more  of  a 
farmer  of  the  sea. 

I  desire  to  record  my  grateful  thanks  to  various  colleagues, 
assistants  and  students,  with  whom  I  have  worked  at 
Liverpool  and  Port  Erin,  for  information  and  co-operation 
and  for  the  use  of  some  of  their  photographs  of  natural 
objects  taken  in  the  laboratory  or  at  sea.  I  would  mention 
especially  Professor  R.  Newstead,  Mr.  Andrew  Scott,  Mr. 
Edwin  Thompson,  Dr.  Francis  Ward,  Mr.  E.  Neaverson  and 
Mr.  A.  Fleming.  I  am  indebted  also  to  Professor  Kofoid  of 
California,  Dr.  Jules  Richard  of  Monaco,  Mr.  James  Chumley 
of  the  *'  Challenger "  office,  the  Editor  of  the  Popular 
Science  Monthly  and  the  Controller  of  H.M.  Stationery 
Office  for  their  courtesy  in  lending  me  photographs  or  in 
permitting  me  to  reprint  articles  or  illustrations. 

Finally,  I  would  add  that  this  book  is  associated  in  my 
mind  with  the  memory  of  my  wife — the  constant  companion 
by  land  and  sea,  in  work  and  play,  of  close  on  thirty  years — 
who  helped  me  to  establish  the  University  Department  of 
Oceanography,  who  encouraged  me  to  give  the  course  of 
lectures  and  frequently  urged  me  to  prepare  them  for 
publication,  and  whose  helpful  criticism  of  the  material  in 
its  present  form  would  have  been  invaluable. 

W.  A.   HERDMAN. 
Liverpool, 

July,  1923. 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGE 

I    Introductory  :      The     Earliest     Founders     of 

Oceanography         ......         1 

II     The   Life   and    Work    of    Edward    Forbes,   the 

Manx  Naturalist  (1815-1854)  .  .  .12 

III  Sir  C.  Wyville  Thomson  and  the  "  Challenger  " 

Expedition     .  ......       37 

IV  Sir     John  Murray,    the     Pioneer    of    Modern 

Oceanography         ......       69 

V    Louis    and    Alexander    Agassiz    and    American 

Explorations  ......       99 

VI    The  Prince  of  Monaco  and  the  Oceanographic 

Museum  .         .         .         .         .         .         .119 

VII  Marine  Biological  Stations  for  Research  .  .134 

VIII  Hydrography        .         .         .         .         .  .  .     145 

IX  Ocean  Currents  :  The  Gulf  Stream     .  .  .170 

X  Submarine  Deposits      .         .         .         .  .  .182 

XI  Coral  Reefs  and  Islands    .         .         .  .  .201 

XII  "Phosphorescence,"  or  Luminescence  in  the  Sea    212 

XIII  Plankton  :  Its  Nature  and  Investigation  .  .231 

XIV  Plankton    {continued)  i     Its    Variations    and    its 

Problems        .         .         ,.         .         .         .         .     256 

XV    Applied    Oceanography  :      Aquiculture — Oyster 

Ain)  Mussel  Fisheries    .         .         .         .         .279 

XVI    The  Sea-Fisheries 293 

XVII    Food-Matters  in  the  Sea     .         .         .         .         .312 

Appendix  ;    Memorandum  on  Proposed  National 

Expedition  for  the  Exploration  of  the  Sea  .     33 1 
Index  .........     337 

iz 


LIST  OF  PLATES 


The  Native  Land — and  Sea — of  Edward  Forbes       Frontispiece 
I'i'ATE  To  face  page. 

I    Three  Stages  est  the  Oceanographic  Knowledge 


OF  THE  Ancients         .         .         .         . 
II    Professor  Edward  Forbes 

III      DiAZONA    VIOL  ACE  A         ..... 

IV    Bust  of  Edward  Forbes  ;    Forbes's  Distribu 
tional  Map  of  the  British  Seas 

V  Sir  Wyvelle  Thomson       .... 

VI  Sir  John  Murray     ..... 

VII  Professor  Louis  Agassiz 

VIII  Alexander  Agassiz  on  U.S.S.  "  Albatross  " 

IX    The  Prince  of  Monaco  and  the  Monaco  Museum 
OF  Oceanography       .... 

X    Dr.  Anton  Dohrn  and  the  Zoological  Station 
AT  Naples  ..... 

XI  Neritic  Deposits       ..... 

XII  Globigerina  Ooze     ..... 

XIII  Amphipoda  ;    Ctenophora 

XIV  NocTiLUCA ;    Cerativm  ;   Copepoda     . 

XV      FUNICULINA   QUADRANGULARIS 

XVI    Pennatula  peospeorea  ;  Meganyctjpeanes  nor 

VEGICA  ...... 

XVII     Set  of  Plankton  Nets  ;  Mixed  Plankton. 

XVIII    The    Tile    Fish  :     Lucas    Sounding    Machine 
"  Hensen  "  Quantitative  Net  . 
xi 


4 
16 
20 

36 

60 

94 

106 

118 

128 

138 
186 
188 
212 
214 
218 

220 
232 

234 


xii  LIST  OF  PLATES 

PLATE                                                                                To  face  page 

XIX    Phyto-Plankton  ;    Zoo-Plankton      .         .         .  236 

XX    ZoEA  Stage  of  Cbab  ;  Sagitta  bipunctata          .  238 

XXI    Plankton-Net    Silk,    new    and    old  ;     Mixed 

Plankton;   Zoo-Plankton  ....  254 

XXII    BiDDULPEiA  ;    Nauplius  and   Cypris  Stages  of 

Balanus 256 

XXIII  Temoea  longicornis 270 

XXIV  Large  hauls  of  Calanus  finmarceicus    .         .  272 

XXV    Oyster  Culture  at  Arcachon  .         .         .         .282 

XXVI    Mussel    Skear   in    Morecambe    Bay  ;     Oyster 

Culture  in  the  Bay  of  Spezia           .         .  286 

XXVII    Transplanted  Mussels  in  Morecambe  Bay          .  290 

XXVIII     Plaice  Larva  ;  Plaice  Hatching  Boxes  at  Port 

Erin  Biological  Station    ....  300 


FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 
AND  THEIR  WORK 

CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTORY— THE  EARLIEST  FOUNDERS  OF 

OCEANOGRAPHY 

)  Oceanography,  the  Science  of  the  Sea,  is  a  subject  of 
modern  development  though  of  ancient  origin.  It  is  only 
of  recent  years  that,  for  very  good  reasons,  it  has  come  to 
be  recognized  as  a  distinct  branch  of  science,  an  organized 
body  of  knowledge.  Including,  as  it  does,  the  study  of  the 
sea  and  its  contents  in  all  aspects— ^physical,  chemical,  and 
biological — it  was  not  until  other  sciences  were  sufficiently 
advanced  to  admit  of  their  methods  and  results  being 
applied  to  the  phenomena  of  the  sea  that  oceanography 
became  a  strictly  scientific  study.  Moreover,  the  develop- 
ment of  modern  oceanography  has  been  largely  dependent 
upon  the  use  of  steam,  both  for  the  purpose  of  taking  up  and 
maintaining  exact  observing  stations  at  sea,  and  also  for 
working  the  complicated  apparatus  that  is  necessary  in  scien- 
tific investigation.  To  show  the  comprehensive  nature  of 
this  science  of  the  sea,  we  need  only  recall  its  division  into 
Hydrography,  Metabolism,  Bionomics,  and  Tidology,  in 
which  sections  physics,  chemistry,  biology,  and  mathe- 
matics are  respectively  involved. 

But  the  foundations  of  oceanography  can  be  traced  back 
to  the  earliest  times,  to  the  observations  of  naturalists  and 
the  records  of  seamen  from  the  voyages  of  the  Phoenicians 
onwards.     Vasco  da  Gama,  who  first  reached  India  by  the 

1  B 


2  FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  Magellan,  who  first  tried  to  sound 
the  Pacific,  were  early  oceanographers  ;  so  were  Captain 
James  Cook  and  Sir  J.  Clark  Ross,  who  first  dredged  the 
Antarctic  ;  but  long  before  their  days  the  early  Phoenician, 
Carthaginian,  and  Greek  explorers,  starting  with  their  home 
sea,  the  Mediterranean,  brought  back  the  first  records  of  the 
nearer  parts  of  the  Indian  Ocean  and  of  the  Atlantic  outside 
the  Pillars  of  Hercules.  The  records  of  the  early  voyages  of 
the  Phoenicians  and  the  Carthaginians,  all  apparently  under- 
taken with  commercial  ends  in  view,  have  unfortunately 
not  been  preserved  ;  ^  but  we  know  that  the  Phoenicians 
reached  Britain,  and  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the 
Carthaginians  discovered  the  Sargasso  Sea  off  the  west 
coast  of  Africa,  and  that  Hanno  the  Carthaginian,  about 
500  B.C.,  penetrated  as  far  south  as  the  Gambia.  Herodotus 
states  that  Necho  II,  King  of  Egypt  about  600  B.C.,  sent 
certain  Phoenician  sailors  to  go  down  the  Red  Sea  and  along 
the  east  coast  of  Africa,  and  that  in  the  third  year  they 
came  back  by  the  Pillars  of  Hercules  and  reached  Egypt  by 
the  Mediterranean,  reporting  that  as  they  sailed  round 
Africa,  after  a  time  they  had  the  sun  on  their  right  hand — that 
is,  to  the  north — which  Herodotus  does  not  believe  possible  ; 
but  the  observation  as  to  the  sun  is  very  convincing.  It  is 
doubtful  whether  the  circumnavigation  was  ever  repeated 
until  Vasco  da  Gama,  two  thousand  years  later,  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  doubled  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  from  the  west. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  trace  all  the  stages  ^  in  the  accumula- 
tion of  this  earliest  knowledge  of  the  sea  :  they  may  be 
illustrated  by  three  examples  selected  from  the  writings  and 

^  It  is  thought  that  Marinus  of  Tyre,  the  first  really  scientific 
geographer,  who  lived  towards  the  close  of  the  first  century  a.d., 
in  the  time  of  Trajan  and  Hadrian,  made  use  of  the  store  of  geographic 
and  hydrographic  knowledge  accumulated  by  the  Phoenicians  in 
the  construction  of  his  improved  maps  ;  and  that  Ptolemy  of  Pelusium 
in  turn  founded  his  geographical  work  upon  the  maps  of  Marinus. 

2  A  very  full  account  will  be  foimd  in  Sir  John  Miu-ray's  *'  Sum- 
mary "  in  the  "  Challenger  "  Reports,  which  I  have  used  freely. 


INTRODUCTORY  3 

maps  of  the  ancients.  First,  the  traditional  voyages  which 
are  crystaUized  in  the  mythical  adventm^es  of  Jason  in  the 
Argo,  and  of  the  world  as  known  to  Homer  (say,  1000  B.C.), 
and  may  also  be  represented  by  the  map  ofHecatseus  (about 
500  B.C.),  showing  the  great  river-like  "  Oceanus  "  surround- 
ing the  known  lands  bordering  the  Mediterranean  (see  Plate  I) 
— a  poetical  misrepresentation,  which  was  corrected  by 
Herodotus  in  the  following  century. 

The  second  stage  may  be  represented  by  the  discoveries 
of  the  astronomer  Pytheas,  a  contemporary  of  Alexander 
the  Great,  who  sailed  from  Massilia,  in  the  fourth  century 
B.C.,  through  the  Strait  of  Gibraltar,  along  the  coasts  of  Spain 
and  France,  penetrated  to  the  North  Sea  and  up  the  east 
coast  of  the  British  Isles,  and  heard,  if  he  did  not  actually 
see  it,  of  a  land  still  farther  north,  six  days'  sail  beyond 
Britain,  which  he  called  Thule,  and  where,  he  reports,  the 
sea  became  thick  and  sluggish  like  a  jelly-fish  (possibly  the 
earliest  record  of  a  planktonic  phenomenon,  due  either  to 
dense  swarms  of  Medusae  or  to  gelatinous  masses  of  Diatoms). 
He  was  the  first  scientific  investigator  of  the  Atlantic,  and 
penetrated  where  we  have  no  record  of  others  following 
for  about  four  centuries.  Pytheas,  moreover,  made  notable 
contributions  to  oceanography  in  his  determination  of  lati- 
tudes and  in  ascribing  the  phenomena  of  tides  to  the  action 
of  the  moon.  The  state  of  knowledge  after  his  explorations 
may  be  illustrated  by  the  map  of  Dicaearchus  (about  300  B.C. 
— a  pupil  of  Aristotle),  extending  from  Thule  (possibly 
Iceland)  in  the  north-west  to  Taprobane  (Ceylon)  in  the 
south-east. 

Two  names,  more  celebrated  in  other  spheres  of  knowledge 
but  belonging  to  this  period,  requu'e  passing  mention. 
Plato's  myth  of  the  lost  ''  Atlantis,"  a  mass  of  land  in  the 
external  sea  beyond  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  which  disap- 
peared in  a  day  and  a  night,  rendering  the  Atlantic  muddy 
and  unnavigable,  has  given  rise  throughout  the  ages  to 
many  attempts  to  interpret  this  tradition  by  means  of 


4  FOUNDERS   OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

geological  phenomena,  such  as  the  possible  transposition  of 
continents  and  ocean  basins,  culminating  in  the  vain  "  search 
for  Atlantis  with  the  microscope  "  in  the  modern  investiga- 
tion of  oceanic  deposits. 

Aristotle,  also  about  the  time  of  Pytheas,  took  all  know- 
ledge for  his  province,  and  may  be  regarded  as  contributing 
to  oceanography  mainly  from  the  points  of  view  of  the 
marine  naturalist  and  the  philosophic  geographer.  His 
death,  if  there  is  any  truth  in  the  legend  that  he  threw  himself 
into  the  whirlpool  in  despair  at  being  unable  to  understand 
the  currents  in  the  Strait  of  Euripus,  is  unworthy  alike  of 
a  philosopher  and  an  oceanographer. 

Although  the  Romans  had  extended  their  empire  over 
most  of  the  known  world,  they  made  no  noteworthy  con- 
tributions to  scientific  discovery.  But  in  their  time  the  Greek 
geographer  Strabo,  in  the  first  century  B.C.,  wrote  a  compre- 
hensive work  on  the  physiography  of  land  and  sea  ;  and 
Posidonius  asserts  that  he  measured  the  sea  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Sardinia  to  a  depth  of  1,000  fathoms.  It  would 
be  interesting  to  know  how  he  did  it.  There  is  no  further 
record  of  deep-sea  sounding  till  we  come  to  the  time  of 
Magellan,  fifteen  centuries  later. 

I  may  just  refer  in  passing  to  their  contemporary,  Pliny, 
whose  work  (the  Historia  Naturalis)  is  little  more  than  a 
compilation,  and  not  entirely  free  from  errors.  He  records 
in  all  176  marine  animals  (four  less  than  Aristotle  recorded 
from  the  ^Egean  alone),  and  yet  is  so  pleased  with  his  cata- 
logue that  he  writes  :  "  By  Hercules,  in  the  sea  and  in  the 
ocean,  vast  as  it  is,  there  exists  nothing  that  is  unknown 
to  us,  and,  a  truly  marvellous  fact,  it  is  with  those  things 
that  nature  has  concealed  in  the  deep  that  we  are  best 
acquainted  !  "  I  only  wish  that  we  moderns,  after  nearly 
two  thousand  years  of  further  investigation,  were  able  to 
say  as  much.  The  more  we  find  out  about  the  sea,  the  more 
new  problems  open  up  before  us  for  investigation. 

The  third  stage  in  early  knowledge  may  be  represented 


PLATE  I. 


1.  As  known  in  the  time  of  Homer — 1000  B.C. 


2. — As  known  in  the  time  of  Hecataeus — 500  B.C. 


3. — As  known  in  the  time  of  Ptolemy — 150  a.d. 
Thkee  Stages  in  the  Oceanographic  Knowledge  of  the  Ancients. 


INTRODUCTORY  5 

by  the  celebrated  map  usually  attributed  to  the  Alexandrian 
astronomer  and  geographer,  C.  Ptolemy,  in  the  second 
century  a.d.,  one  of  the  notable  features  of  which  is  that 
it  represents  the  Indian  Ocean  as  an  enclosed  sea  bounded 
to  the  south  by  land  extending  from  Africa  to  China — an 
error  which  remained  uncorrected  till  the  time  of  Captain 
James  Cook,  towards  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
(Plate  I.) 

Ptolem}^,  like  others  before  him,  believed  that  the  furthest 
known  land  to  the  east  (Asia)  came  so  near  to  the  known 
west  coast  of  Europe  that  a  ship  might  easily  sail  from 
Spain  to  India,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  error 
which  Ptolemy's  map  did  so  much  to  perpetuate  had  great 
weight  in  determining  the  voyages  of  Columbus  and  others 
towards  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  so  led  eventually 
to  the  discovery  of  America.  With  Ptolemy  we  come  to 
the  end  of  the  scientific  oceanographers  of  classical  times. 

Let  us  now  pass  over  the  dark  ages  and  some  succeeding 
centuries  during  which  the  scientific  investigation  of  nature 
was  at  a  standstill.  With  the  exception  of  the  explorations 
of  the  Norsemen  in  the  North  Atlantic  and  of  the  Arabs  in 
the  Indian  Ocean,  in  mediaeval  times,  when  it  is  said  they 
obtained  the  idea  of  the  mariner's  compass  from  China,  little 
advance  was  made  till  the  glorious  period  at  the  end  of  the 
fifteenth  and  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  when  the 
Portuguese  and  Spaniards  opened  up  enormous  new  areas  of 
ocean  and  demonstrated  that  the  Earth  is  a  sphere. 

Prince  Henry  of  Portugal,  surnamed  "  The  Navigator  " 
(grandson  of  "  Old  John  of  Gaunt"),  founded  in  1420  his 
school  of  maritime  research  at  Sagres,  near  Cape  St.  Vincent, 
on  the  south-west  corner  of  Portugal,  where  he  trained  the 
men  who  led  successive  voyages  of  exploration  in  the  Atlantic. 
At  the  time  of  his  death,  in  1460,  the  west  coast  of  Africa  was 
known  down  to  about  a  third  of  the  way  to  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope.  The  Cape  was  finally  rounded  by  Bartholomew  Diaz 
in  1486,  but  it  was  not  till  1497  that  Vasco  da  Gama  com- 


6  FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

pleted  the  circuit  of  Africa  and  reached  India  by  the  Cape. 
Columbus,  seeking  the  treasures  of  the  East,  landed  on  the 
Antilles  in  the  New  World  in  October,  1492,  and  believed  he 
had  reached  Asia,  from  which  he  was  now  farther  off  than 
when  he  left  Spain.  He  is  said  to  have  had  with  him  on  his 
first  voyage  the  map  of  the  learned  Florentine,  Toscanelli  ^ 
(1474),  which  shows  Japan  and  other  islands  off  the  coast 
of  Cathay  in  the  position  really  occupied  by  the  North 
American  continent.  A  century  later,  the  map  of  the  world 
according  toOrtelius  (1570)  shows  in  contrast  the  enormous 
changes  in  knowledge  of  land  and  sea  effected  by  these 
and  other  exploring  voyages  of  the  late  fifteenth  and  early 
sixteenth  centuries. 

Magellan,  finally,  sailed  from  Spain  with  five  ships  in 
September,  1519,  passed  through  the  straits  that  bear 
his  name  in  November,  1520,  crossed  the  Pacific,  and, 
although  he  and  some  of  his  companions  were  killed  by  the 
natives  of  Zebu  in  the  Philippines  in  April,  1521,  the  sur- 
vivors of  his  expedition  reached  Spain  in  their  one  remaining 
ship  the  following  year  (September  1522),  having  circum- 
navigated the  globe  in  three  years — in  which  enterprise  he 
was  followed  by  our  English  circumnavigator,  Sir  Francis 
Drake,  who  rounded  Cape  Horn  fifty- seven  years  later.  In 
his  passage  through  the  Pacific,  Magellan  attempted  to 
determine  the  depth,  and  failing  to  reach  bottom  with  the 
ship's  sounding  lines  of  a  few  hundred  fathoms,  concluded 
that  he  had  reached  the  deepest  part  of  the  ocean.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  depth  at  that  spot  is  about  2,000  fathoms, 
or  nearly  three  English  miles.  This  is  supposed  to  be  the 
first  attempt  at  sounding  in  the  open  sea,  and  no  further 
attempt  is  recorded  for  centuries  after. 

As  Sir  John  Murray  points  out :    "  The  memorable  dis- 

^  This  is  disputed  by  H.  Vignaud  {Toscanelli  and  Columbus, 
London,  1902),  who  declares  that  the  ToscaneUi  map  is  a  forgery, 
and  that  Columbus  really  got  his  sailing  directions  from  an  obscure 
pilot  he  met  at  Madeira  about  1484. 


INTRODUCTORY 


coveries  in  the  thirty  years  from  1492  to  1522  doubled  at  a 
single  bound  all  that  was  previously  known  of  the  surface 
of  the  earth,  and  added  a  hemisphere  to  the  chart  of  the 
world.  .  .  .  Columbus,  Gama,  Magellan,  America,  the 
route  to  India,  the  circumnavigation  of  the  globe  ;  three 
men  and  three  facts  opened  gloriously  a  new  era  of  history, 
of  geography,  and  especially  of  oceanography."  (See  the 
group  bracketed  together  in  the  middle  of  the  following  state- 
ment of  a  few  important  ancient  and  modern  approximate 
dates) : — 


Age  of  Homer  (and  voyage  of  the 
Map  of  Hecataeus 
Voyage  of  Pytheas     . 
JNIaj)  of  Dicsearchus     . 
Map  of  Ptolemy 

/Bartholomew  Diaz 

Columbus 

Vasco  da  Gama 
(^Magellan 
Jam.es  Cook 
James  C.  Ross   . 
"  Challenger  "  Expedition 


Argo  "  ?) 


about  1000  B.C. 

about  500  B.C. 

fourth  century  B.C. 

about  300  B.C. 

150  A.D. 

1486  A.D. 
1492  A.D. 
1497  A.D. 

1521  A.D. 

1772  A.D. 
1840  A.D. 
1872  A.D. 


We  now  come  upon  a  period  of  comparative  inactivity, 
from  the  early  sixteenth  to  the  late  eighteenth  century  when 
Captain  James  Cook  (1728-1779),  that  truly  scientific  naviga- 
tor, sent  to  the  South  Pacific  on  a  Transit  of  Venus  Expedition 
in  1769,  with  Sir  Joseph  Banks  as  naturalist,  subsequently 
in  1772  circumnavigated  the  South  Sea  about  latitude  60°, 
and  finally  disproved  the  existence  of  a  great  southern 
continent.  He  sailed  round  New  Zealand,  rediscovered 
Australia  and  annexed  it  ta  Great  Britain,  incidentally 
making  known  to  science  that  strange  animal  the  kangaroo. 
He  discovered  innumerable  islands  in  the  Pacific,  such  as 
New  Caledonia  and  the  Sandwich  group,  where  he  was  killed 
by  the  natives  in  1779. 

Thus,  in  this  brief  story  of  the  growth  of  knowledge  of 
the  oceans,  we  have  first  the  ancient  explorers  and  writers  up 
to  the  time  of  Ptolemy  (about  150  A. d.),  then  the  great  age 


8 


FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 


of  geographical  discovery  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  and 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  finally  the  modern 
expeditions  beginning  with  Cook's  voyages  of  150  years  ago 
and  extending  up  to  the  present  time. 

Taking  the  century  that  elapsed  between  Cook's  last 
voyage  and  the  "  Challenger  "  expedition  of  1872,  it  is 
interesting  to  notice  the  names  of  the  great  men  of  science 
who  went  as  naturalists  on  some  of  the  more  notable 
expeditions,  and  who  all  contributed  in  their  turn  to  our 
knowledge  of  the  sea  and  its  contents. 


Date. 

Ship. 

Captain. 

Naturalist. 

1768-71 

"Endeavour" 

Cook 

Sir  Joseph  Banks 

1831-6 

"  Beagle  " 

Fitzroy 

Charles  Darwin 

1839-42 

"  Porpoise  " 

Wilkes 

J.  D.  Dana 

1839-43 

"  Erebus  "  & 
"  Terror  " 

James  C.  Ross 

Joseph  Hooker 

1846-50 

"Rattlesnake" 

Stanley 

T.  H.  Huxley 

1860 

"  Bulldog  " 

McClintock 

G.  C.  Wallieh 

1868 

"  Lightning  " 

May 

Wyville  Thomson  and 
W.  B.  Carpenter 

1869-70 

"  Porcupine  " 

Calver 

Wy.  Thomson,  Carpenter, 
and  Gwyn  Jeffreys 

1872-76 

"Challenger" 

Nares 

Wy.  Thomson  and  others 

Cook  and  his  immediate  successors  bring  us  to  about  the 
end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  we  may  conveniently 
group  the  advances  in  knowledge  of  the  science  of  the  sea 
during  the  nineteenth  century  in  three  periods — the  period 
of  Edward  Forbes,  the  great  Manx  naturaHst ;  the  period  of 
Wyville  Thomson,  ending  with  its  climax,  the  "  Challenger  " 
expedition;  and  the  post-"  Challenger  "  period  of  Sir  John 
Murray  and  modern  oceanography,  which  brings  us  prac- 
tically to  the  methods  and  knowledge  of  to-day. 

The  first  of  these  three  periods,  the  earlier  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  was  the  time  of  the  field-naturalists 
and  collectors,  and  of  the  beginnings  of  marine  biology  and 


INTRODUCTORY  9 

scientific  dredging  in  shallow  water  round  the  coasts.  Forbes 
was  the  type  of  a  whole  series  of  men  who  did  notable  pioneer 
work  in  marine  biology  during  the  middle  part  of  last  century, 
and  produced  authoritative  books  and  monographs  which 
mark  a  great  advance  in  knowledge  of  the  natural  history 
of  the  British  seas.  Many  of  these  men  were  amateurs  of 
science  who  had  other  professions  ;  but  Forbes  was  not. 
He  was  all  his  life  a  hard-working  professional  teacher  of 
the  natural  sciences,  but  he  did  much  to  inspire  and  encourage 
these  other  workers  of  his  day — especially  in  the  use  of  the 
dredge  as  an  instrument  of  research. 

The  "  dredge  "  of  science  is  a  modification  of  the  fisher- 
man's oyster- dredge,  and  the  Italians  Donati  and  Marsigli 
used  some  such  simple  contrivance  for  bringing  up  material 
from  the  sea-bottom  in  the  Mediterranean  before  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century. 

The  use  of  the  naturalist's  dredge  (introduced  to  science 
by  0.  F.  Miiller,  the  Dane,  in  1799)  for  exploring  the  sea- 
bottom  was  brought  into  prominence  almost  simultaneously 
in  several  countries  of  North-west  Europe — by  Henri  Milne- 
Edwards  in  France  in  1830,  by  Michael  Sars  in  Norway  in 
1835,  and  in  our  own  country  by  Edward  Forbes  about  1832. 
The  last-named  genial  and  many-sided  genius  was  a  man  of 
Scottish  descent,  who  was  born  rather  more  than  a  hundred 
years  ago,  and  died  in  1854,  when  not  yet  forty  years  of  age. 
He  produced  an  extraordinary  amount  of  first-rate  work  in 
his  short  life,  and  inspired  advances  in  oceanography  which 
he  did  not  live  to  see  carried  out.  As  a  result  of  observations 
in  the  Eastern  Mediterranean,  he  published  a  list  of  "  zones  " 
of  marine  life,  much  of  which  is  still  accepted,  though  his 
supposed  "  azoic  "  zone  at  300  fathoms  was  shown  by 
Wyville  Thomson  and  others  to  be  a  mistake.  Forbes 's 
theories  on  distribution  and  on  the  origin  of  the  British 
fauna  and  flora,  even  if  in  part  erroneous,  have  had  an 
important  position  and  influence  in  the  history  of  science, 
and  have  led  up  to  the  very  researches  which  resulted  in  more 


10  FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

correct  views.  He  was  the  most  original,  brilliant,  and 
inspiring  naturalist  of  his  day,  with  a  broad  outlook  over 
nature  and  a  capacity  for  investigating  border-line  problems 
involving  several  branches  of  science ;  he  was,  in  a  word,  a 
pioneer  of  oceanography.  His  work  will  be  dealt  with  in 
some  detail  in  the  following  chapter. 

If  Edward  Forbes  was  the  pioneer  of  shallow-water 
dredging,  Wyville  Thomson  played  a  similar  part  in  regard 
to  the  exploration  of  the  depths  of  the  ocean.  His  name 
will  go  down  through  the  ages  as  the  leader  of  the  famous 
"  Challenger  "  expedition,  by  far  the  most  important  scientific 
deep-sea  exploring  expedition  of  all  times.  This  and  the 
immediately  preceding  British  expeditions  in  the  "  Light- 
ning "  and  "  Porcupine  "  demonstrated  that  there  is  no 
azoic  zone  in  the  sea,  but  that  numbers  of  animals  are 
found  living  down  to  the  greatest  depths  of  five  or  six  miles 
from  the  surface,  and  that  some  of  these  animals  are  related 
to  extinct  forms,  known  as  tertiary  and  cretaceous  fossils. 
These  "  Challenger  "  oceanographic  results  will  be  dealt  with 
more  fully  in  a  future  chapter. 

The  work  of  Sir  John  Murray  brings  us  to  the  third  or  post- 
**  Challenger  "  period  in  nineteenth- century  oceanography. 
Murray's  work  dicing  the  great  expedition  was  chiefly  on 
three  subjects  of  primary  importance — plankton,  coral  reefs, 
and  submarine  deposits,  which  have  all  been  most  fruitful 
of  results  both  in  his  own  hands  and  those  of  others  since. 

After  the  return  of  the  "  Challenger,"  in  1876,  Murray 
took  part  in  the  two  subsidiary  expeditions  of  the  "  Knight- 
Errant  "  and  the  "  Triton  "  to  explore  the  "  warm  "  and  the 
"  cold  "  areas  of  the  Faroe  Channel,  which  had  been  first 
noticed  by  Wyville  Thomson  in  the  "  Lightning  "  in  1868. 
These  cruises  resulted  in  the  discovery  of  the  "  Wyville- 
Thomson  Ridge,"  which  separates  the  cold  Arctic  water 
from  the  warmer  Atlantic,  and  causes  very  different  faunas 
to  exist  in  close  proximity.  Murray's  oceanographic  work 
concluded  with  his  joint  exploration  of  the  North  Atlantic 


INTRODUCTORY  11 

with  Dr.  Johan  Hjort  in  the  "  Michael  Sars  "  during  the 
summer  of  1910,  with  notable  results,  which  are  now  in  course 
of  pubUcation. 

Several  other  national  exploring  expeditions  followed 
that  of  the  "  Challenger,"  and  a  few  private  or  non-official 
oceanographers  have  carried  out  very  notable  investigations 
in  their  own  vessels.  Two  of  these  stand  out  prominently 
on  account  of  the  extent  of  their  explorations,  viz.,  (1) 
Alexander  Agassiz  in  America,  who  has,  it  is  said,  undertaken 
more  extensive  cruises,  chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  examining 
the  details  of  coral  reefs,  than  any  other  man  ;  and  (2)  the 
late  Prince  of  Monaco,  the  munificent  founder  of  the  Oceano- 
graphic  Institute  at  Paris  and  the  Museum  of  Oceanography 
at  Monaco.  The  work  of  both  these  non-official  oceano- 
graphers will  also  be  discussed  in  later  chapters. 

Each  of  these  pioneers,  and  founders  as  they  may  be 
considered,  of  oceanography  presents  to  the  historian  of 
science  so  much  of  interest  and  real  importance  in  relation  to 
the  rapid  growth  of  our  knowledge  of  the  sea,  and  is  so  much 
a  prototype  of  the  workers  of  his  period,  that  I  propose 
to  devote  the  next  few  chapters  to  short  biographical 
studies  of  the  main  events  in  the  life  and  work  of  each  of 
the  men  I  have  mentioned  from  Edward  Forbes  onwards. 
It  is  surely  only  right  that  the  younger  generations  of  oceano- 
graphers who  are  making  the  advances  of  the  present  and 
the  future,  should  be  informed  what  manner  of  men  their 
predecessors  were,  and  how  they  Hved  and  did  their  work. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   LIFE  AND  WORK  OF  EDWARD  FORBES, 
THE  MANX  NATURALIST   (1815-1854) 

During  the  year  1915  enthusiastic  meetings  were  held  at 
Douglas,  in  the  Isle  of  Man,  and  by  Manx  societies  in  London  ^ 
and  elsewhere,  to  celebrate  the  centenary  of  the  birth  of 
Edward  Forbes,  the  distinguished  Manx  naturalist,  who  was 
a  notable  figure  in  British  science  during  the  second  quarter 
of  the  nineteenth  century. 

A  century  before,  in  1815,  the  Napoleonic  wars  were  just 
ending.  In  the  earlier  part  of  the  year  when  Edward  Forbes 
was  born,  Waterloo  had  not  yet  been  fought.  Napoleon  was 
still  at  large,  and  the  state  of  public  affairs  was,  in  some 
respects,  not  unlike  what  we  were  passing  through  a  few  years 
ago.  Europe  was  then  also  an  armed  camp,  most  of  the 
great  nations  were  at  war,  and  then,  as  again  a  hundred  years 
later,  this  country  was  fighting,  along  with  allies,  against  the 
greatest  military  power  of  the  time— fighting  for  the  cause 
of  humanity  and  freedom  against  the  tyranny  of  a  military 
autocracy. 

Before  the  time  of  the  Crimean  War  and  the  Indian 
Mutiny,  Forbes  was  dead  ;  so  his  brief  life  was  lived  in  a 
time  of  peace,  when  notable  advances  were  made  in  the  Arts 
and  Sciences,  and  in  their  application  to  University  educa- 
tion, in  all  of  which  he  played  a  prominent  part. 

1  For  some  of  the  statements  in  the  following  pages  I  am  indebted 
to  speeches  made  on  these  occasions,  and  more  especially  to  the 
excellent  Memoir  of  Edward  Forbes,  published  in  1861,  by  Professors 
George  Wilson  and  Archibald  Geikie. 

12 


EDWARD  FORBES  13 

Edward  Forbes  was  born  on  the  12th  of  February,  1815, 
at  Douglas,  where  his  father  was  a  banker.  Though  settled 
in  the  Isle  of  Man  for  several  generations,  the  Forbes  family- 
was  of  Scottish  descent,  the  great-grandfather,  who  was 
involved  in  the  Jacobite  rising  of  1745,  having  fled  to  the 
island  for  refuge.  The  mother  of  Edward  Forbes  was  Jane 
Teare,  heiress  of  the  estates  of  Cor  valla  and  Ballabeg  at 
Ballaugh,  where  her  ancestors  had  lived  for  centuries,  com- 
bining, no  doubt,  in  their  blood  both  the  Scandinavian  and 
the  Celtic  elements  which  are  found  in  the  Manx  people.  As 
his  paternal  grandmother  again  was  English,  our  naturalist, 
though  born  and  bred  a  Manxman,  was  of  mixed  blood,  and 
may  have  inherited  qualities  from  all  that  is  best  in  our 
complex  British  nation. 

As  seems  frequently  to  be  the  case  with  naturalists,  it  was 
from  his  mother  that  Forbes  derived  his  love  of  nature,  and 
more  particularly  his  early  taste  for  botany.  It  was  certainly 
inborn  in  him,  as  we  hear  that  at  the  early  age  of  seven  he  had 
already  collected  and  arranged  a  museum  of  natural  objects, 
and  had  appointed  a  younger  sister  as  assistant  curator. 
He  was  a  delicate  boy,  unable  to  go  to  school  till  the  age  of 
twelve,  and  it  was,  no  doubt,  to  encourage  these  self-taught 
home  studies  that  his  father  built  an  addition  to  their  house 
to  contain  the  boy's  museum,  and  it  was  there  that  in  his 
early  youth  Forbes  started  those  collections  which,  in  later 
life,  formed  the  basis  of  his  celebrated  books  on  British 
Echinoderms  and  British  Mollusca. 

Home  education  in  the  case  of  a  clever  child  probably 
always  favours  precocity,  introspection,  and  over-ambitious 
attempts.  Still,  he  must  have  been  a  remarkable  boy  to  have 
produced  in  his  twelfth  year  a  MS.  work  entitled  A  Manual 
of  British  Natural  History  in  all  its  Departments.  He  was, 
we  are  told,  a  gentle  and  sweet-tempered  child,  and  probably 
his  keenest  interests  were  in  the  living  things  and  wild  nature 
around  him.  He  must  have  been  very  unlike  most  boys  of 
his  age,  and  so  was  liable  to  be  misunderstood  and  unappre- 


14  FOUNDERS   OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

ciated.  It  is  recorded  that  his  grandmother  Teare,  seeing 
him  grubbing  for  snails  in  a  hedge,  said  (in  Manx)  :  "  Ta  mee 
credjal  naugh  vod  slane  Elian  Vannin  sauail  yn  guilley  shoh 
veicli  cheet  dy  ve  ommydan  "  (=1  believe  the  whole  Isle  of 
Man  cannot  save  this  boy  from  being  a  fool). 

He  was  at  school  for  a  few  years  at  Douglas,  where  he  is 
described  as  never  having  his  pencil  out  of  his  hand,  and  as 
covering  his  books  and  exercises  and  the  margins  of  his  Latin 
verses  with  sketches  of  animals  and  caricatures  and  fancy 
pictures  of  all  kinds.  Then  he  left  home  for  good  at  the  age 
of  seventeen.  His  mother  had  hoped  he  would  enter  the 
Church ;  his  father  wished  him  to  be  a  doctor.  As  a  com- 
promise he  went  to  London  to  study  Art !  Although 
exceedingly  clever  with  his  pencil,  as  the  illustrations  in 
many  of  his  books  abundantly  testify,  four  months  in  London 
convinced  him  that  he  could  never  be  a  professional  artist, 
and  he  then  decided  to  fall  in  with  his  father's  wishes  and 
study  medicine  in  Edinburgh.  It  is  of  interest  to  note  that 
at  that  time  (1831)  it  took  three  days  to  travel  from  London 
to  the  Isle  of  Man,  and  another  three  from  there  to  Edinburgh. 

We  hear  most  about  two  of  the  professors  during  his 
earliest  years  at  Edinburgh — Graham  and  Jameson.  Graham 
was  Professor  of  Botany,  and  it  is  said  to  have  been  a  matter 
of  dispute  amongst  his  students  whether  it  was  seven  or  only 
six  diagrams  that  illustrated  his  course  of  lectures.  The 
microscope  was  unknown,  and  the  only  practical  work 
consisted  in  collecting  flowers  and  pulling  them  ajDart  with 
the  fingers.  Jameson,  who  united  Geology  and  Zoology,  was 
a  celebrated  man,  a  noted  mineralogist,  and  the  founder  of 
the  Natural  History  part  of  the  well-known  museum  at 
Edinburgh. 

It  is  evident  that  what  Forbes  appreciated  most  was  the 
collecting  excursions  into  the  country  around  Edinburgh, 
and  even  farther  afield  to  the  Northern  Highlands  or  to 
the  Western  Islands,  which  some  of  the  professors  organized 
from  time  to  time.     That  was  really  the  practical  work  in 


EDWARD   FORBES  15 

natural  science  of  those  days.  It  is  curious  to  recall  now-a- 
days,  when  we  use  the  microscope  so  constantly,  that  the 
study  of  histology  and  microscopic  structure  in  general  was 
only  introduced  into  medical  studies,  in  1841,  by  Professor 
Hughes  Bennett,  who  had  been  a  fellow-student  of  Edward 
Forbes.  Forbes  was,  at  Edinburgh,  the  centre  of  a  group  of 
brilliant  young  men,  some  half-dozen  of  whom,  after  being 
fellow-  students,  later  on  became  fellow-professors  in  the  same 
university.  Among  these  we  may  note  John  Goodsir,  the 
great  anatomist ;  Balfour,  the  professor  of  botany  ;  George 
Wilson,  the  biographer  of  Forbes  ;  and  Sir  Robert  Christison. 

Goodsir  was  Forbes's  first  and  probably  his  best  friend. 
We  are  told  that  when  he  first  called  at  his  lodging  he  found 
the  future  malacologist  boihng  in  his  kettle  a  rare  mollusc, 
Clausilia  nigricans,  he  had  found  on  Arthur's  Seat,  in  order 
to  get  the  animal  from  the  shell—  and  Goodsir  thereupon  gave 
him  a  first  lesson  in  dissecting  a  mollusc.  We  get  curious 
glimpses  of  student  life  in  Forbes's  accounts —which  are 
characteristically  added  up  incorrectly — such  as,  "  Leg,  £2  ; 
Church,  6d.  ;  Insects,  2/-."  The  "  Leg  "  was,  of  course,  his 
"  part  "  in  the  dissecting  room.  We  are  told  he  was  one  of 
the  idlest  students  of  medicine  Edinbiu-gh  ever  saw — which 
is  surely  a  strong  statement — and  yet  we  may  be  sure  he  was 
always  fully  employed  in  some  interesting  study,  literary, 
artistic,  or  scientific.  The  point  is  that  he  was  not  doing  what 
he  was  intended  to  do,  and  in  that  sense  his  time  was  wasted. 
He  began  each  lecture  with  serious  notes,  which  very  soon 
degenerated  into  caricatures  of  the  lecturer  and  fancy 
sketches  of  nymphs  and  gnomes. 

His  friend,  Hughes  Bennett,  who  undertook  to  coach  him 
in  anatomy,  tells  of  the  many  dismal  evenings  of  yawning 
over  the  bones,  and  of  how  Forbes  would  arrange  that  jovial 
friends  should  come  in  and  interrupt,  when  the  textbooks 
and  bones  would  be  thrown  aside  and  the  rest  of  the  evening 
devoted  to  gaiety  and  philosophical  discussions.  After  which 
it  need  not  surprise  us  that  when  summoned  to  appear  for 


16  FOUNDERS   OF   OCEANOGRAPHY 

examination  on  a  certain  afternoon,  he  at  the  appointed  time 
was  non  inventus. 

Of  course,  these  young  men  ran  a  journal,  and,  of  course, 
they  formed  a  select  students'  club,  the  Brotherhood  of  the 
Magi,  the  symbol  of  which  was  a  silver  triangle  on  which  was 
engraved  OINOZ,  EPQE,  MA0HIII!-~wme,  love,  learning. 
Their  wine  was  not,  I  think,  excessive  ;  the  love  was  brotherly 
love  ;  and  the  learning  was  certainly  on  a  high  level.  They 
were  all  clever,  and  most  of  them  became  celebrated  men. 
This  "  oineromathic  "  brotherhood  they  defined  as  "  a  Union 
of  the  Searchers  after  Truth." 

I  have  dwelt  at  some  length  on  his  student  years  in 
Edinburgh,  as  they  were  clearly  the  most  stimulating  and 
formative  time  of  his  life,  definitely  related  to  all  he  did  later 
on,  and  brightened  by  friendships  which  persisted  to  the  end. 
It  was  a  lengthy  student's  career — nine  years — foiu*  years 
of  medical  study,  which  he  finally  abandoned  in  1836  to 
devote  all  his  energies  to  Science.  But  during  this  time  he 
spent  considerable  periods  away  from  Edinburgh,  travelling 
for  study  and  always  adding  to  his  natural  history  collec- 
tions wherever  he  went. 

Several  summers  between  1832  and  1839  he  spent  in 
dredging  the  Irish  Sea,  and  exploring  the  fauna  and  flora  of 
the  Isle  of  Man,  and  we  see  the  results  later  on  in  his  first- 
published  book,  Malacologia  Monensis,  and  in  certain  papers 
in  the  Annals  and  Magazine  of  Natural  History. 

Another  summer  (1833)  he  and  a  fellow-student  explored 
far  from  beaten  tracks  in  Norway,  going  in  a  trading  brig 
from  Ramsey  to  Arendal,  and  then  shouldering  their  knap- 
sacks and  packs  of  scientific  collecting  apparatus,  which,  no 
doubt,  became  heavier  day  by  day  as  the  collections  grew. 
He  had,  of  course,  the  noticing  eye  and  the  acquisitive  hand 
of  the  true  collector.  On  arriving  at  Bergen,  his  first  action 
was  to  note  that  a  spitting-box  or  spitoon  in  the  room  he 
entered  was  filled  with  a  fine  shell-sand,  which  he  promptly 
emptied  into  his  handkerchief  and  took  away  with  him  for 


PLATE  II. 


Professor  Edward  Forbes. 


EDWARD  FORBES  17 

microscopic  examination.  Another  year  he  spent  some  time 
in  Paris,  and  the  following  summer  made  an  expedition  to 
Algeria.  In  1839,  he  and  Goodsir  were  dredging  in  the 
Shetland  seas,  with  results  which  Forbes  made  known  to 
the  meeting  of  the  British  Association  at  Birmingham  that 
summer  with  such  good  effect  that  a  "  Dredging  Committee  " 
of  the  Association  was  formed  to  continue  the  good  work. 

It  was  at  this  meeting  of  the  Association  that  Forbes  and 
his  friends  founded  the  "  Red  Lion  Clubbe,"  which  still 
meets,  not  with  the  regularity  of  its  early  days,  but  on 
occasions,  for  jovial  dinners  and  good-fellowship— the  old 
"  Lions,"  and  even  the  youngsters  or  ''  Cubs,"  under  the 
presidency  of  the  "  Lion  King,"  roaring  and  growling  their  ap- 
proval and  disapproval,  and  even  getting  up  and  waving  their 
(coat-)  tails,  while  some  make  witty  speeches  and  others  sing 
amusing  songs,  generally  specially  composed  for  the  occasion, 
and  as  often  as  not  parodying  in  a  good-natured  way  some  of 
the  serious  papers  or  addresses  given  to  the  Association  at  the 
meeting.  Just  as  some  of  Forbes's  best  work  was  expounded 
in  successive  years  to  the  British  Association,  so  some  of  the 
happiest  of  his  lighter  efforts  first  made  their  appearance  at 
the  "  Red  Lion  "  dinners.  In  this  particular  year  (1839),  when 
he  gave  the  scientific  results  of  his  Shetland  dredgings  to  the 
Section,  he  sang  or  chanted  to  the  "  Red  Lions  "  his  "  Song  of 
the  Dredge,"  of  which  I  may  quote  a  few  verses  here  : — 

Hurrah  for  the  dredge,  with  its  iron  edge, 

And  its  mystical  triangle. 
And  its  hided  net  with  meshes  set 

Odd  fishes  to  entangle  ! 
The  ship  may  move  thro'  the  waves  above, 

'Mid  scenes  exciting  wonder, 
But  braver  sights  the  dredge  delights 

As  it  roves  the  waters  under. 

Chorus  :  Then  a -dredging  we  will  go,  wise  boys 
A- dredging  we  will  go  ! 
A-dredging  we  will  go,  a-dredging  we  will  go, 

A-dredging  we  will  go,  wise  boys,  wise  boys, 
A-dredging  we  will  go  ! 

O 


18  FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

Down  in  the  deep,  where  the  mermen  sleep, 

Our  gallant  dredge  is  sinking  ; 
Each  finny  shape  in  a  precious  scrape 

Will  find  itself  in  a  twinkling  ! 
They  may  twirl  and  twist,  and  writhe  as  they  wist. 

And  break  themselves  into  sections. 
But  up  they  all,  at  the  dredge's  call, 

Must  come  to  fill  collections. 

Then  a-dredging,  etc. 

The  creatures  strange  the  sea  that  range, 

Though  mighty  in  their  stations, 
To  the  dredge  must  yield  the  briny  field 

Of  their  loves  and  depredations. 
The  crab  so  bold,  like  a  knight  of  old. 

In  scaly  armour  plated, 
And  the  slimy  snail,  with  a  shell  on  his  tail. 

And  the  star- fish — radiated  ! 

Then  a-dredging,  etc. 


Fig.    1. — The  Naturalist's  Dredge. 

And  on  another  occasion,  when  at  the  Oxford  Meeting 
in  1847  there  had  been  a  notable  discussion  on  the  nature 
and  relations  of  the  extinct  dodo,  Forbes  brought  out  his 
"  Song  of  the  Do- do,"  of  which  the  following  are  some  of 
the  verses  : — 

Do -do  !     Vasco  da  Gama 

Sailed  from  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  with  a  crammer, 

How  he  had  met,  in  the  Isle  of  Mauritius, 

A  very  queer  bird  wot  was  not  very  vicious. 

Called  by  the  name  of  a  do-do  ; 

And  all  the  world  thought  what  he  said  was  true. 

Do-do  !    although  we  can't  see  him 

His  picture  is  hung  in  the  British  Museum ; 


EDWARD  FORBES  19 

For  the  creature  itself,  we  may  judge  what  a  loss  it  is 
When  it's  claw  and  it's  bill  are  such  great  curiosities. 
Do-do  !     Do-do  ! 
Ornithologists  all  have  been  puzzled  by  you. 

Ending  with  the  moral  — 

Do-do  !   alas  there  are  left  us 

No  more  remains  of  the  Didus  ineptus,  etc.,  etc. 

During  his  last  few  years  at  Edinburgh,  Forbes  made 
strenuous  efforts  to  earn  a  livelihood  by  science.  He  prepared 
and  announced  courses  of  lectures  at  Edinburgh,  St.  Andrews, 
and  elsewhere,  which,  I  fear,  were  but  j)oorly  attended,  and 
probably  little  more  than  paid  expenses.  It  is  interesting 
to  notice  that  in  January,  1840,  he  gave  a  course  of  eight 
lectures  in  Liverpool ;  and  it  was  probably  on  the  occa- 
sion of  these  lectures  that  he  made  the  acquaintance  of 
Mr.  Robert  MacAndrew,  a  Liverpool  merchant  and  yachts- 
man interested  in  the  moUusca,  who  during  the  last  decade 
or  so  of  Forbes 's  life,  frequently  took  him  and  Goodsir  or 
other  friends  on  shorter  or  longer  dredging  expeditions.^  For 
example,  in  the  summer  of  1845  we  find  that  he  was  with 
MacAndrew  on  his  yacht  dredging  in  Shetland  seas,  and  on 
the  way  back  amongst  the  sea-lochs  of  the  Hebrides.  On 
other  occasions  MacAndrew  took  him  in  the  yacht  to  dredge 
Milford  Haven,  or  off  the  coast  of  Cornwall,  or  other  localities 
which  Forbes  required  to  examine  in  connection  with  the 
great  work  on  the  British  MoUusca  upon  which  he  was  then 
engaged.  Again,  we  find  Forbes  and  Goodsir,  in  their 
important  paper,  On  Some  Bemarkable  Marine  Invertebrata 
new  to  the  British  Seas,  published  by  the  Royal  Society  of 

^  I  am  glad  to  have  the  opportunity  of  paying  this  tribute  to  a 
Liverpool  yachtsman  who  found  or  helped  to  find  many  of  the  rarer 
mollusca  of  British  seas.  His  name  occurs  frequently  in  the  records 
of  Forbes  and  Hanley's  British  Mollusca,  and  it  is  perpetuated  in 
science  in  Calocaris  macandrece,  one  of  the  rarer  deep-water  Crus- 
tacea, and  in  the  names  of  several  species  of  new  shellfish  which  he 
had  been  instrumental  in  discovering. 


20  FOUNDERS   OF   OCEANOGRAPHY 

Edinburgh  in  1851,  recording  that  :  "  The  animals,  either 
wholly  new,  or  new  to  Britain,  described  in  the  following 
communication,  were  taken  during  a  yachting  cruise  with 
our  indefatigable  friend,  Mr.  MacAndrew,  among  the 
Hebrides,  in  the  month  of  August,  1850."  Amongst  the 
strange  animals  described  and  figured  in  this  paper  is  the 
remarkable  Ascidian,  Diazona  violacea  (the  Syntethys 
hebridica  of  Forbes  and  Goodsir),  which,  I  may  add,  as  an 
example  of  the  constancy  and  reliability  of  nature,  was 
dredged  in  quantity  by  myself  nearly  seventy  years  later  in 
the  exact  locality  where  it  was  first  discovered  by  Forbes  and 
Goodsir.     (See  Plate  III.) 

Returning  to  1840,  his  age  was  now  twenty-six,  and  this 
was  the  year  when  he  published  his  British  Starfishes — the 
first  of  his  larger  and  more  important  works.  It  remained  as 
the  standard  work  on  the  subject  for  many  years,  and  is  still 
a  classic.  In  addition  to  its  solid  science  and  its  value  as  a 
work  of  reference,  there  are  scattered  through  it  touches  of 
humour,  and  the  artistic  and  sometimes  quaintly  comic 
vignettes  and  tail-pieces,  with  which  the  author's  pencil  has 
adorned  the  beginnings  and  ends  of  the  sections,  are  a  pleas- 
ing feature  of  the  work.  Let  me  quote  just  one  passage,  his 
description  of  the  dredging  of  the  Starfish,  Luidia  Jragilissima 
(as  it  was  appropriately  named  at  that  time) : — • 

"  The  first  time  I  ever  took  one  of  these  creatures  I 
succeeded  in  getting  it  into  the  boat  entire.  Never  having 
seen  one  before,  and  quite  unconscious  of  its  suicidal  powers, 
I  spread  it  out  on  a  rowing  bench,  the  better  to  admire  its 
form  and  colours.  On  attempting  to  remove  it  for  preserva- 
tion, to  my  horror  and  disappointment  I  found  only  an 
assemblage  of  rejected  members.  My  conservative  endea- 
vours were  all  neutralized  by  its  destructive  exertions,  and 
it  is  now  badly  represented  in  my  cabinet  by  an  armless  disk 
and  a  diskless  arm.  Next  time  I  went  to  dredge  on  the  same 
spot,  determined  not  to  be  cheated  out  of  a  specimen  in  such 
a  way  a  second  time,  I  brought  with  me  a  bucket  of  cold  fresh 


PLATE  III. 


.  ^•'»''™    r^ 


/ 


DiAZOXA     VIOLACEA,    SaVIGNY  , 

(the  "Syntethys  hebridica"  of  Forbes  and  Goodsir — green  in  the 

LIVING    CONDITION,    VIOLET    WHEN    DEAD).       AbOUT    HALF    NATURAL    SIZE. 


EDWARD   FORBES  21 

water,  to  which  article  Starfishes  have  a  great  antipathy.  As 
I  expected,  a  Luidia  came  up  in  the  dredge,  a  most  gorgeous 
specimen.  As  it  does  not  generally  break  up  before  it  is 
raised  above  the  surface  of  the  sea,  cautiously  and  anxiously 
I  sunk  my  bucket  to  a  level  with  the  dredge's  mouth,  and 
proceeded  in  the  most  gentle  manner  to  introduce  Luidia  to 
the  purer  element.  Whether  the  cold  air  was  too  much  for 
him,  or  the  sight  of  the  bucket  too  terrific,  I  know  not,  but  in 
a  moment  he  proceeded  to  dissolve  his  corporation,  and  at 
every  mesh  of  the  dredge  his  fragments  were  seen  escaping. 
In  despair  I  grasped  at  the  largest,  and  brought  up  the 
extremity  of  an  arm  with  its  terminating  eye,  the  spinous 
eyelid  of  which  opened  and  closed  with  something  exceed- 
ingly like  a  wink  of  derision  "  {British  Starfishes,  p.  138). 

In  turning  over  these  earlier  works  of  Forbes,  we  think 
of  him  as  the  typical  "  field-naturalist  "  of  the  older  days, 
when  it  was  still  possible  to  take  all  nature  for  your  province 
and  do  useful  work  in  many  fields —  constantly  investigating, 
constantly  observing  wherever  he  went,  and  throwing 
welcome  light  on  science  by  all  his  observations. 

All  Forbes's  later  and  more  famous  work  in  Marine  Biology 
and  the  relations  between  Zoology  and  Geology—  work  that 
extended  from  Hebridean  and  Scandinavian  seas,  through 
the  Mediterranean  to  the  far  iEgean — may  be  said  to  have 
sprung  from  and  been  founded  on  his  early  work  done  as  a 
lad  in  the  college  vacations  in  his  home  Manx  waters. 

A  little  to  the  north  of  Peel,  on  the  west  coast  of  Man, 
lies  a  submarine  elevation,  the  Ballaugh  fishing  bank,  which 
was  the  scene  of  some  of  Forbes's  earliest  explorations — more 
than  ninety  years  ago.  The  path  of  the  pioneer  is  pro- 
verbially rough,  and  no  doubt  it  is  easier  for  us  now,  when, 
on  occasions,  we  take  our  students  to  the  Ballaugh  bank  for 
a  day's  dredging  from  Port  Erin.  Forbes,  in  his  day,  must 
have  gone  in  a  small  sail-boat  from  the  shore  below  his 
house,  or  possibly  in  one  of  the  "  nobbies  "  of  the  Peel 
fishing  fleet,  and  was  certainly  more  dependent  upon  wind 


22  FOUNDERS    OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

and  weather  than  is  now  the  case,  when  we  can  steam  to  the 
bank  from  Port  Erin  in  an  hour  or  two,  and  carry  on  our 
work  there  without  much  regard  to  wind  or  tide,  in  any- 
moderate  weather.  But  we  find,  in  going  over  Forbes's 
records  from  Ballaugh,  that  his  work  was  wonderfully 
detailed  and  accurate,  and  there  is  little  or  nothing  to  add. 
He  found  nearly  all  there  is  to  find,  and  he  marked  out  the 
distribution  of  life  upon  the  various  depths  and  parts  of  the 
bank  with  remarkable  precision.  And  that,  I  think,  is 
characteristic  of  much  of  his  work.  That  he  did  so  much, 
and  did  it  so  well  in  so  short  a  life,  full  of  other  duties  and 
cares,  must  constantly  excite  the  wonder  and  admiration  of 
those  who  humbly  follow  in  his  footsteps. 

British  naturalists  are  justly  proud  of  the  thorough 
manner  in  which  the  contents  of  the  home  seas  have  been 
made  known  by  their  distinguished  predecessors  ;  and  of 
these  famous  monographs,  which  will  remain  classics  of 
science  throughout  all  time,  some  of  the  chiefest  glories  both 
in  text  and  plates  are  those  bearing  the  honoured  name  of 
Edward  Forbes. 

In  1841  came  the  great  opportunity  of  his  life  to  make 
marine  investigations  outside  the  British  seas.  Captain 
Graves,  then  in  command  of  H.M.  Surveying  Ship  "  Beacon," 
engaged  on  hydrographical  work  in  the  Eastern  Medi- 
terranean, offered  Forbes  the  post  of  naturalist  to  the  expedi- 
tion, which  was  promptly  accepted.  The  work  so  far  as 
Forbes  was  concerned  was  partly  on  land  and  partly  at  sea, 
partly  zoological  and  partly  archaeological.  After  some 
months  of  surveying  and  dredging  amongst  the  Isles  of 
Greece,  the  "  Beacon  "  was  ordered  to  the  coast  of  Lycia  for 
the  purpose  of  conveying  to  England  the  remarkable  carved 
marbles  and  inscriptions  discovered  in  the  ruins  of  the 
ancient  city  of  Xanthus  by  Sir  Charles  Fellows.  For  this 
task  the  vessel  proved  eventually  to  be  quite  unfitted,  but  it 
gave  the  opportunity  for  Forbes,  along  with  Lieut.  Spratt,  to 
join  the  archaeologist,  Mr.  Daniell,  in  a  series  of  important 


EDWARD   FORBES  23 

explorations  in  the  interior  of  Lycia,  in  the  course  of  which 
they  determined  the  sites  of  no  fewer  than  eighteen  ancient 
cities  previously  unknown,  and  rescued  many  inscriptions 
and  carvings  from  the  ruins.  They  copied  upwards  of  200 
Greek  and  30  Lycian  inscriptions,  and  Forbes  and  Spratt  a 
few  years  later  (1847)  produced  an  interesting  work  in  two 
volumes  entitled  Travels  in  Lycia,  giving  the  story  of  their 
explorations.  In  addition  to  his  share  of  the  narrative  and 
the  archaeology,  the  chapters  on  the  Natural  History  of 
Lycia  and  the  neighbouring  seas  are  clearly  the  work  of 
Forbes.  Mr.  Daniell  fell  a  victim  to  the  malignant  malarial 
fever  of  the  country,  and  Forbes  himself  apparently  had  a 
narrow  escape.  His  companion,  writing  in  1842,  says  : 
"  Poor  Forbes,  the  naturalist,  was  taken  ill  on  the  way  from 
Rhodes  to  Syra,  of  the  country  fever,  and  remained  for 
thirteen  days  together  without  tasting  food,  and  without 
medicine  or  medical  advice." 

During  this  expedition,  however,  his  main  work  was  not 
on  land,  but  at  sea  ;  and  his  marine  dredgings  in  the  Mges^n 
gave  great  results.  Captain  Graves  tells  us  how  Forbes 
converted  every  one  on  board — officers  and  men  alike — into 
ardent  naturalists,  bringing  back  shells  and  other  offerings, 
"  curios,"  as  they  called  them,  from  every  surveying  trip  in 
the  boats. 

Of  the  Greeks,  in  one  letter,  he  foretells — "  they  will 
be  a  great  people  yet,  and  are  almost  as  interesting  as  the 
shellfish  that  live  on  their  shores."  One  of  the  points  of 
interest,  of  course,  in  the  shellfish  was  that  they  and  many 
of  his  other  captures  were  precisely  the  animals  collected 
and  described  by  Aristotle  from  these  same  coasts  over  two 
thousand  years  before.  He  dredged  successfully  at  a  greater 
depth  (230  fathoms)  than  anyone  had  done  before,  and  to  his 
surprise  he  brought  up  living  starfishes  and  other  animals 
from  200  fathoms.  He  writes  that  the  shellfish  from  the 
deeper  water  all  belong  to  types  only  known  in  the  fossil 
condition,  and  that,  so  far,  he  is  the  only  zoologist  who  has 


24  FOUNDERS   OF   OCEANOGRAPHY 

seen  them  alive.  His  report  on  the  distribution  of  animals 
in  the  ^Egean  Sea,  which  eventually  appeared  before  the 
British  Association  at  Cork  in  1843,  was,  a  contemporary 
tells  us,  a  most  important  and  philosophic  summary  of  the 
facts,  which  at  once  raised  him  to  a  high  rank  among  living 
naturalists.  He  defined,  in  the  ^Egean,  eight  zones  of  depth 
characterized  by  peculiar  assemblages  of  animals,  and  he 
"  conjectured  that  the  zero  of  animal  life  would  probably  be 
found  somewhere  about  300  fathoms,"  so  he  named  the 
region  below  that  the  "Azoic  zone  "—a  conclusion  which 
has  since  been  found  to  be  erroneous.  Much  of  his  zoological 
work  in  the  East  was  unfortunately  never  published,  on 
account  of  the  pressure  of  other  duties  in  which  he  became 
absorbed  on  his  return  to  London. 

The  Council  of  the  British  Association  gave  him  con- 
gratulations and  encouragement,  and  the  material  support  of 
a  grant  of  £100,  "  to  be  expended  in  comparing  the  fauna  of 
the  Red  Sea  with  that  of  the  Mediterranean."  Forbes 
therefore  planned  an  extended  expedition  to  Egypt  for  this 
purpose,  which  was  first  postponed  by  his  severe  illness  and 
then  abandoned  when  he  was  recalled  in  October,  1842,  to 
London  to  take  up  the  duties  of  Professor  of  Botany  at  King's 
College ^a  post  he  had  been  elected  to  in  his  absence. 

There  were  probably  few  men  then,  and  there  are  none 
now,  who  could  be  elected  to  a  post  in  botany,  in  geology,  or 
in  zoology  with  equal  success.  We  see  him  now  holding  two 
such  posts  simultaneously,  and  he  eventually  went  on  to  the 
third.  His  professorship  at  King's  College  brought  in  less 
than  £100  a  year,  so  he  had  to  supplement  that  scanty 
income  by  taking  other  work,  and  he  applied  for  and  was 
appointed  to  the  curatorship  of  the  Geological  Society,  and 
a  few  years  later  (1844)  to  the  more  important  post  of 
Palaeontologist  to  the  Geological  Survey. 

During  the  years  in  London  when  he  filled  these  several 
posts,  it  is  evident  that  his  duties  as  Professor  of  Botany 
took  up  comparatively  little  of  his  time  and  energies,  and 


EDWARD  FORBES  25 

that  he  was  then,  in  fact,  mainly  a  geologist.  He  identified 
himself  thoroughly  and  intimately  with  the  members  of  the 
Geological  Society  and  with  his  colleagues  of  the  Geological 
Survey,  with  whom,  of  course,  he  was  constantly  working 
both  in  the  field  and  at  the  Jermyn  Street  Museum.  His 
work  as  palaeontologist  was  to  identify  the  large  numbers 
of  fossils  collected  by  the  surveyors,  and  to  give  any  informa- 
tion he  could  as  to  the  conditions  under  which  they  had  lived. 
In  all  this  work,  which  occupied  some  of  the  best  years  of  his 
life,  he  was,  however,  what  he  called  a  "  Zoo-Geologist," 
working  on  the  border-line  of  the  two  sciences  and  throwing 
light  on  both,  bringing  zoological  knowledge  in  regard  to 
the  animals  represented  by  the  fossils  to  bear  upon  geological 
problems,  and  showing  on  the  other  hand  how  geological 
changes  in  the  past  help  to  explain  the  distribution  of  animals 
and  plants  at  the  present  day.  In  some  respects  this  was 
the  finest  and  most  original  work  that  he  ever  did.  During 
this  period  he  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Palseonto- 
graphical  Society,  which  has  issued  a  noble  series  of  volumes, 
some  of  the  earlier  of  which  (e.g.,  British  Tertiary  EcJiino- 
derms)  are  Forbes's  work.  He  also  contributed  largely  to 
other  geological  publications. 

We  can  only  mention  two  of  the  more  important  of  these 
pieces  of  work.  One  of  these  was  his  careful  investigation 
of  the  layers  of  supposed  Wealden  rocks,  known  as  the 
Purbeck  beds.  In  the  autumn  of  1849  he  went  down  to  the 
coast  of  Dorset  and  spent  some  months  making  a  most 
minute  investigation  of  the  strata,  with  the  result  that  he 
proved  that  these  beds  really  belong  to  the  Oolitic  series. 
Sir  Archibald  Geilde  tells  us  that,  "  with  magnifying  glass  at 
eye,  he  crept  over  the  faces  of  the  rock,  layer  by  layer,  noting 
the  peculiarities  of  each  from  top  to  bottom.  As  the  result 
of  this  detailed  scrutiny,  while  there  was  no  evidence  that 
any  physical  disturbance  had  taken  place  in  the  area  during 
the  deposition  of  the  whole  of  the  strata,  the  testimony  of  the 
included  fossils  revealed  a  remarkable  series  of  alternations  of 


26  FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

fresh,  brackish,  and  salt-water  conditions  over  this  part  of 
England  when  the  Purbeck  group  was  in  course  of  deposition. 
Our  naturalist  made  the  further  important  discovery  that 
on  several  separate  horizons  these  strata  enclose  the  shells 
of  some  genera  of  still  existing  air-breathing  moUusks — 
creatures  which  had  not  till  then  been  found  in  so  ancient  a 
formation.  It  was  characteristic  alike  of  his  humour  and  of 
his  habit  of  making  fun  of  his  scientific  brethren,  and  even 
of  himself,  that  in  some  verses  on  what  he  called  '  Negative 
Facts,'  given  at  the  Red  Lion  Dinner  at  Ipswich,  and 
published  in  the  Literary  Gazette  for  12th  July,  1851,  he 
instanced  the  finding  of  these  shells  as  upsetting  a  premature 
conclusion : 

Down  among  the  Purbecks  deep  enough, 

A  Physa  and  Planorbis 
Were  grubbed  last  year  out  of  freshwater  stuff. 

By  Bristow  and  E.  Forbes. 
(Agassiz  just  had  given  his  bail 

'Twas   adverse  to  creation 
That  there  should  live  piilmoniferous  snail 

Before  the  Chalk  formation.) 

**  The  discovery,  however,  carried  with  it  a  wider  signi- 
ficance. The  occurrence  of  these  snails  suggested  to  Forbes 
that  if  air-breathing  mollusks  existed  in  Purbeck  time, 
remains  of  mammalian  life  might  hopefully  be  searched  for 
in  the  same  stratum  as  that  which  contained  the  shells.  His 
sagacious  prognostication  was  fulfilled  not  long  after,  when 
bones  of  reptiles  and  insectivorous  mammals  were  exhumed 
where  he  had  indicated." 

The  second  example  of  Forbes's  geological  work  which 
I  have  selected  for  mention  is  his  celebrated  paper,  "  On  the 
Connexion  between  the  Distribution  of  the  Existing  Fauna 
and  Flora  of  the  British  Isles  and  the  Geological  Changes 
which  have  affected  their  Area,"  published  in  1846,  in  Vol.  I. 
of  the  Memoirs  of  the  Geological  Survey,  and  universally 
regarded  as  a  classic  on  the  subject. 

Forbes  recognized  that  the  origin  of  the  fauna  and  flora 


EDWARD  FORBES  27 

of  a  country  could  not  be  solved  from  biological  studies  alone, 
but  would  require  in  addition  the  evidence  supplied  by 
geology  in  regard  to  former  changes  in  climate,  land,  and 
water.  Dealing  with  the  flora  of  the  British  Islands,  he 
distinguished  five  sub-floras  or  assemblages  of  plants — (1) 
a  limited  "  Lusitanian  "  flora  in  the  west  and  south-west  of 
Ireland,  comprising  saxifrages,  heaths,  the  arbutus,  a  Pin- 
guicula,  and  other  plants  which  are  identical  with  species 
found  abundantly  in  the  north  of  Spain  ;  (2)  another  local 
flora  in  the  south-west  of  England  and  south-east  of  Ireland, 
resembling  the  vegetation  of  the  Channel  Isles  and  North- 
western France  ;  (3)  a  restricted  flora  found  on  the  chalk 
downs  of  the  south-eastern  counties  of  England  ;  (4)  a 
remarkable  though  limited  flora,  flourishing  on  the  tops  of 
the  mountains,  chiefly  in  Scotland,  but  also  on  the  hills  of 
Cumberland  and  Wales,  and  even  on  some  uplands  in  Ireland, 
in  which  vegetation  all  the  plants  are  speciflcally  identical 
with  Scandinavian  forms  ;  (5)  and  last,  a  general  or  Germanic 
flora,  like  that  of  Central  Europe,  everywhere  present  either 
alone  or  mingled  with  the  others. 

Forbes  accounted  for  this  distribution  of  the  flora  by 
migration  or  colonization  from  neighbouring  lands  previous 
to  the  isolation  of  the  British  Islands  from  the  rest  of  Europe. 
He  supposed  that  the  southern  parts  of  our  islands  were 
probably  not  submerged  under  the  glacial  sea,  and  that 
over  land  now  covered  his  three  southern  assemblages  of 
plants  may  have  migrated  successively  northwards  from 
Spain  and  from  France,  before,  during,  or  after  the  Ice  Age. 
If  the  floor  of  our  seas  was  raised  by  even  100  fathoms,  the 
British  Isles  would  become  a  part  of  the  European  continent, 
the  North  Sea  would  become  a  great  plain  continued  south 
and  west  through  what  is  now  the  English  Channel,  and  a 
strip  of  land  would  run  from  Britain  along  the  west  coast 
of  France  so  as  to  join  the  north  of  Spain.  This  was  the 
"  Continental  Platform  "  over  which,  according  to  Forbes, 
the  plants,  and  even  possibly  some  of  the  lower  land  animals, 


28  FOUNDERS   OF   OCEANOGRAPHY 

may  have  migrated  into  the  south  and   west   of   Ireland. 

The  fauna  of  our  seas  also,  like  the  land  flora,  presents 
distinct  northern  and  southern  relations.  This  is  clearly 
seen  both  amongst  the  invertebrata,  such  as  the  molluscs, 
and  also  amongst  fishes.  In  discussing  these  relations,  one 
of  the  most  interesting  points  that  Forbes  demonstrated 
was  the  presence  of  "  boreal  outliers  "  or  assemblages  of 
northern  species  occupying  the  deeper  areas  of  about  80  to 
100  fathoms  that  occur  here  and  there  on  the  west  coast  of 
Scotland.  Such  molluscs  as  Puncturella  noachina,  Tricho- 
tropis  horealis,  Natica  groenlandica,  Astarte  elliptica,  Nucula 
pygmcea,  Emarginula  crassa,  Pecten  danicuSy  Necera  cusjn- 
data,  and  the  brachiopods  Terebratida  caput- serpentis  and 
Crania  norvegica,^  are  characteristic  forms  in  these  boreal 
outliers,  and  Forbes's  view  was  that  they  were  a  part  of  the 
original  northern  fauna  which  formerly  occupied  our  seas 
and  which  had  retreated  northwards  when  the  climate  became 
more  genial  subsequent  to  the  glacial  epoch,  leaving  these 
colonies  isolated  in  the  deeper  holes  (see  map,  PI.  IV,  Fig.  2). 

Some  of  the  chief  conclusions,  to  which  the  facts  and 
arguments  stated  in  his  detailed  memoir  lead,  he  summarizes 
as  follows  : — 

"  (1)  The  fauna  and  flora,  terrestrial  and  marine,  of  the 
British  Islands  and  seas  have  originated,  so  far  as  that  area 
is  concerned,  since  the  Miocene  epoch. 

"  (2)  The  assemblages  of  animals  and  plants  composing 
that  fauna  and  flora  did  not  appear  in  the  area  they  now 
inhabit  simultaneously  but  at  several  distinct  points  of  time. 

"  (3)  Both  the  fauna  and  flora  of  the  British  Islands  and 
seas  are  composed  partly  of  species  which  appeared  in  that 
area  before  the  glacial  epoch,  partly  of  such  as  inhabited  it 
during  that  epoch,  and  in  great  part  of  those  which  did  not 
appear  there  until  afterwards. 

"  (4)  The  greater  part  of  the  terrestrial  animals  and  flower- 
ing plants  now  inhabiting  the  British  Islands  arose  outside 
1 1  have  given  throughout  the  names  as  used  by  Forbes. 


EDWARD    FORBES  29 

that  area  and  have  migrated  to  it  over  continuous  land. 

"  (5)  The  Alpine  floras  of  Europe  and  Asia  are  fragments 
of  a  flora  which  was  diffused  from  the  North.  The  deep  sea 
fauna  is  in  like  manner  a  fragment  of  the  general  glacial 
fauna. 

"  (6)  The  termination  of  the  glacial  epoch  in  Europe  was 
marked  by  a  recession  of  the  Arctic  fauna  and  flora  north- 
wards, and  of  a  fauna  and  flora  of  the  Mediterranean  type 
southwards,  and  in  the  interspace  thus  produced  there 
appeared  on  land  the  general  Germanic  fauna  and  flora,  and 
in  the  sea  that  fauna  which  is  termed  Celtic. 

"  (7)  All  the  changes  before,  during,  and  after  the  glacial 
epoch  appear  to  have  been  gradual  and  not  sudden,  so  that 
no  marked  line  of  demarcation  can  be  drawn  between  the 
creatures  inhabiting  the  same  element  and  the  same  locality 
during  two  proximate  periods." 

I  have  omitted  some  of  his  conclusions  which  can  no 
longer  be  regarded  as  based  on  fact  :  others  require  some 
modification.  Much  has  been  found  out  during  the  last 
eighty  years,  and  it  is  not  surprising  if  some  of  Forbes's 
brilliant  and  far-reaching  speculations  have  proved  incorrect 
or  incomplete.  For  example,  the  three  southern  sub-floras 
of  Forbes,  in  place  of  being  the  oldest  as  he  supposed,  we  now 
know  must  have  been  the  most  recent ;  and  it  is  now  very 
doubtful  to  what  extent  they  migrated  over  continental  land 
now  submerged,  as  he  supjDOsed,  or  were  carried  by  birds, 
currents,  or  other  natural  agencies. 

But  while  admitting  some  such  imperfections  due  to  the 
scanty  knowledge  of  that  day,^  we  must  recognize  that  this 
was  a  notable  contribution  to  the  theory  of  distribution,  far 
in  advance  of  anything  known  at  the  time.  It  practically 
opened  up  a  fresh  fleld  of  investigation,  and  proved  to  be  the 
starting-point  and  stimulus  of  much  subsequent  research. 
About  1850  Forbes  prepared  his  remarkable  map  of  dis- 
tribution of  marine  life  over  the  oceans  of  the  world,  and 
of  homoiozoic  belts,  which  was  probably  the  first  attempt 


30  FOUNDERS   OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

to  divide  the  oceans  into  provinces  on  scientific  grounds. 

There  are  many  of  his  writings,  and  of  his  lectures,  which 
I  have  no  space  to  refer  to,  though  all  have  their  points  of 
interest.  Take  this,  for  example  : — In  1847,  he  writes  to  a 
friend  :  "  On  Friday  night  I  lectured  at  the  Royal  Institution. 
The  subject  was  the  bearing  of  submarine  researches  and 
distribution  matters  on  the  fishery  question.  I  pitched  into 
Government  mismanagement  pretty  strong,  and  made  a  fair 
case  of  it.  It  seems  to  me  that  at  a  time  when  half  the 
country  is  starving  we  are  utterly  neglecting  or  grossly  mis- 
managing great  sources  of  wealth  and  food.  .  .  .  Were  I  a 
rich  man,  I  would  make  the  subject  a  hobby,  for  the  good  of 
the  country  and  for  the  better  proving  that  the  true  interests 
of  Government  are  those  linked  with  and  inseparable  from 
Science."  We  must  still  cordially  approve  of  these  last 
words,  while  recognizing  that  our  Government  Department 
of  Fisheries  is  now  organized  on  better  lines,  and  is  itself 
carrying  on  scientific  work  of  national  importance. 

I  have  laid  more  stress  upon  Forbes's  theoretical  papers 
than  upon  his  matter-of-fact  descriptive  works.  Useful  as 
these  latter  are,  indispensable  to  the  systematic  zoologist 
and  palaeontologist,  works  some  of  them,  such  as  Forbes  and 
Hanley's  British  Mollusca  (published  in  4  vols,  between  1848 
and  1853),  which  will  remain  as  classics  for  all  time,  still  they 
are  books  to  consult  rather  than  to  read.  On  the  other 
hand,  his  theories — such  as  those  on  the  distribution  of 
marine  animals  in  the  Mediterranean,  and  on  the  relations  of 
the  British  fauna  and  flora  to  the  great  Ice  Age,  even  if  in 
some  respects  they  are  now  regarded  as  erroneous  or  incom- 
plete— have  had  a  position  and  an  influence  in  the  history  of 
science,  have  been  an  inspiration  to  many  both  in  his  own 
generation  and  since,  and  have  led  up  to  and  guided  the  very 
researches  which  have,  in  some  cases,  resulted  in  more  correct 
views.  His  theory  of  the  "  azoic  zone  "  in  the  sea,  that  no 
life  existed  below  300  fathoms,  based  upon  his  observations 
in  the  Eastern  Mediterranean,  was  justified  by  the  facts 


EDWARD  FORBES  31 

known  at  the  time,  but  required  to  be  modified  later  on  when 
the  deep-sea  dredging  expeditions,  which  Forbes's  work  had 
stimulated,  made  known  that  an  abundant  living  fauna 
extended  down  to  the  greatest  depths  of  the  abysses. 

Taken  altogether,  it  is  a  wonderful  volume  of  work  both 
in  quantity  and  quality  for  a  man  to  have  produced  who  died 
before  reaching  the  age  of  forty.  His  working  life,  even  con- 
sidering that  he  began  original  work  very  young,  was  limited 
to  about  twenty  years,  and  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that, 
had  he  lived,  he  would  have  made  Edinburgh  the  greatest 
centre  of  marine  biological  work  in  Europe.  That  was 
evidently  the  opinion  of  his  contemporaries.  It  is  on  record 
that  he  was  worshipped  by  the  men,  old  and  young,  who 
attended  his  first  and  only  course  of  lectures  in  Edinburgh. 
They  spoke  of  the  wonderful  influence,  charm,  and  fascination 
that  Forbes  exercised  on  all  who  came  in  contact  with  him, 
and  of  the  gloom  and  consternation  which  spread  over  the 
university  when  it  was  reahzed  that  he  would  never  again 
meet  his  class. 

Forbes  was  appointed  to  the  goal  of  his  ambition,  the 
Chair  of  Natural  History,  at  Edinburgh,  in  March,  1854. 
He  gave  a  course  of  lectures  in  the  summer  term  to  a  large 
and  enthusiastic  audience,  after  which  he  returned  to  London 
to  finish  off  work  for  the  Geological  Survey  until  driven  to 
take  a  brief  holiday  in  the  country  by  a  severe  attack  of 
illness.  In  September  the  British  Association  met  in  Liver- 
pool, and  Forbes  occupied  the  honourable  position  of 
President  of  the  Geological  Section,  in  which,  we  are  told,  he 
acquitted  himself  with  great  distinction— as  he  did  likewise 
when  presiding,  in  the  character  of  a  Scottish  Lion,  at  the 
Red  Lion  Dinner  during  the  same  meeting. 

His  last  pubHshed  article,  written  at  this  time,  a  review 
of  Sir  R.  Murchison's  Siluria,  contains  a  memorable 
passage,  beginning  : — 

"  The  old  Scandinavian  gods  amused  themselves  all  day 
in  their  Valhalla  hacking  each  other  to  small  pieces,  but  when 


32  FOUNDERS   OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

the  time  of  feasting  came,  sat  down  together  whole  and 
harmonious,  all  their  wounds  healed  and  forgotten.  Our 
modern  Thors,  the  hammer- wielders  of  Science,  enjoy  similar 
rough  sport  with  like  pleasant  ending."  His  purpose  was 
to  show  that  scientific  disputes  need  not  lead  to  unfriendly 
relations — that  after  tearing  each  other  to  pieces,  meta- 
phorically, in  the  section  room  the  protagonists  can  dine 
together  amicably  as  ''  Red  Lions." 

There  is  no  doubt  that  he  was  in  poor  health  during  this 
summer,  and  had  had  no  adequate  rest.  He  returned  to 
Edinburgh  in  October  to  prepare  for  his  winter  course,  which 
sta-rted  on  November  1st.  But  after  a  week's  lecturing  he 
broke  down  completely  from  weakness  and  an  attack  of 
fever,  which  soon  showed  symptoms  of  kidney  trouble,  and 
became  rapidly  worse,  leading  to  his  death  a  few  days  later. 
His  old  friend.  Professor  Hughes  Bennett,  who  was  with  him 
to  the  last,  in  an  obituary  notice,  states  :  "A  chronic  disease 
contracted  when  in  the  East,  re-excited  and  rendered  violent 
by  a  severe  cold  caught  last  autumn,  and  which  burst  out 
with  uncontrollable  fury  about  ten  days  ago,  was  the  imme- 
diate cause  of  his  premature  death." 

In  judging  of  the  man  it  is  important  to  bear  in  mind 
the  dominating  influence  of  his  personality  and  conversation, 
quite  apart  from  his  publications.  Few  can  now  be  alive 
who  have  held  converse  with  him,  but  from  remarks  in  the 
writings  of  his  contemporaries  we  gain  the  impression  of  a 
genial  and  lively  genius,  with  a  free  and  independent  spirit 
that  roamed  over  a  wide  range  in  quest  of  knowledge  and 
occupation. 

Although  an  ardent  student,  he  was  far  from  being  the 
recluse  or  the  typical  absent-minded  "  philosopher,"  as  the 
man  of  science  was  called  in  those  days.  Accomplished,  and 
with  high  social  gifts,  he  appreciated  versatility  and  sports- 
manlike qualities  in  others,  and  he  once  stated  (in  an  article 
on  Sir  Humphry  Davy's  Salmonia)  that  he  "  would 
undertake,  without  traveUing  far,  to  furnish  philosophers,  of 


EDWARD  FORBES  33 

various  scientific  callings,  who  could  ride  a  race,  hunt  a  fox, 
shoot  a  snipe,  cast  a  fly,  pull  an  oar,  sing  a  song,  or  mix  a 
bowl,  against  any  man  with  unexercised  brains,  or  even  with 
none  at  all,  in  the  United  Kingdom."  Mixing  of  bowls  has 
gone  out  of  fashion  in  scientific  circles,  but  with  that  excep- 
tion, and  with  such  additions  as  may  have  resulted  from  the 
developments  of  sport  and  locomotion,  the  boast  might  be 
repeated  of  the  "  philosophers  "  of  the  present  generation. 

Forbes  was  certainly  the  most  brilliant  and  inspiring 
naturalist  of  his  day — a  day  when  it  was  still  possible  to 
make  original  contributions  to  knowledge  in  several  depart- 
ments of  nature.  As  we  have  seen,  he  held  posts  successively 
as  Professor  of  Botany  in  London,  as  False ontologist  to  the 
Geological  Survey,  and  as  Professor  of  Natural  History  in 
Edinburgh  ;  but  to  my  mind  the  best  description  in  brief 
form  is  that  he  was  the  pioneer  of  oceanography — the  science 
of  the  sea. 

It  is  true  that  the  term  oceanography  was  not  coined 
till  much  later,  and  that  Forbes  in  his  marine  explorations 
probably  did  not  realize  that  he  was  opening  up  a  most  com- 
prehensive and  important  department  of  knowledge.  But 
it  is  also  true  that  in  all  his  expeditions — in  the  British  seas 
from  the  Channel  Islands  to  the  Shetlands,  in  Norway,  in 
the  Mediterranean  as  far  as  the  JEgesm  Sea  —his  broad  out- 
look on  the  problems  of  nature  was  that  of  the  modern 
oceanographer,  and  he  was  the  spiritual  ancestor  of  men  like 
Sir  Wyville  Thomson,  of  the  "  Challenger  "  expedition,  and 
Sir  John  Murray,  who  carried  on  the  work,  through  more 
recent  post-"  Challenger  "  times^  almost  to  our  own  day. 

Forbes  in  his  marine  investigations,  as  we  have  seen, 
worked  at  border-line  problems,  dealing,  for  example,  with 
the  relations  of  geology  to  zoology,  and  the  effect  of  the 
past  history  of  the  land  and  sea  upon  the  distribution  of 
plants  and  animals  at  the  present  day,  and  in  these  respects 
he  was  an  early  oceanographer.  For  the  essence  of  that  new 
subject  is  that  it  also  investigates  border-line  problems  and 


34  FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

is  based  upon,  and  makes  use  of,  all  the  older  fundamental 
sciences — Physics,  Chemistry,  and  Biology— and  shows,  for 
example,  how  variations  in  the  great  ocean  currents  may 
account  for  the  movements  and  abundance  of  the  migratory 
fishes,  and  how  periodic  changes  in  the  chemical  characters 
of  the  sea  are  co -related  with  the  distribution  at  the  different 
seasons  of  the  all-important  microscopic  organisms  that 
render  our  oceanic  waters  as  prolific  a  source  of  food  as  the 
pastures  of  the  land. 

Oceanography  is  as  yet  scarcely  known  in  most  universities, 
and  when  it  does  come  to  be  more  generally  recognized  and 
provided  for,  it  will  probably  be  in  the  main  as  a  research 
department,  carrying  on  investigations  partly  by  experiments 
in  the  university  laboratories  on  shore,  partly  by  observa- 
tions on  special  expeditions  at  sea,  and  partly,  no  doubt,  by 
the  accumulation  and  comparison  of  data  as  to  temperatures 
and  saHnities,  obtained  from  commercial  vessels  making 
ocean  traverses — all  on  the  lines  shown  by  the  magnificent 
"  Musee  Oceanographique  "  at  Monaco,  and  also  by  the 
programme  of  work  of  the  *'  Conseil  Permanent  International 
pour  I'Exploration  de  la  Mer,"  a  scheme  of  co-operation 
between  the  nine  or  ten  maritime  nations  of  North-west 
Europe,  and,  I  think  I  may  add,  although  the  methods  and 
the  objects  may  now  be  somewhat  different,  also  quite  in 
the  spirit  of  the  pioneer  work  performed  in  the  Irish  Sea  by 
Edward  Forbes  seventy  to  eighty  years  ago. 

It  must  always  remain  an  interesting  speculation  as  to 
what  part  Edward  Forbes  would  have  played,  had  he  lived 
in  the  great  controversy  which  raged  a  few  years  later  round 
the  Darwinian  theory  of  Evolution  by  means  of  Natural 
Selection.  Forbes  and  Darwin  were  practically  contem- 
poraries,^ but  whereas  Forbes's  life-work  was  ended  in  1854, 
Darwin's  more  celebrated  works  were  not  published  until 
after  1858,  the  year  when  he  and  Wallace  laid  their  epoch- 

^  Darwin  was  precisely  six  years  senior,  being  born  on  February  12, 
1809. 


EDWARD  FORBES  35 

making  communication  upon  "The  Tendency  of  Species  to 
form  Varieties  "  before  the  Linnean  Society  of  London. 

Forbes,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  was,  in  the  opinion  of  his 
contemporaries,  the  most  original  naturaUst  of  the  time, 
and  he  had  certainly  had  as  much  to  do  with  the  recognition 
and  description  of  species—  species  of  animals,  of  plants,  and 
of  fossils — as  anyone  of  his  day.  Would  this  knowledge  have 
helped  him  to  appreciate  Darwin's  new  views,  or  would  it 
have  confirmed  him  in  the  more  orthodox  opinions  of  the 
time  ?  Huxley  was  his  junior  by  ten  years,  and  Huxley  was 
the  protagonist  of  Darwinian  Evolution.  Would  Forbes 
have  been  found  in  the  same  camp,  or  would  he  have  been 
one  of  those  more  senior  men  in  regard  to  whom  Darwin  said 
that  he  did  not  expect  to  convince  experienced  naturalists 
whose  minds  had  been  accustomed  during  many  years  to 
an  opposite  point  of  view,  but  looked  with  confidence  "  to 
young  and  rising  naturalists,  who  will  be  able  to  view  both 
sides  of  the  question  with  impartiality  "  ?  ^ 

When  reading  Forbes 's  views  on  specific  and  generic  centres 
of  distribution,  or  his  work  in  tracing  the  migrations  of 
species  both  in  space  and  time,  or  the  description  of  his 
great  map  of  ''  homoiozoic  belts,"  one  feels  that  surely  he 
was  not  far  from  a  belief  in  the  mutability  and  community 
of  descent  of  organic  forms,  and  that,  had  he  lived,  he  must 
have  readily  seen  that  the  Darwinian  theory  gave  a  reason- 
able explanation  of  the  great  series  of  facts  in  distribution 
which  his  industry  had  collected  and  his  genius  had  mar- 
shalled. These,  taken  along  with  his  unrivalled  palaeonto- 
logical  knowledge,  are  the  grounds  for  hoping  that  Forbes 
would  have  been  found  with  Huxley  in  the  Darwinian  camp. 

In  the  entrance  hall  of  the  Port  Erin  Biological  Station, 
the  most  conspicuous  object  is  the  large  white  bust  of  Edward 
Forbes  (Plate  IV,  Fig.  1),  whose  clear-cut,  intellectual  features 
and  genial  expression  at  once  arrest  the  eye,  and  appear  to 
preside  over  the  activities  and  destiny  of  the  institution.   And 

^  Origin  of  Species,  6th  Edition,  p.  423. 


36  FOUNDERS   OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

what  better  position  could  there  be  for  this  finely  formed 
reminder  of  the  Manx  pioneer  of  science  than  in  this  workshop 
of  Manx  marine  biology,  devoted  to  the  continuation  and 
extension  of  Forbes's  work  in  his  native  land  ?  For  here,  all 
researchers  who  work  in  the  laboratory,  every  one  of  the 
hundreds  of  senior  students  who  enter  on  a  course  of  study  at 
Port  Erin,  and  all  who  care  of  the  many  thousands  of  visitors 
who  frequent  the  Aquarium,  recognize  or  learn  who  Professor 
Edward  Forbes  was,  and  what  he  did.  His  works  are  in  our 
library  at  the  Biological  Station,  the  starfishes  and  molluscs 
he  described  so  well  with  pen  and  pencil  are  in  the  sea  before 
our  doors,  his  home  at  Ballaugh  is  almost  in  sight.  In  all 
our  work  at  Port  Erin,  we  keep  his  words,  as  well  as  his 
familiar  features,  constantly  before  us  as  an  example,  an 
inspiration,  and  a  reminder  of  the  great  Manx  naturalist, 
who  first  made  known  the  abundant  treasures  of  our  seas. 


PLATE  IV. 


Bust  of  Edward  Forbes. 


FoRBEs's  Distributional  Map  of  British  Seas. 


CHAPTER  III 

SIR   C.   WYVILLE   THOMSON   AND   THE 
-  CHALLENGER  "  EXPEDITION 

It  seems  quite  appropriate  that  the  last  chapter,  dealing 
with  the  life  and  work  of  the  great  Manx  naturalist  and  early 
oceanographer  Professor  Edward  Forbes  should  be  fol- 
lowed by  some  account  of  the  scientific  career  of  that  later 
oceanographer  Sir  Wyville  Thomson,  whose  name  will  go 
down  through  the  ages  as  the  leader  of  the  famous  "  Chal- 
lenger "  Deep-sea  Exploring  Expedition.  There  are  many 
links  between  these  two  men.  Both  were  naturalists  in 
the  widest  sense,  with  an  extensive  knowledge  of  the  natural 
sciences  and  a  great  appreciation  of  nature  in  all  its  aspects. 
Each  occupied  at  the  end  of  his  life  the  Chair  of  Natural 
History  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  though  neither  had 
time  to  develop  the  great  school  of  marine  biology  which 
might  have  been  expected  from  such  men  in  such  a  place 
had  opportunity  permitted.  Forbes  was  only  fifteen  years 
the  senior,  and  was  at  the  zenith  of  his  fame — publishing 
epoch-making  views  on  the  distribution  of  living  things  in 
the  sea — at  the  time  when  Thomson  entered  the  University 
of  Edinburgh,  and  no  doubt  these  views  would  arrest  the 
attention  and  guide  the  thoughts  of  any  keen  young  student 
of  the  natural  sciences.  It  was  Forbes  who,  on  a  basis  of 
observations  which  were  then  thought  to  be  sufficient,  but 
are  now  known  to  be  exceptional,  placed  the  zero  of  life  in 
the  sea  at  300  fathoms  or  thereabouts,  and  it  was  Wyville 
Thomson  more  than  any  man  who  proved  that  Forbes's  views 
were  in  this  particular  erroneous,  and  that  many  and  varied 

37 


38  FOUNDERS   OF   OCEANOGRAPHY 

living  things  inhabit  the  greatest  depths  of  the  ocean.  It 
may  seem  to  some  readers  that  Forbes  lived  very  long  ago,  in 
a  remote  period  of  last  century,  but  Wy ville  Thomson  bridges 
over  the  gap  to  our  time.  He  knew  Edward  Forbes,  and  I 
was  fortunate  enough  to  be  the  student,  and  later  on  assistant, 
of  Sir  Wyville  Thomson.  It  is  then,  as  will  be  realized,  a 
peculiar  satisfaction  to  me  to  make  known  to  a  younger 
generation  of  marine  biologists  what  I  am  able  to  recollect 
or  recover  as  to  the  life-work  of  my  respected  master,  and 
as  to  the  part  he  played  in  that  great  development  of 
oceanography  as  a  science  which  characterized  the  latter 
part  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Charles  Wyville  Thomson  was  born  on  March  5,  1830, 
at  his  ancestral  country  house  of  Bonsyde,  within  sight  of 
the  famous  loch  and  ruined  royal  palace  of  Linlithgow,  and 
not  far  from  the  shores  of  the  Firth  of  Forth.  His  family 
had  been  connected  with  Edinburgh  and  the  neighbourhood 
for  generations,  his  great-grandfather,  for  example,  being  a 
law  officer  of  the  Crown  at  the  time  of  the  Jacobite  rising 
in  1745.  He  was  educated  at  Merchiston  Castle  School, 
formerly  the  home  of  Napier  the  inventor  of  logarithms,  and, 
as  in  the  case  of  some  other  men  of  science,  his  favourite 
study  at  school  was,  we  are  told,  the  Latin  poets.  We  are 
apt  to  forget  that  in  these  cases  there  was  probably  no  science 
taught  in  the  school,  and  no  opportunity  given  to  the  boy 
of  studying  anything  more  interesting  than  the  Odes  of 
Horace. 

At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  matriculated  as  a  student  of 
medicine  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  but  his  main  inter- 
ests were  said  to  be  zoology,  botany,  and  geology,  and  he 
was  suspected  of  sometimes  wandering  as  an  observer  and 
collector  of  marine  invertebrates  along  the  prolific  shores  of 
the  Firth,  when  he  ought,  according  to  rules  and  regulations, 
to  have  been  engaged  with  lectures  and  textbooks.  Like 
many  of  the  more  intelligent  students  of  science  in  Edinburgh, 
both  at  that  time  and  later,  he  joined  the  Royal  Physical 


WYVILLE  THOMSON  39 

Society — which,  despite  its  name,  is  a  Society  of  Natural 
History — and  for  a  couple  of  years  he  filled  the  office  of 
secretary,  surely  one  of  the  youngest  on  record.  Fortunately 
for  oceanography,  after  about  three  years  of  study,  ill-health 
caused  our  young  naturalist  to  give  up  all  idea  of  the  medical 
profession,  and  to  turn  his  attention  definitely  to  the  natural 
sciences  as  his  life-work.  He  left  the  university  in  1850, 
without  taking  a  degree,  but  his  ability  and  reputation  were 
such  that  he  made  rapid  progress  in  the  chosen  career,  and 
filled  successively  the  posts  of  Lecturer  on  Botany  in  the 
University  of  Aberdeen  (1851),  Professor  of  Natural  History 
in  Queen's  College,  Cork  (1853),  Professor  of  Geology  in 
Belfast  (1854),  and  a  few  years  later  (1860)  Professor  of 
Zoology  and  Botany  in  the  same  college.  It  will  be  noticed 
that,  like  Edward  Forbes,  Wyville  Thomson  was  capable 
of  filling  with  success  posts  in  all  the  natural  sciences  in 
succession,  and  this  wide  range  of  interest  and  of  knowledge 
was,  of  course,  of  immense  advantage  in  the  great  work  that 
was  to  come  in  exploring  the  oceans. 

A  former  student  and  assistant  of  Professor  Wyville 
Thomson,  at  Belfast,  has  kindly  provided  me  with  the  follow- 
ing impressions  : — Thomson  had  a  bright,  handsome  face  and 
a  Hght,  springy  step  ;  he  was  a  delightful  and  instructive 
lecturer,  who  had  on  his  table  a  profusion  of  specimens  of 
which  he  made  incessant  use,  but  spoke  without  notes.  His 
Saturday  excursions  must  have  been  delightful.  We  have 
a  picture  of  him  striding  along,  vasculum  on  back,  at  the  head 
of  his  students,  pointing  out  specimens  and  objects  of  interest 
as  they  were  encountered.  His  hospitahty  to  his  students  has 
left  pleasant  memories  of  the  music  and  games  at  their 
social  evenings.  Amongst  other  activities  at  Belfast,  he  took 
a  prominent  position  at  the  Natural  History  and  Philo- 
sophical Society,  the  BeKast  Naturalists'  Field  Club,  and 
also  the  Literary  Society,  at  all  of  which  he  read  papers.  We 
hear  that  he  gloried  in  his  beautiful  garden  and  was  a  valued 
judge  at  the  local  flower  shows. 


40  FOUNDERS   OF   OCEANOGRAPHY 

It  was  during  this  period  of  teaching  at  Belfast  that  he 
began  to  make  his  mark  in  the  scientific  world  as  a  marine 
biologist  who  studied  animals  both  living  and  extinct,  and 
published  his  investigations  on  British  Coelenterates  and 
Polyzoa  and  on  fossil  Cirripedes  and  Trilobites.  In  working 
at  Palaeontology  he  became  interested  in  fossil  Crinoids,  and 
so  was  led  to  the  investigation  of  their  only  living  representa- 
tives in  our  seas — the  Rosy  Feather  Stars — a  study  which, 
we  shall  see,  led  him  step  by  step  to  the  great  climax  of  his 
career,  the  leadership  of  the  "  Challenger  "  expedition.  In 
1862  Thomson  completed  his  well-known  memoir, "  On  the 
Embryogeny  of  Antedon  rosaceus  "  (published  in  the  Philo- 
sophical Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  for  1865),  illustrated 
by  a  beautiful  series  of  drawings  representing  the  develop- 
ment and  structure  of  the  "  pentacrinoid  "  stages  in  the  life- 
history  of  the  young  Antedon. 

It  was  at  this  time,  also,  that  he  became  interested  in 
those  questions  concerning  life  in  the  great  depths  of  the 
ocean,  the  elucidation  of  which  was  to  be  his  life-work  and 
make  him  famous.  It  will  be  remembered  that  Edward 
Forbes,  from  his  observations  in  the  Mediterranean  (an 
abnormal  sea  in  some  respects),  regarded  depths  of  over 
300  fathoms  as  an  azoic  zone.  It  was  the  work  of  Wyville 
Thomson  and  his  colleagues  on  various  successive  dredging 
expeditions  to  prove  conclusively,  what  was  beginning  to  be 
suspected  by  naturalists,  that  there  is  no  azoic  zone  in  the 
sea,  but  that  abundant  life  belonging  to  many  groups  of 
animals  extends  down  to  the  greatest  known  depths  of  from 
four  to  five  thousand  fathoms — nearly  six  statute  miles  from 
the  surface.  We  can  trace  the  gradual  growth  of  Thomson's 
ideas  in  regard  to  the  sea  with  the  natural  widening  of  his 
scope — from  collecting  as  a  student  on  the  shores  of  the  Firth 
of  Forth  to  dredging  as  a  young  professor  along  the  coasts  of 
Ireland,  and  then  to  the  successive  deep-water  expeditions 
in  the  surveying  vessels  "  Lightning  "  and  "  Porcupine," 
and  finally  to  the  great  world-wide  exploring  voyage  of  the 


WYVILLE  THOMSON  41 

"  Challenger."  We  can  also  trace  the  steps  in  his  Echino- 
derm  studies  which  seem  to  have  led  him  to  the  fruitful  field 
of  deep-sea  exploration.  Palseontological  investigation  sug- 
gested work  on  living  Crinoids,  and  the  news  that  a  strange 
new  stalked  Crinoid  (Rhizocrinus),  related  to  the  fossil 
Apiocrinidae,  had  been  found  living  in  Northern  seas,  induced 
him,  in  1866,  to  visit  Professor  Michael  Sars  at  Christiania, 
and  examine  for  himself  the  remarkable  collection  of  rare 
animals  that  his  son,  George  Ossian  Sars,  had  brought  up 
from  deep  water  (over  300  fathoms)  in  the  Lofoten  fjords. 
He  was  struck  by  their  novelty  and  deep  interest  and  by 
their  resemblance  to  and  bearing  upon  some  of  the  extinct 
animals  of  former  geological  periods,  and  especially  of  the 
Chalk. 

Thus  inspired,  he  urged  his  friend,  Dr.  W.  B.  Carpenter, 
with  whom  he  was  then  w^orking  at  the  later  development  of 
Antedon,  to  join  him  in  endeavouring  to  promote  an  expedi- 
tion to  explore  the  deep  waters  of  the  Atlantic  along  the  north- 
west coasts  of  Europe.  Dr.  Carpenter's  powerful  advocacy 
induced  the  Council  of  the  Ro^^al  Society  to  use  its  influence 
with  the  Hydrographer,  with  such  success  that  the  Admiralty 
consented  to  place  first  one  and  then  another  small  surveying 
steamer  at  the  disposal  of  a  committee  of  scientific  experts 
for  expeditions  under  the  leadership  of  the  two  enthusiasts. 
After  the  first  summer,  a  third  naturalist  of  European  fame. 
Dr.  Gwyn  Jeffreys,  author  of  the  five  volumes  on  British 
Conchology,  joined  Carpenter  and  Thomson  in  conducting 
the  practical  work  at  sea  ;  and  the  account  of  how,  in  1868, 
H.M.S.  "  Lightning,"  and,  in  1869  and  1870,  H.M.S.  "  Por- 
cupine," were  equipped  by  the  Admiralty  and  sent  out  to 
explore  the  depths,  from  the  Faroes  in  the  North  to  Gibraltar 
and  beyond  in  the  South,  is  given  in  full  detail  in  Wyville 
Thomson's  great  work,  The  Depths  of  the  Sea,  which  may  be 
regarded  as  the  first  general  textbook  of  oceanography. 
It  was  published  just  as  the  "  Challenger  "  expedition  was 
leaving  England,  and  so  gives  us  a  statement  of  matters  and 


42  FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

opinions  up  to  that  important  point  in  the  history  of  the 
science.  It  is  too  long  to  summarize ;  but  I  may  give  some 
idea  of  its  contents  by  quoting  a  few  passages,  and  stating 
a  few  facts  : — 

"  The  surveying  ship  '  Lightning  '  "  (Sir  Wyville  writes, 
p.  57)  "  was  assigned  for  the  service — a  cranky  little  vessel 
enough,  one  which  had  the  somewhat  doubtful  title  to 
respect  of  being  perhaps  the  very  oldest  paddle -steamer  in 
Her  Majesty's  Navy.  We  had  not  good  times  in  the  '  Light- 
ning.' She  kept  out  the  water  imperfectly,  and  as  we  had 
deplorable  weather  during  nearly  the  whole  of  the  six  weeks 
we  were  afloat,  we  were  in  considerable  discomfort.  The 
vessel,  in  fact,  was  scarcely  seaworthy,  the  iron  hook  and 
screw-jack  fastenings  of  the  rigging  were  worn  with  age, 
and  many  of  them  were  carried  away,  and  on  two  occasions 
the  ship  ran  some  risk." 

Still,  on  this  "  cranky  little  vessel "  in  the  rough  seas  of 
the  North  Atlantic,  they  dredged  down  to  600  fathoms  ;  and 
in  1869  on  the  "  Porcupine,"  a  more  seaworthy  ship,  they 
got  successful  hauls  from  the  great  depth  of  2,435  fathoms, 
nearly  three  statute  miles. 

Part  of  the  book  is  historical,  and  amongst  other  inter- 
esting matters  gives  an  account  of  those  earlier  observations 
which  afford  glimpses  of  a  fauna  in  the  deep  sea.  For 
example,  we  are  told  how  in  1860  Professor  Fleeming  Jenkin, 
in  repairing  a  cable  in  the  Mediterranean,  found  several 
animals,  including  a  deep-sea  coral,  attached  to  the  broken 
cable  at  a  depth  greater  than  1,000  fathoms,  and  therefore 
much  beyond  the  supposed  zero  of  Edward  Forbes.  During 
the  "  Porcupine  "  expeditions,  sixteen  hauls  of  the  dredge 
were  taken  at  depths  beyond  1,000  fathoms,  and  two  in 
depths  greater  than  2,000  fathoms,  and  in  all  cases  life  was 
found  to  be  abundant. 

Let  us  take  next  Wyville  Thomson's  account  of  a 
remarkable  discovery  made  by  one  of  these  hauls,  viz.,  that 
of  the  first  living  representative  of  the  fossil  flexible  sea- 


WYVILLE   THOMSON  43 

urchins  of  the  Chalk  ever  seen  by  a  scientific  man  (p.  165)  : — 
"  This  haul  was  not  very  rich,  but  it  yielded  one  specimen 
of  extraordinary  beauty  and  interest.  As  the  dredge  was 
coming  in  we  got  a  glimpse  from  time  to  time  of  a  large 
scarlet  urchin  in  the  bag.  We  thought  it  was  one  of  the 
highly  coloured  forms  of  Echinus  flemi7igii  of  unusual  size, 
and  as  it  was  blowing  fresh  and  there  was  some  little  difficulty 
in  getting  the  dredge  capsized,  we  gave  little  heed  to  what 
seemed  to  be  an  inevitable  necessity — that  it  should  be 
crushed  to  pieces.  We  were  somewhat  surprised,  therefore, 
when  it  rolled  out  of  the  bag  uninjured  ;  and  our  surprise 
increased,  and  was  certainly  in  my  case  mingled  with  a 
certain  amount  of  nervousness,  when  it  settled  down  quietly 
in  the  form  of  a  round  red  cake,  and  began  to  pant— a  Hne 
of  conduct,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  very  unusual  in  its  rigid, 
undemonstrative  order.  Yet  there  it  was  with  all  the 
ordinary  characters  of  a  sea-urchin,  its  inter-ambulacral 
areas,  and  its  ambulacral  areas  with  their  rows  of  tube  feet, 
its  spines,  and  ^yq  sharp  blue  teeth  ;  and  curious  undulations 
were  passing  through  its  perfectly  flexible  leather-like  test. 
I  had  to  summon  up  some  resolution  before  taking  the  weird 
little  monster  in  my  hand,  and  congratulating  myself  on  the 
most  interesting  addition  to  my  favourite  family  which  had 
been  made  for  many  a  day."  ^ 

I  shall  quote  one  more  description  (p.  160)  of  a  haul  of  a 
dredge  supplied  with  rope  ''  tangles  "  from  deep  water  : — 
"  I  do  not  believe  human  dredger  ever  got  such  a  haul. 
The  special  inhabitants  of  that  particular  region — vitreous 
sponges  and  echinoderms — had  taken  quite  kindly  to  the 
tangles,  warping  themselves  into  them  and  sticking  through 
them  and  over  them,  till  the  mass  was  such  that  we  could 
scarcely  get  it  on  board.     Dozens  of  great  Holtenice,  like 

^  Wyville  Thomson  gave  a  detailed  description  of  this  and  the 
other  new  Echinoidea  obtained  on  the  "  Porcupine  "  expeditions  in 
his  Memoir,  piibHshed  in  the  Philosophical  Transactions  of  the  Royal 
Society  for  1874. 


44  FOUNDERS   OF   OCEANOGRAPHY 

'  Wrinkled  heads  and  aged, 
With  silver  beard  and  hair,' 

a  dozen  of  the  best  of  them  breaking  off  just  at  that  critical 
point  where  everything  doubles  its  weight  by  being  lifted  out 
of  the  water,  and  sinking  slowly  away  back  again  to  our 
inexpressible  anguish  ;  glossy  wisps  of  Hyalonema  spicules  ; 
a  bushel  of  the  pretty  little  mushroom-like  Tisiphonia  ;  a 
fiery  constellation  of  the  scarlet  Astropecten  tenuispinis  ; 
while  a  whole  tangle  was  ensanguined  by  the  '  disjecta 
membra  '  of  a  splendid  Brisinga.'"  ^ 

In  the  final  chapters  of  the  book  he  discusses  such  highly 
important  and  controversial  matters  as  Deep-sea  Tempera- 
tures, the  Gulf  Stream,  and  the  Continuity  of  the  Chalk.  In 
summarizing  the  results  obtained  in  regard  to  the  deep-sea 
fauna,  he  says  (p.  80)  : — 

"  Finally,  it  had  been  shown  that  a  large  proportion  of 
the  forms  living  at  great  depths  in  the  sea  belong  to  species 
hitherto  unknown,  and  that  thus  a  new  field  of  boundless 
extent  and  great  interest  is  open  to  the  naturalist.  It  had 
been  further  shown  that  many  of  these  deep-sea  animals  are 
specifically  identical  with  tertiary  fossils  hitherto  believed  to 
be  extinct,  while  others  associate  themselves  with  and 
illustrate  extinct  groups  of  the  fauna  of  more  remote  periods  ; 
as,  for  example,  the  vitreous  sponges  illustrate  and  unriddle 
the  ventriculites  of  the  chalk." 

These  pioneering  expeditions — the  results  of  which  are 
not  even  yet  fully  made  known  to  the  scientific  world — were 
epoch-making  inasmuch  as  they  not  only  opened  up  this  new 
world  to  the  systematic  marine  biologist,  but  gave  glimpses 
of  world-wide  problems  in  connection  with  the  physics,  the 
chemistry,  and  the  biology  of  the  sea  which  are  only  now 
being  adequately  investigated  by  the  modern  oceanographer. 
These  results,  which  aroused  intense  interest  amongst  the 

^  For  descriptions  and  figures  of  HoUenia  and  other  new  deep-sea 
Hexactinellid  Sponges,  see  his  Memoir  in  the  Phil.  Trans.  Royal 
Soc.  for  1869. 


WYVILLE  THOMSON  45 

leading  scientific  men  of  the  time,  were  so  rapidly  surpassed 
and  overshadowed  by  the  still  greater  achievements  of  the 
"  Challenger "  and  other  national  exploring  expeditions 
that  followed  in  the  seventies  and  eighties  of  last  century, 
that  there  is  some  danger  of  their  real  importance  being  lost 
sight  of  ;  but  it  ought  never  to  be  forgotten  that  they  first 
demonstrated  the  abundance  of  life  of  a  varied  nature  in 
depths  formerly  supposed  to  be  azoic,  and,  moreover,  that 
some  of  the  deep-sea  animals  were  related  to  extinct  forms 
belonging  to  Jurassic,  Cretaceous,  and  Tertiary  periods. 

Naturally  Wyville  Thomson,  the  young  (then  about  forty) 
and  active  originator  and  leading  spirit  of  these  new  and 
successful  investigations,  became  a  famous  man.  In  1869 
he  was  elected  to  the  Fellowship  of  the  Royal  Society,  and  in 
1870  he  succeeded  Allman  as  Professor  of  Natural  History 
in  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  the  post  held  by  Forbes 
some  fifteen  years  before.  Thomson  was  a  fluent  and  lucid 
lecturer,  and  a  successful  professor,  greatly  appreciated  by 
his  many  students.  His  classes  at  Edinburgh  were  amongst 
the  largest  in  the  university,  and  were  probably  unequalled 
in  size  by  any  classes  of  zoology  elsewhere  in  the  country. 
Had  time  and  strength  permitted,  he  might  have  developed 
a  great  school  of  Marine  Biology  in  connection  with  his 
university,  but  .larger  schemes  further  afield  almost  imme- 
diately claimed  his  attention. 

The  undoubted  success  of  the  preliminary  expeditions 
in  the  "  Lightning  "  and  "  Porcupine  "  encouraged  Carpenter 
and  Wyville  Thomson,  again  through  the  Council  of  the 
Royal  Society,  to  induce  the  Government  to  equip  a  deep- 
sea  expedition  on  a  really  grand  scale  to  explore  and  make 
known  the  conditions  of  life  in  the  great  oceans.  This 
resulted  in  the  famous  circumnavigating  expedition  in  H.M.S. 
*'  Challenger,"  and  Professor  Wjrvrille  Thomson  as  the  chief 
originator  of  the  expedition  was  appointed  director  of  the 
civilian  scientific  staff  on  board.  Two  other  members  of 
that  staff,  J.  Y.  Buchanan,  the  chemist,  and  John  Murray, 


46  FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

the  naturalist — and  future  oceanographer — were  also 
recruited  from  the  University  of  Edinburgh. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  "  Challenger  "  expedition  will 
rank  in  history  with  the  voyageslof  Vasco  da  Gama,  Columbus, 
Magellan,  and  Cook.  Like  these,  it  added  new  regions  of 
the  globe  to  our  knowledge,  and  the  wide  expanses  thus 
opened  up  for  the  first  time — the  floors  of  the  oceans — were 
vaster  than  the  discoveries  of  any   previous    exploration. 

H.M.S.  "Challenger"  (Fig.  2,  p.  57)  was  a  spar-deck  corvette 
of  2,306  tons  displacement,  with  auxiliary  engines  of  1,234 
indicated  horse-power.  She  sailed  in  December,  1872,  and 
returned  in  May,  1876,  and  during  these  3  J  years  she  traversed 
about  69,000  miles  in  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Oceans,  and 
penetrated  as  far  south  as  the  Antarctic  ice  barrier.  Sound- 
ings and  dredgings  or  trawlings  were  taken  at  362  stations, 
and  enormous  collections,  such  as  the  scientific  world  had 
never  seen  before,  of  marine  organisms  large  and  small,  and  of 
samples  of  bottom  deposits  and  of  water  from  all  depths  and 
all  latitudes,  were  brought  home  for  detailed  investigation. 
As  Sir  Ray  Lankester  has  said :  "  Never  did  an  expedition 
cost  so  little  and  produce  such  momentous  results  for  human 
knowledge."  A  number  of  preliminary  reports  written 
during  the  voyage  were  sent  from  the  "  Challenger  "  by 
Wyville  Thomson,  as  Director,  to  the  Hydrographer  of  the 
Admiralty,  and  were  published  by  the  Royal  Society  in 
1875  and  1876.^  Some  were  written  by  the  Director  himself, 
others  were  reports  to  him  by  the  other  members  of  the 
scientific  staff.  Thus,  Moseley  reported  on  the  more  remark- 
able Hydroids  and  Corals  discovered,  Murray  on  the  deep- 
sea  deposits  and  on  the  surface  organisms,  von  Suhm  on 
some  of  the  Crustacea  and  their  larval  forms,  and  Buchanan 
on  the  physics  and  chemistry  of  the  sea.  All  these  prelimi- 
nary reports  are  of  interest  even  now  to  look  over,  and  must 
have  been  far  more  so  nearly  fifty  years  ago,  when  they 
were  published,  as  they  gave  the  first  glimpses  of  a  world 
^  See  especially  Proc.  Roy.  Soc,  No.  170,  1876. 


WYVILLE  THOMSON  47 

of  new  knowledge  which  was  afterwards  elaborated  and 
displayed  in  the  finished  series  of  "  Challenger  Reports," 
and  has  now  found  its  way  into  textbooks  and  been  incor- 
porated in  the  fabric  of  established  science. 

The  long  voyage,  a  considerable  part  of  it  spent  in  the 
tropics,  cannot  but  have  affected  to  some  extent  the  health 
of  men  not  trained  to  a  life  at  sea.  One  of  the  naturaUsts, 
Dr.  R.  von  Willemoes-Suhm,  died  during  the  voyage ; 
Sir  Wyville  Thomson's  health  broke  down  soon  after  his 
return,  and  he  died  early  in  1882  ;  Professor  Moseley  died 
comparatively  young  in  1891,  after  some  years  of  ill-health. 
Sir  John  Murray,  on  the  other  hand,  was  still  in  vigorous 
health  at  the  age  of  over  seventy-two,  when  he  was  killed 
in  a  motor  accident  in  1914.  Dr.  Buchanan,  the  chemist 
to  the  expedition,  is  now  the  sole  survivor  of  the  civilian 
scientific  staff.  The  members  of  that  staff  were  all  briUiant 
men,  who  aU  produced  most  distinguished  work.  It  had 
been  said  of  Moseley,  when  a  young  man,  that  you  had  only 
to  put  him  down  on  a  hiUside  with  a  piece  of  string  and  an 
old  nail,  and  in  an  hour  or  two  he  would  have  discovered 
some  natural  object  of  surpassing  interest.  During  the 
voyage,  in  addition  to  working  at  the  groups  of  animals, 
such  as  Corals,  entrusted  to  his  care,  he  made  very  notable 
collections  in  Botany  and  Anthropology  from  the  remote 
and  little-known  islands  that  were  visited.  He  also  investi- 
gated some  of  the  more  remarkable  of  the  organisms  encoun- 
tered either  on  sea  or  land,  such  as  a  pelagic  Nemertean 
and  some  deep-sea  Ascidians.  While  the  "  Challenger  "  was 
at  Cape  Town  he  took  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to 
search  for  Peripatus,  at  Wynberg,  on  the  slopes  of  Table 
Mountain,  and  on  his  first-found  living  specimen  succeeded 
in  demonstrating  its  essentially  Tracheate  nature. 

In  his  book.  Notes  of  a  Naturalist  on  the  "  Challenger,'" 
Professor  Moseley  gives  us  an  interesting  account  of  the  deep- 
sea  dredging  and  sounding,  and  of  the  length  of  time  required 
for  these  operations  on  board  the  "  Challenger."     At  a  depth 


48  FOUNDERS   OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

of  4,500  fathoms  the  sounding  weight  took  an  hour  and  a 
quarter  to  reach  the  bottom,  and  a  much  longer  time  to  wind 
in  again.  It  used  to  take  all  day  to  dredge  and  trawl  at  any 
considerable  depth,  and  the  net  was  usually  got  in  only  at 
nightfall.  The  ship,  when  dredging,  used  to  lie  rolling  about 
all  day  drifting  along  with  the  wind  and  dragging  the  dredge 
slowly  over  the  bottom.  "  At  last,  in  the  afternoon,  the 
dredge -rope  was  placed  on  the  drum,  and  wound  in  for  three 
or  four  hours,  sometimes  longer.  Often  the  rope  or  net, 
heavily  weighted  with  mud,  hung  on  the  bottom,  and  there 
was  great  excitement  as  the  strain  gradually  increased  on 
the  line.  On  several  occasions  the  rope  broke,  and  the  end 
disappeared  overboard,  three  or  four  miles  of  rope  and  the 
dredge  being  thus  lost.  At  first,  when  the  dredge  came  up, 
every  man  and  boy  in  the  ship  who  could  possibly  slip  away, 
crowded  round  it,  to  see  what  had  been  fished  up.  Gradually, 
as  the  novelty  of  the  thing  wore  off,  the  crowd  became 
smaller  and  smaller  .  .  .  and  as  the  same  tedious  animals 
kept  appearing  from  the  depths  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  the 
ardour  of  the  scientific  staff  even  abated  somewhat,  and  on 
some  occasions  the  members  were  not  all  present  at  the  critical 
moment,  especially  when  this  occurred  in  the  middle  of 
dinner-time,  as  it  had  an  unfortunate  propensity  of  doing. 
It  is  possible  even  for  a  naturalist  to  get  weary  of  deep-sea 
dredging.  Sir  Wyville  Thomson's  enthusiasm  never  flagged, 
and  I  do  not  think  he  ever  missed  the  arrival  of  the  net  at 
the  surface."  ^ 

The  conditions  under  which  life  exists  in  the  deep  sea  are 
very  remarkable.  The  pressure  due  to  the  weight  of  water 
is  enormous,  and  amounts  roughly  to  a  ton  on  the  square 
inch  for  every  thousand  fathoms  ;  so  that  at  5,000  fathoms 
the  pressure  is  about  five  tons,  that  is,  between  seven  and  eight 
hundred  times  as  great  as  the  15  lb.  on  the  square  inch  we 
are  accustomed  to  at  sea-level.  On  one  occasion  we  are  told 
that  Mr.  Buchanan,  the  chemist  to  the  expedition,  hermeti- 

^  Notes  of  a  Naturalist  on  the  "  Challenger,'"  p.  501. 


WYVILLE   THOMSON  49 

cally  sealed  up  a  thick  glass  tube,  wrapped  it  in  flannel,  and 
enclosed  it  in  a  wide  copper  tube  with  perforated  ends,  and 
then  lowered  the  whole  to  a  depth  of  2,000  fathoms  and 
hauled  it  up,  when  it  was  found  that  the  copper  tube  was 
flattened  by  the  pressure,  and  the  glass  tube  inside  the  flannel 
was  reduced  to  a  fine  powder  like  snow.  This  process  was 
referred  to  by  Sir  Wyville  Thomson  as  an  "  implosion,"  the 
converse  of  an  explosion.  The  most  delicate  animals,  how- 
ever, are  able  to  exist  under  these  enormous  pressures,  as 
their  tissues  are  permeated  by  fluids  under  the  same  pressure, 
and  are  consequently  supported  equally  on  the  inside  and  the 
outside.  It  is  only  when  some  animal  is  brought  up  too 
suddenly  from  a  great  depth  to  the  surface  that  the  release 
of  pressure  has  a  disastrous  effect.  Some  fishes  arrive  with 
their  eyes  burst  out  of  their  heads,  their  scales  forced  off,  and 
other  parts  of  the  body  horribly  distorted. 

The  temperature  in  these  great  depths  is  at  or  about 
freezing-point ;  and,  as  the  sunlight  probably  only  penetrates 
for  a  few  hundred  fathoms,  there  must  be  total  darkness  with 
the  exception  of  occasional  dim,  ghostly  glimmers  of  light 
given  out  by  phosphorescent  animals. 

Moseley  gives  an  amusing  account  of  their  tame  and  some- 
what dilapidated  parrot,  who,  from  his  perch  on  one  of  the 
wardroom  hat-pegs,  talked  away  constantly  and  amused 
them  during  the  whole  voyage.  His  great  triumph,  we  are 
told,  was  frequently  to  repeat :  "  What !  2,000  fathoms  and 
no  bottom  !     Ah,  Dr.  Carpenter,  F.R.S.  !  " 

On  the  return  of  the  expedition,  Wjr^ille  Thomson  was 
appointed  Director  of  the  "  Challenger  "  Expedition  Commis- 
sion, located  in  Edinburgh,  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  to  the 
distribution  and  investigation  of  the  vast  collections,  and  the 
pubHcation  of  the  results  ;  and  from  that  time  onwards  for 
about  twenty  years  Edinburgh  was  the  centre  of  oceano- 
graphic  research  and  the  Mecca  towards  which  marine 
biologists  from  all  over  the  world  turned  to  inspect  the 
novelties  of  the  wonderful  collections  and  to  discuss  results. 

E 


50  FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

In  selecting  specialists  to  prepare  the  reports,  Thomson  and 
his  successor  Murray  very  wisely  chose  the  best  men  avail- 
able, irrespective  of  nationality.  Consequently,  the  fifty 
quarto  volumes  of  reports  contain  some  of  the  best  work  of 
the  most  distinguished  naturalists  of  all  countries.  It  was 
not,  however,  until  twenty  years  after  the  expedition  that  the 
last  of  these  volumes  was  issued,  and  the  last  of  the  collections 
was  safely  deposited  in  the  British  Museum. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  the  man  of  science  has  so  frequently 
to  make  a  choice  between  the  necessary  work  of  administra- 
tion and  original  research.  Let  us  trust  that  he  does  not 
invariably  select  the  work  for  which  he  is  least  fitted.  Sir 
Wyville  Thomson  was  given  little  time  for  either.  In  the 
few  years  of  work  that  remained  before  his  health  gave  way, 
he  was  so  occupied  with  his  many  and  varied  duties  as 
director  of  the  Commission  and  editor  of  the  reports,  that 
there  was  little  time  for  the  original  work  he  had  planned  to 
do  in  connection  with  the  collections  of  Stalked  Crinoids  and 
of  Hexactinellid  Sponges — the  two  groups  that  he  had 
reserved  for  his  own  investigation,  and  upon  which  he  was  an 
acknowledged  authority. 

He  was  knighted  in  1876,  and  was  awarded  one  of  the  gold 
medals  by  the  Royal  Society.  In  1877,  he  dehvered  the  Rede 
Lecture  at  Cambridge,  and  in  the  following  year  presided 
over  one  of  the  sections  of  the  British  Association  at  Dublin. 
It  was  during  these  years,  after  the  return  of  the  expedition, 
that  I  was  privileged  to  know  him,  first  as  a  senior  student 
and  young  assistant  and  then  as  naturalist  on  the 
"  Challenger "  Commission,  when  I  had  priceless  oppor- 
tunities of  becoming  acquainted  with  the  wonderful 
collections,  and  with  the* distinguished  men  from  all  countries 
who  came  to  Edinburgh  to  study  them  and  to  consult  with 
Sir  Wyville  Thomson  and  with  his  Chief  Assistant,  Dr. 
Murray,  afterwards  Sir  John.  To  mention  just  a  few  of 
those  I  recollect  most  vividly,  either  at  the  "  Challenger  " 
Office  or  at  Sir   Wyville's   hospitable   house  of   Bonsyde, 


PLATE   V. 


Sir  Wyville  Thomson. 


WYVILLE  THOMSON  51 

where  I  had  frequently  to  help  him  in  the  editing  of  the 
first  few  volumes  of  reports,  or  by  taking  some  of  his 
more  energetic  distinguished  guests  out  for  a  walk  round  the 
countryside,  listening  rather  awe-struck  to  their  wonderful 
conversation  (it  was  frequently  a  monologue,  and  I  believe  I 
acquired  merit  as  a  good  listener),  there  were  :  that  veteran 
of  science.  Dr.  W.  B.  Carpenter,  Professor  Huxley,  Moseley, 
Hubrecht,  Ernst  Haeckel,  Alexander  Agassiz,  Mcintosh, 
Percy  Sladen,  the  Abbe  Renard,  Hjalmar  Theel,  Sir  WilUam 
Turner,  Canon  Norman,  Professor  P.  G.  Tait,  Hoek,  Perceval 
Wright,  and  a  number  of  younger  men  who  have  since 
attained  distinction,  but  were  then  just  launched  on  a 
scientific  career.  During  that  time  the  distribution  of  many 
of  the  groups  of  animals  to  specialists,  and  the  form  in  which 
the  reports  were  to  be  published,  was  being  decided  on,  and 
many  interesting  details  had  to  be  arranged  between  Sir 
Wyville  and  his  "  Reporters  "  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
Stationery  Ofiice  of  the  Government  (which  undertook  the 
publication)  on  the  other,  the  latter  seeming  to  have  great 
difficulty  in  understanding  the  cmious  requirements  of 
scientific  authors  in  regard  to  printing  and  illustration. 

During  this  time  at  home  Sir  Wyville  published  (Macmillan 
&  Co.,  London,  1877)  his  preliminary  account  of  the  general 
results  of  the  expedition,  in  two  volumes,  entitled  Voyage  of 
the  "  Challenger  " — The  Atlantic,  which  were  to  have  been 
followed  by  companion  volumes  on  the  Pacific  that,  unfor- 
tunately, never  appeared.  The  Atlantic  is  a  most  readable 
work,  full  of  observations  on  the  botany,  geology  and 
antiquities  of  the  places  visited  as  well  as  on  the  marine 
biology  and  general  oceanography  of  the  cruise.  A  notable 
feature  of  the  book  is  the  series  of  really  beautiful  text- 
figures  illustrating  the  new  species  of  Echinodermata  and 
Sponges,  which  Professor  Thomson  had  to  some  extent 
investigated  during  the  voyage,  and  which  he  briefly  described 
in  these  two  volumes.  Some  of  the  figures  of  Holothurians, 
Sea-urchins  and  Starfishes  show  interesting  cases  of  "  direct 


52  FOUNDERS  OF   OCEANOGRAPHY 

development  "  of  deep  water  or  Antarctic  Echinoderms, 
where  the  young  were  found  in  curiously  devised  marsupial 
cavities,  and  had  evidently  never  passed  through  a  free  larval 
stage. 

I  shall  quote  here  a  couple  of  passages  from  The  Atlantic, 
to  give  some  idea  of  the  varied  interest  of  the  book  and  of 
Sir  Wyville's  descriptive  power. 

In  writing  of  the  masses  of  weed  in  the  Sargasso  Sea,  he 
saj^s  {Atlantic,  Vol.  II,  p.  10) :  "  The  floating  islands  have 
inhabitants  peculiar  to  them,  and  I  know  of  no  more  perfect 
example  of  protective  resemblance  than  that  which  is  shown 
in  the  gulf-weed  fauna.  Animals  drifting  about  on  the 
surface  of  the  sea  with  such  scanty  cover  as  the  single  broken 
layer  of  the  sea-weed,  must  be  exposed  to  exceptional  danger 
from  the  sharp-eyed  sea-birds  hovering  above  them,  and  from 
the  hungry  fishes  searching  for  prey  beneath  ;  but  one  and  all 
of  these  creatures  imitate  in  such  an  extraordinary  way,  both 
in  form  and  colouring,  their  floating  habitat,  and  conse- 
quently one  another,  that  we  can  well  imagine  their  deceiving 
both  the  birds  and  the  fishes.  ...  A  little  short-tailed  crab 
(Nautilograpsus  minutus)  swarms  on  the  weed  and  on  every 
floating  object,  and  it  is  odd  to  see  how  the  little  creature 
usually  corresponds  in  colour  with  whatever  it  may  happen 
to  inhabit.  These  gulf-weed  animals,  fishes,  mollusca,  and 
crabs,  do  not  simply  imitate  the  colours  of  the  gulf -weed  ; 
to  do  so  would  to  be  to  produce  suspicious  patches  of 
continuous  olive ;  they  are  all  blotched  over  with  bright 
opaque  white,  the  blotches  generally  rounded,  sometimes 
irregular,  but  at  a  little  distance  absolutely  undistinguish- 
able  from  the  patches  of  Membranipora  on  the  weed." 

On  one  occasion  he  describes  (p.  147)  the  loss  of  a  great 
catch,  when  trawling  at  a  depth  of  2,350  fathoms  in  the  South 
Atlantic.  "  The  trawl  was  lowered,  and  on  heaving  in  it 
came  up  apparently  with  a  heavy  weight,  the  accumulators 
being  stretched  to  the  utmost.  It  was  a  long  and  weary 
wind-in  on  account  of  the  continued  strain  ;     at  length  it 


WYVILLE  THOMSON  53 

came  close  to  the  surface,  and  we  could  see  the  distended  net 
through  the  water  ;  when,  just  as  it  was  leaving  the  water, 
and  so  greatly  increasing  its  weight,  the  swivel  between  the 
dredge-rope  and  the  chain  gave  way,  and  the  trawl  with  its 
unknown  burden  quietly  sank  out  of  sight.  It  was  a  cruel 
disappointment,  every  one  was  on  the  bridge,  and  curiosity 
was  wound  up  to  the  highest  pitch  :  some  vowed  that  they  saw 
resting  on  the  beam  of  the  vanishing  trawl  the  white  hand  of 
the  mermaiden  for  whom  we  had  watched  so  long  in  vain  ; 
but  I  think  it  is  more  likely  that  the  trawl  had  got  bagged 
with  the  large  sea-slugs  which  occur  in  some  of  these  deep 
dredgings  in  large  quantity,  and  have  more  than  once  burst 
the  trawl  net." 

Here  is  a  record  of  an  historic  event  in  our  knowledge  of 
the  Protozoa  (p.  293)  :— 

"  On  one  occasion  in  the  Pacific,  when  Mr.  Murray  was  out 
in  a  boat  in  a  dead  calm  collecting  surface  creatures,  he  took 
gently  up  in  a  spoon  a  little  globular  gelatinous  mass  with  a 
red  centre,  and  transferred  it  to  a  tube.  This  globule  gave  us 
our  first  and  last  chance  of  seeing  what  a  pelagic  foraminifer 
really  is  when  in  its  full  beauty.  When  placed  under  the 
microscope  it  proved  to  be  a  Hastigerina  in  a  condition  wholly 
different  from  anything  which  we  had  yet  seen.  The  spines, 
which  were  mostly  unbroken,  owing  to  its  mode  of  capture, 
were  enormously  long,  about  fifteen  times  the  diameter  of  the 
shell  in  length  ;  the  sarcode,  loaded  with  its  yellow  oil-cells, 
was  almost  all  outside  the  shell,  and  beyond  the  fringe  of 
yellow  sarcode  the  space  between  the  spines  to  a  distance  of 
about  twice  the  diameter  of  the  shell  all  round  was  completely 
filled  up  with  delicate  hullce,  like  those  which  we  see  in  some 
of  the  Radiolarians,  as  if  the  most  perfectly  transparent 
portion  of  the  sarcode  had  been  blown  out  into  a  delicate 
froth  of  bubbles  of  uniform  size.  Along  the  spines  fine 
double  threads  of  transparent  sarcode,  loaded  with  minute 
granules,  coursed  up  one  side  and  down  the  other,  while 
between  the  spines  independent  thread-like  pseudopodia  ran 


54  FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

out,  some  of  them  perfectly  free,  and  others  anastomosing 
with  one  another  or  joining  the  sarcodic  sheaths  of  the  spines, 
but  all  showing  the  characteristic  flowing  movement  of  living 
protoplasm.  The  woodcut  [in  loc.  cit.'] ,  excellent  though  it  is, 
gives  only  a  most  imperfect  idea  of  the  complexity  and  the 
beauty  of  the  organism  with  all  its  swimming  or  floating 
machinery  in  this  expanded  condition." 

The  conclusion  at  which  Wyville  Thomson  arrived  from 
a  consideration  of  deep-sea  and  shallow-water  faunas  was 
(p.  331) : — "  It  would  seem  that  the  enormous  pressure,  the 
utter  darkness,  and  the  differences  in  the  chemical  and 
physical  conditions  of  the  water  and  in  the  proportions  of  its 
contained  gases  depending  upon  such  extreme  conditions,  do 
not  influence  animal  life  to  any  great  extent." 

During  these  few  years  after  the  return  of  the  "  Challenger  " 
a  number  of  lithographic  plates  illustrating  the  new  Stalked 
Crinoids  and  the  new  Hexactinellid  Sponges  of  the  expedition 
were  drawn  on  stone  under  Sir  Wyville's  direction,  and  were 
afterwards  made  use  of  in  the  completed  reports  on  the 
former  group  by  Dr.  P.  H.  Carpenter,  and  on  the  latter  by 
Professor  F.  E.  Schulze. 

Even  after  his  health  began  to  give  way,  he  arranged  for 
and  directed,  even  if  he  did  not  actually  conduct,  a  very 
important  subsidiary  expedition  for  the  purpose  of  investi- 
gating further  the  very  remarkable  conditions  of  temperature 
and  fauna  which  had  been  noticed  in  the  Faroe  Channel 
during  the  earlier  cruises  in  the  North  Atlantic. 

Carpenter  and  Wyville  Thomson,  during  their  preliminary 
investigations  in  the  "  Lightning  "  and  "  Porcupine,"  had 
found  that  the  Faroe  Channel  between  Cape  Wrath  and  the 
Faroe  Isles  was  abruptly  divided  into  two  regions  under 
very  different  conditions — a  "  cold  "  and  a  "  warm  "  area. 
The  temperature  of  the  water  to  a  depth  of  200  fathoms  is 
much  the  same  in  the  two  areas  ;  but  in  the  cold  area  to  the 
N.E.  the  temperature  is  about  34°  F.  at  250  fathoms  and 
about  30°  at  the  bottom  in  640  fathoms,  while  in  the  warm 


WYVILLE  THOMSON  55 

area  which  stretches  S.W.  from  the  line  of  demarcation  the 
temperature  is  47°  F.  at  250  fathoms  and  42°  at  the  bottom 
in  600  fathoms.  The  warm  area  was  found  to  have  216 
species,  while  the  cold  had  217,  and  of  these  only  48  species 
were  common  to  both. 

Sir  Wyville  Thomson  (see  Nature,  Sept.  2,  1880),  as  a 
result  of  his  consideration  of  the  "  Challenger  "  temperatures, 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  cold  and  warm  areas  of  the 
Faroe  Channel  must  be  separated  by  a  very  considerable 
submarine  ridge  rising  to  within  200  or  300  fathoms  of  the 
surface.  He  therefore  addressed  a  letter  in  June,  1880,  to  the 
Hydrographer  of  the  Admiralty,  pointing  out  these  facts,  and 
asking  for  the  use  of  a  surveying  vessel  for  a  few  weeks  for 
the  purpose  of  sounding  the  Faroe  Channel  with  a  view  of 
testing  his  prediction.  That  was  the  origin  of  the  "  Knight 
Errant "  expedition  conducted  by  Captain  Tizard  and 
Dr.  John  Murray,  under  the  general  direction  of  Sir  Wyville 
Thomson,  who  remained  at  Stornoway  in  the  Outer  Hebrides 
during  the  four  traverses  of  the  region  in  question.  The 
results  ^  completely  justified  Sir  Wyville  Thomson's  predic- 
tion, and  showed  that  a  ridge  rising  to  within  300  fathoms  of 
the  surface  runs  from  the  N.W.  of  Scotland  by  the  Island  of 
Rona  to  the  southern  end  of  the  Faroe  fishing  banks. 

This  was  followed  by  a  further  expedition  in  H.M.S. 
"  Triton"  in  the  summer  of  1882,  again  under  Murray  and 
Tizard,  which  was  very  fruitful  of  zoological  results.  The 
discovery  of  two  very  different  assemblages  of  animals 
living  on  the  two  sides  of  the  Wyville  Thomson  ridge — Arctic 
forms  to  the  north  and  Atlantic  forms  to  the  south — gives 
us  a  notable  example  of  the  effect  of  the  environment  on  the 
distribution  of  marine  forms  of  life. 

Sir  Wyville  Thomson,  however,  did  not  live  to  see  the 

"  Triton  "  expedition  and  the  full  results  of  the  exploration  of 

the  submarine  ridge  which  so  appropriately  bears  his  name. 

His  health  had  been  failing  for  several  years.     In  June,  1879, 

1  Published  in  the  Proc.  Roy.  Soc.  Edin.  for  1882  (Vol.  XI). 


56  FOUNDERS   OF   OCEANOGRAPHY 

he  had  an  attack  of  paralysis,  and  had  to  give  up  most  of  his 
university  work.     He  resigned  his  professorship  in  October, 

1881,  and  the  Directorship  of  the ' '  Challenger  "  Commission  at 
the  end  of  that  year.  He  was  able,  in  an  invalided  condition, 
to  attend  the  Jubilee  Meeting  of  the  British  Association  at 
York  in  August,  1881,  and  died  at  Bonsyde  on  March  10th, 

1882,  in  his  53rd  year.  He  was  a  man  of  handsome  presence 
and  genial  nature,  with  great  personal  charm  of  manner. 
His  general  culture,  large  fund  of  information  on  many 
subjects,  his  aptness  and  humour  in  conversation  all  con- 
tributed to  make  him  a  social  success  in  Edinburgh  and  the 
beau-ideal  of  a  host  in  his  country  home,  where  he  gathered 
round  him  a  large  circle  of  friends  by  no  means  confined  to 
scientific  men. 

He  had  a  quaint  way  of  occasionally  bringing  in  old  Scots 
sayings,  or  snatches  of  poetry,  as  for  example,  when  he  thought 
a  question  unimportant : — 

Twenty  peacocks  in  the  air.     I  wonder  how  they  all  got  there. 
I  don't  know — and  I  don't  care  ! 

or — more  briefly,  when  with  friends  who  understood  him, 
simply — ''  Twenty  Peacocks." 

Judged  from  the  scientific  point  of  view,  he  probably 
turned  out  less  original  work  than  might  have  been  expected. 
He  is  to  be  regarded  as  one  of  those  who  promoted  science 
quite  as  much  by  his  tact,  influence  and  personality  as  by  his 
own  researches.  Much  that  he  had  planned  and  begun  was 
never  completed,  much  that  he  might  have  done  was  pre- 
vented by  his  stirring  life,  frequent  changes  of  post,  his 
important  administrative  work  and  his  numerous  social 
duties.  He  was  inspiring  in  conversation,  kindly  in  his  help 
and  advice  to  younger  workers,  sagacious  in  counsel  and 
highly  valued  by  a  wide  circle  of  scientific  friends  in  this 
country,  in  America,  and  on  the  Continent. 

The  important  question  now  to  be  considered  is,  how  has 
the  "  Challenger  "  expedition,  which  we  owe  mainly  to  the 


WYVILLE  THOMSON 


57 


inspiration  and  the  energy  of  Sir  Wyville  Thomson,  advanced 
the  science  of  the  sea  ?  This  may  be  answered  under  various 
heads,  and  many  leading  authorities  in  different  branches  of 
oceanography  have  given  their  answer  during  the  haK- 
century  that  has  elapsed  since  the  expedition  took  place. 

To  take  hydrography  first,  it  must  be  remembered  that 
every  contribution  to  our  knowledge  of  the  ocean  currents 
and  their  character,  the  ocean  floor,  its  nature  and  depth,  the 
prevalent  winds   and   meteorological   and   magnetical  con- 


FiG.  2. — H.M.S.  "Challenger"  preparing  to  Sound,  1872. 

From  Reports  of  the  "  Challenger"  Expedition.     {By  permission  of  the  Controller  of 
H.M.  Stationery  Office.) 

ditions  is  an  addition  to  the  safety  of  the  sailor,  to  the  ease 
and  speed  with  which  a  voyage  may  be  accomplished,  and 
to  the  intercourse  of  nations.  "  Every  Briton  is  proud  of 
Britannia's  navy  ;  but  let  us  remember  that  it  is  something 
more  than  our  Empire's  fighting  machine,  that  it  has  been  in 
the  past,  and  will  be  still  more  in  the  future,  the  servant  of 
the  world,  and  a  most  potent  agent  in  the  peaceful  union  and 
advance  of  all  its  peoples." 


58  FOUNDERS   OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

Captain  Tizard,  who  was  the  Navigating  Officer  on  the 
"  Challenger  "  during  the  expedition,  tells  us  that  the  naval 
officers  on  board,  equally  with  the  scientific  men,  were  all 
animated  with  the  idea  that  it  was  their  business  to  make 
the  expedition  a  success,  and  we  understand  that  while  each 
member  of  the  staff  had  his  own  work-room,  in  which  he 
could  pursue  his  own  subject  uninterruptedly,  they  all  com- 
pared notes  and  got  suggestions  from  one  another  in  the 
smoking  circle  after  dinner  ;  a  function  which,  we  are  told, 
was  always  well  attended,  and  where  the  events  and  work 
of  the  day  were  freely  and  amicably  discussed. 

The  chief  hydrographic  results  which  have  benefited 
navigation  are,  according  to  Tizard  (1895)  : — 

(1)  The  proof  that  the  variation  of  the  compass  can  be 
determined  as  accurately  in  a  ship  as  on  shore,  if  the  ship  is 
magnetically  suitable. 

(2)  The  determination  for  the  first  time  of  the  depths  and 
main  contour  lines  of  the  great  ocean  basins.  It  was  shown 
that  some  of  the  great  depths  formerly  reported  had  been 
much  exaggerated,  and  the  deepest  sounding  obtained  was 
4,475  fathoms,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Mariana  Islands 
in  the  N.  Pacific.  The  investigations  of  many  other  expedi- 
tions (such  as  the  ''  Tuscarora,"  the  ''  Gazelle,"  the  "  Vettor 
Pisani,"  and  the  "  Valdivia  ")  since  the  "  Challenger  "  have 
not  altered  in  any  material  degree  the  contour  lines  of 
the  great  oceans  drawn  by  our  expedition  in  1876,  and  have 
not  resulted  in  the  discovery  of  any  depth  exceeding 
5,269  fathoms,  about  six  statute  miles.  The  "  Challenger  " 
explorations  give  no  support  to  the  fanciful  theory  of  a  lost 
"  Atlantis."  Microscopic  investigations  have  revealed  no 
traces  of  mythical  continents  now  beneath  the  sea. 

(3)  The  determination  of  oceanic  temperatures  and 
their  independence  of  seasonal  variation  below  the  depth  of 
100  fathoms. 

(4)  The  proof  of  constant  bottom  temperatures  over  large 
areas  in  the  ocean.     Thus,  in  the  N.  Atlantic  the  temperature 


WYVILLE  THOMSON  59 

at  depths  exceeding  2,000  fathoms  was  found  to  be  constant 
at  about  36*5°  F.,  while  in  the  N.  Pacific  the  bottom  tempera- 
ture was  constant  at  35°  ;  in  parts  of  the  S.  Atlantic  the 
temperature  at  the  bottom  fell  to  32-7°,  while  in  the  Sulu 
Sea  it  is  50*5°,  and  in  the  Arafura  Sea  38*6°,  while  it  is  known 
that  the  bottom  temperature  of  the  Mediterranean  is  constant 
at  55*5°,  and  that  of  the  Red  Sea  at  69°,  these  differences 
being  due  to  certain  oceanic  areas  being  separated  from  each 
other  by  submarine  ridges,  which  prevent  a  more  general 
spreading  of  the  cold  bottom  water  from  the  poles.  No 
bottom  temperature  was  obtained  as  low  as  the  freezing 
point  of  salt  water. 

(5)  The  determination  of  the  exact  position  of  many 
islands  and  rocks,  the  longitude  of  which  had  been  previously 
uncertain. 

(6)  The  charting  and  surveying  of  various  little-known 
parts  of  the  world,  and  their  biological  investigation. 

(7)  The  determination  of  the  ocean  currents  both  on  the 
surface  and  at  various  depths. 

One  of  the  results  of  the  "  Challenger  "  expedition  was 
undoubtedly  an  increase  in  our  knowledge  of  the  details  of 
structure  and  the  probable  mode  of  formation  of  coral  reefs 
and  islands.  Before  the  expedition,  several  geologists  and 
naturalists  had  published  doubts  as  to  the  universal  applica- 
bility of  the  subsidence  theory  of  coral  reefs  which  we  owe 
to  Darwin.  Semper,  for  example,  showed  that  in  the  Pelew 
Islands  up-raised  reefs  and  atolls  (which,  according  to  the 
theory,  indicate  a  sinking  area)  are  found  close  together. 
The  "  Challenger "  observations  in  regard  to  submarine 
elevations  and  the  mode  of  accumulation  of  deep-sea  deposits 
enabled  Mr.  Murray  (afterwards  Sir  John)  to  formulate  and 
publish  a  new  theory  as  to  the  origin  of  atolls,  which  does  not 
postulate  any  changes  of  level,  but  makes  use  merely  of 
processes  of  growth  and  decay  which  we  know  to  be  at  work 
and  constantly  acting.     The  matter  is  by  no  means  finally 


60  FOUNDERS   OF   OCEANOGRAPHY 

settled  even  now,  and  it  may  well  be  that  Darwin's  theory 
holds  good  in  certain  parts  of  the  ocean,  while  Murray's 
explanation  is  true  for  other  series  of  atolls. 

One  of  the  principal  additions  to  knowledge  made  by  the 
"  Challenger  "  observations  was  as  regards  the  deposits  now 
accumulating  at  various  depths  on  the  floor  of  the  ocean. 
During  the  voyage  the  preservation  and  examination  of 
these  deposits  was  part  of  Murray's  work,  and  subsequently, 
along  with  his  friend  the  Abbe  Renard,  he  made  a  most 
comprehensive  study  of  all  the  submarine  deposits  (about 
12,000)  that  could  be  obtained  from  various  expeditions,  and 
published  in  the  "  Challenger  "  series  a  most  authoritative 
report,  which  will  be  for  long  the  standard  work  on  the 
subject.  Omitting  terrigenous  deposits,  which  are  formed 
close  to  the  shore  and  are  made  up  chiefly  of  matters  washed 
down  from  the  land  or  worn  o£F  from  the  coast,  the  deep-sea 
"  oozes,"  as  they  have  come  to  be  called,  are  divided  into 
various  kinds,  such  as  Globigerina  ooze,  Radiolarian  ooze, 
Diatom  ooze,  Pteropod  ooze,  according  to  the  nature  of  their 
chief  constituents,  while  another  most  extensive  deposit, 
occupying  over  50  million  square  miles  on  the  floor  of  the 
ocean  at  depths  of  over  2,000  fathoms,  contains  compara- 
tively few  conspicuous  organisms  and  is  known  as  Red 
Clay  because  of  the  alumina  and  iron  and  manganese  which 
it  contains.  In  some  places  associated  with  the  Red  Clay 
are  found  great  deposits  of  manganese  nodules,  ear-bones  of 
whales,  and  gigantic  sharks'  teeth  apparently  belonging  to 
extinct  species.  It  was  the  "  Challenger  "  observations  that 
first  enabled  oceanographers  to  map  out  the  distribution  of 
these  pelagic  oozes  on  the  floor  of  the  ocean,  and  which  first 
gave  us  a  rational  explanation  of  their  nature  and  process 
of  formation. 

In  connection  with  deep-sea  deposits,  it  may  be  appro- 
priate to  point  out  that  it  was  the  naturalists  on  the 
"  Challenger  "  who  pricked  the  bubble  of  "  Bathybius  "  and 
made  known  the  real  nature  of  that  mythical  organism. 


WYVILLE   THOMSON  61 

Some  eminent  biologists  of  the  past,  from  an  examination 
of  some  of  the  earUer  deep-sea  dredgings,  had  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  a  grey  gelatinous  material,  sometimes  found 
in  such  deposits,  was  the  remains  of  a  primitive  protoplasmic 
living  slime  covering  the  ocean  bottom  as  a  nutrient  pabulum 
upon  which,  in  the  absence  of  plants,  the  more  highly 
organized  animals  could  graze — reminding  one  of  the  good 
old  days  in  Ireland  when — 

The  streets  of  Kilkenny  were  paved  with  penny  loaves. 
And  the  houses  were  thatched  with  pancakes. 

In  his  book,  The  Depths  of  the  Sea,  Wyville  Thomson  speaks 
of  it  as  "  the  universally  distributed  '  Moner  '  of  deep  water," 
and  gives  an  excellent  figure  of  "  Bathybius  "  with  its 
amoeboid  protoplasm  and  its  contained  Coccoliths. 

The  Bathybius  mjrth  had  for  a  time  a  great  vogue — 
particularly  in  Germany.  Theoretically  it  was  beautiful,  it 
explained  so  much,  but  unfortunately  on  the  "  Challenger  '* 
it  came  in  contact  with  hard  facts  of  experiment  and  at  once 
succumbed.  It  was  proved  by  Mr.  Buchanan  that  when  a 
certain  quantity  of  strong  alcohol  was  added  to  a  certain 
quantity  of  sea- water,  the  sulphate  of  lime  was  precipitated 
in  the  form  of  an  amorphous  deposit  which  clung  around  any 
particles,  such  as  sand  grains,  mud,  or  the  minute  shells  of  an 
ooze,  and  gave  exactly  the  appearances  under  the  microscope 
which  had  been  supposed  to  indicate  the  presence  of  proto- 
plasm in  the  submarine  deposit.  Thus,  as  Huxley  once  said, 
"  Bathybius  has  not  fulfilled  the  promise  of  its  youth,"  but 
from  the  experiments  of  the  "  Challenger  "  naturahsts  has 
been  shown  to  be  simply  the  sulphate  of  lime  in  the  sea- water 
of  the  ooze  precipitated  by  the  alcohol  which  was  added  for 
preservation  purposes. 

There  were  great  and  widespread  hopes  and  expectations 
amongst  scientific  men  that  the  ''  Challenger  "  explorations 
would  result  in  the  discovery  of  many  ancient  and  primitive 
types,  belonging  to  extinct  groups,  still  living  in  the  great 


62  FOUNDERS   OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

depths  of  the  ocean.  These  hopes  were  not  realized  to  any 
great  extent.  No  Trilobites,  no  Cystoids  and  Blastoids,  no 
archaic  connecting  links  comparable  in  morphological  import- 
ance with  such  land  or  shallow-water  forms  as  Ornitho- 
rhynchus,  Amphioxus,  Balanoglossus,  Peripatus,  Apus,  or 
Limuhis,  have  been  found  in  the  depths  of  the  ocean  ;  and 
the  accepted  view  now  is  that  the  deep-sea  animals  are  not 
for  the  most  part  early  and  primitive  forms,  but  have  been 
derived  from  the  more  ancient  shallow- water  faunas.  There 
are  comparatively  few  "  living  fossils  "  in  the  deep  sea.  The 
vast  number  of  new  forms,  however,  added  greatly  to  our 
knowledge  of  the  infinite  variety  and  range  of  structure  of 
almost  all  groups.  The  expedition  conclusively  established 
the  existence  of  abundance  of  living  things,  from  the  lowest 
of  marine  animals  up  to  fishes,  in  even  the  great  abysses  of 
the  ocean. 

If  we  make  a  careful  survey  of  the  fifty  large  quarto 
volumes  of  reports,  we  find  that  most  of  the  innumerable 
discoveries  with  which  the  "  Challenger  "  expedition  has 
enriched  zoological  science  are  additions  to  our  knowledge 
either  of  the  abyssal  animals  that  live  at  the  bottom  of  deep 
water  or  of  the  plankton,  those  that  float  near  the  surface. 
Beginning  with  the  lower  animals  and  working  upwards,  in 
the  Radiolaria  Haeckel,  who  reported  on  the  material,  made 
known  more  than  4,000  species,  for  the  most  part  new  to 
science.  The  numerous  beautiful  plates  of  the  organisms 
forming  Radiolarian  and  Globigerina  ooze  are  amongst  the 
most  important  additions  to  our  knowledge  of  the  Protozoa. 
A  wholly  new  group  of  Radiolaria,  the  Challengerida 
(Phaeodaria),  having  a  remarkable  skeleton  of  hollow  spines 
formed  of  a  peculiar  combination  of  silica  with  organic 
matter,  and  living  in  intermediate  waters  at  a  considerable 
depth  but  not  on  the  bottom,  was  added  by  the  "  Challenger  " 
investigations. 

Literally  hundreds  of  new  species  of  Sponges  were  described 
in  the  "  Challenger  "  reports,  and  amongst  these  the  greatest 


WYVILLE  THOMSON  63 

interest  attaches  to  the  representatives  of  that  ancient  and 
wonderfully  beautiful  group,  the  Hexactinellida,  in  which 
we  find  Euplectella,  the  "  Venus'  flower  basket  "  of  the 
PhiHppine  Islands,  and  Hyalonema,  the  "  glass  rope " 
sponge. 

In  the  Coelenterata  the  work  of  greatest  novelty  and 
distinction  was  certainly  that  of  the  late  Professor  Moseley. 
His  remarkable  report  on  "  Corals  "  contains  a  section  on 
the  Hydrocorallinai,  which  is  full  of  original  discoveries  of 
great  value  which  have  now  been  incorporated  in  all  text- 
books of  zoology.  He  confirmed  the  view  that  Millepora 
is  a  stony  Hydroid,  and  he  was  able  to  prove  that  all  the 
Stylasteridse  also  belong  to  that  group,  and  incidentally  his 
work  overthrew  the  old-established  group  of  the  Tabulate 
Corals.  In  another  section  of  this  report  he  gives  an 
account  of  the  important  discovery,  which  he  made  at  the 
Philippine  Islands,  that  Heliopora,  the  blue  coral,  is  really 
an  Alcyonarian. 

Amongst  the  Echinoderm  reports,  that  on  the  Crinoidea 
is  perhaps  the  most  interesting  and  important.  It  may  be 
recalled  that  it  was  the  discovery  by  G.  0.  Sars  in  1864  of  the 
stalked  Crinoid  Ehizocmius,  a  member  of  the  Jurassic  and 
Cretaceous  family  Apiocrinidse,  still  living  in  the  deep  fjords 
of  Norway,  that  stimulated  Sir  Wyville  Thomson  and  Dr. 
W.  B.  Carpenter  to  promote  the  cruises  of  the  "  Lightning  " 
in  1868,  and  of  the  "  Porcupine  "  in  1869  and  1870,  and  thus 
led  up  to  the  "  Challenger  "  expedition.  Sir  Wyville  had 
intended  himseK  to  describe  the  stalked  Crinoids,  and  had 
made  some  progress  in  the  examination  and  classification  of 
the  specimens  and  in  the  preparation  of  some  of  the  plates 
when  his  break-down  in  health  prevented  any  further  work  of 
the  kind.  The  reports  on  these  and  on  the  Comatulida  were 
eventually  prepared  by  Dr.  Carpenter's  distinguished  son, 
Dr.  P.  H.  Carpenter,  who  as  a  lad  had  been  his  father's 
assistant  on  one  of  the  cruises  of  the  "  Porcupine."  The 
"  Challenger  "  results  definitely  showed  that,  in  place  of 


64  FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

being,  as  was  supposed,  "  a  group  on  the  verge  of  extinction," 
the  stalked  Crinoids  were  widely  distributed  and  showed 
scarcely  any  decrease  in  numbers  since  the  times  of  their 
ancestors  in  Mesozoic  seas.  Some  of  the  Echinoidea 
described  in  the  report  by  Professor  Alexander  Agassiz 
resemble  the  Ananchjrtidae  of  the  Chalk,  others  are  related 
to  the  extinct  Galerites  ;  while  Cystechinus,  with  a  thin 
flexible  test,  recalls  the  Palaeozoic  Palaeechinidse.  Some  of 
the  Echinothuridae,  with  flexible  tests  of  imbricating  plates, 
had  long  been  known  as  Cretaceous  fossils,  and  the  first- 
found  living  representative,  Calveria  hystrix,  of  the  "  Porcu- 
pine," was  added  to  on  the  "  Challenger  "  expedition  by 
various  species  of  the  remarkable  allied  genera,  Phormosoma 
and  Asihenosoma. 

Many  abyssal  starfishes  of  primitive  t3rpe  were  found,  and 
a  number  of  these,  in  place  of  passing  through  a  free  larval 
stage,  have  "  direct  "  development,  and  keep  their  young  for 
a  period  in  some  form  of  nidamental  pouch.  Many  new  and 
extraordinary  deep-water  Ophiuroids  were  added  to  know- 
ledge, but  it  is  perhaps  in  the  Holothurians  that  we  find  the 
most  surprising  novelties.  A  whole  new  abyssal  group  of 
over  fifty  remarkable  species — the  Elasipoda— has  been 
made  known  in  the  report  by  Professor  Hjalmar  Theel, 
nearly  all  found  at  depths  greater  than  1,000  fathoms  and 
ranging  practically  from  pole  to  pole.  They  are  charac- 
terized, partly  by  primitive  characters,  such  as  the  open 
madreporic  canal  on  the  surface  of  the  body,  and  partly  by 
adaptive  characters  fitting  them  to  a  life  on  the  bottom  ooze, 
over  which  they  crawl  and  upon  which  they  feed. 

Amongst  novelties  in  the  Worms  may  be  noted  an 
elaborately  branched  Syllis,  spreading  its  numerous  ramifica- 
tions through  the  canal  system  of  a  Hexactinellid  Sponge 
dredged  off  the  Philippines.  Another  noteworthy  form  was 
Pelagonemertes,  a  pelagic  Nemertine  described  by  Moseley, 
from  the  North  Pacific  and  the  Southern  Ocean. 

The  "  Challenger  "  reports  on  Crustacea   occupy  nearly 


WYVILLE   THOMSON  66 

one-fourth  of  the  whole,  and  describe  nearly  1,000  new 
species,  some  of  which  show  remarkable  modifications 
induced  by  life  at  great  depths.  Certain  of  them  are  totally 
blind,  and  others  have  eyes  that  are  profoundly  degenerate 
in  their  minute  structure  and  are  probably  useless  as  organs 
of  sight. 

Amongst  the  Pycnogonida,  or  Sea-Spiders,  were  some 
gigantic  forms  of  Colossencleis,  measuring  about  two  feet  across 
the  outstretched  appendages.  Although  not,  of  course,  a 
discovery  in  marine  biology,  it  may  be  noted  here  that 
Moseley  was  enabled,  by  the  examination  of  fresh  specimens 
of  Peripatus  obtained  at  the  Cape,  to  demonstrate  the 
essentially  Tracheate  nature  of  that  primitive  and  annectent 
form.  Living  representatives  of  the  fossil  Trilobites  were 
eagerly  looked  for — but  never  found. 

In  the  Mollusc  a,  as  in  Crustacea,  we  find  a  tendency  for 
the  eyes  to  degenerate  or  disappear,  in  deep  water.  The 
"  Challenger  "  collections  enabled  Pelseneer  to  establish  a 
phylogenetic  classification  of  the  Lamellibranchiata  based 
on  the  structure  of  the  gills,  and  to  show  that  the  pelagic 
Pteropods  are  a  polyphyletic  group,  some  of  which  are 
related  to  one,  and  the  rest  to  another,  section  of  the  Opistho- 
branchiata.  One  of  the  prizes  obtained  was  the  living 
specimens  of  Trigonia,  dredged  off  the  coast  of  Australia,  a 
primitive  cockle-like  form  found  fossil  in  European  rocks  of 
secondary  age,  and  long  supposed  to  be  extinct. 

In  the  Cephalopoda  the  single  specimen  of  Spirula,  of 
which  only  five  individuals  are  known  to  science,  is  one  of 
the  priceless  treasures  of  the  expedition.  A  living  Nautilus 
pompilius  was  brought  up  from  320  fathoms,  off  Fiji,  and 
Moseley  has  given  us  a  description  of  its  swimming  move- 
ments in  a  tub  of  water  on  deck.  It  had  been  confidently 
hoped  that  some  deep-sea  representatives  of  those  extinct 
groups,  the  Ammonites  and  Belemnites  of  Mesozoic  times, 
would  be  found,  and  Moseley  tells  us  that  "  even  to  the  last 
every  cuttle-fish  which  came  up  in  our  deep-sea  net  was 


66  FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

squeezed  to  see  if  it  had  a  Belemnite's  bone  in  its  back  " — 
all  in  vain — no  such  "  living  fossil  "  was  found. 

One  of  the  greatest  discoveries  of  the  "  Challenger " 
expedition  was  the  remarkable  Cephalodiscus,  dredged  in 
the  Strait  of  Magellan  from  246  fathoms.  It  is  a  gregarious 
member  of  the  Hemichordata  related  to  Bhahdopleura  and 
Balanoglossus ,  and  it  buds  o£f  new  individuals  which  all  live 
together  in  the  cavities  of  a  hollow  gelatinous  coenoecium, 
which  they  have  jointly  secreted.  It  has  been  shown  that 
the  regions  of  the  body  and  the  divisions  of  the  coelom  corre- 
spond closely  with  those  of  Balanoglossus,  and  that  there  is 
a  tubular  notochord  extending  forwards  from  the  pharynx 
to  strengthen  the  proboscis  region. 

Amongst  the  Tunicata  many  remarkable  new  abyssal 
forms  were  obtained,  which  have  added  greatly  to  our  know- 
ledge of  the  range  of  structure  in  the  group.  For  example, 
the  new  genus,  Octacnemus,  first  described  by  Moseley,  has 
a  much  reduced  and  degenerate  branchial  sac,  and  has  re- 
quired the  formation  of  a  new  family.  Then,  again,  several 
distinct  genera,  Pharyngodictyon  amongst  Compound  As- 
cidians,  and  Culeolus,  Fungulus,  and  Bathyoncus  amongst 
Ascidise  Simplices,  have  the  branchial  sac  simplified  by  the 
total  absence  of  the  system  of  fine  inter-stigmatic  vessels,  the 
result  being  that  the  wall  of  the  organ  is  reduced  to  a  net- 
work of  very  large  meshes,  in  most  cases  strengthened  by 
branched  and  curved  calcareous  spicules.  These  are  all  of 
them  abyssal  forms,  and  no  such  structure  of  the  branchial 
sac  has  been  found  in  shallow- water  Ascidians.  Very 
many  of  the  deep-sea  Ascidians,  including  the  new  genera 
Culeolus,  Fungulus,  Ascopera,  Hypohythius,  and  Coryn- 
ascidia,  are  pedunculated,  as  if  they  required  to  be  supported 
upon  stalks  above  the  soft  ooze  in  which  their  bases  are 
entangled  and  upon  which  the  animals  evidently  feed. 
The  intestines  are  found  distended  with,  in  some  cases, 
Globigerina  and  in  others  Radiolarian  or  Diatomaceous 
ooze.     Amongst  pelagic  Tunicates  a  noteworthy  form  is  a 


WYVILLE  THOMSON  67 

new  Pyrosoma  of  gigantic  size,  of  which  a  magnificent  speci- 
men, measuring  over  fom*  feet  in  length,  was  obtained  in  the 
North  Atlantic,  but  of  which,  unfortunately,  only  fragments 
were  preserved  for  study.  Moseley,  in  his  book.  Notes  by  a 
Naturalist,  tells  us  that  the  officers  amused  themselves  by 
writing  their  names  with  the  finger  on  the  surface  of  the 
giant  Pjnrosoma,  as  it  lay  on  deck  in  a  tub  at  night,  and  the 
names  came  out  in  a  few  seconds  in  letters  of  fire. 

Many  interesting  discoveries  were  made  on  the  "  Challen- 
ger "  in  regard  to  the  deep-sea  fishes,  which  were  shown  to 
extend  down  to  no  less  than  2,750  fathoms.  Perhaps  the 
most  sensational  novelty  is  the  presence  of  light-producing 
organs  on  the  heads,  gill-covers,  and  bodies  of  many  abyssal 
fishes,  and  apparently  under  the  control  of  the  animal's  will. 
Delicate  organs  of  touch  are  in  other  cases  associated  with 
imperfect  eyes.  All  the  deep-sea  fishes  are,  however,  modi- 
fications of  shallow- water  forms,  and  none  of  them  represent 
types  of  earher  date  than  the  Cretaceous  period. 

No  reference  can  be  made  here  to  the  valuable  reports 
on  Reptiles,  Birds,  and  Mammals — nor  to  those  on  the 
Botany  and  Anthropology  of  the  various  little -known  lands 
visited  during  the  expedition. 

I  am  afraid  that  I  have  been  able  to  give  only  a  brief 
and  inadequate  summary  of  some  of  the  chief  results  of  the 
"  Challenger  "  expedition,  but  I  must  not  omit  to  point  out 
that  one  of  the  most  important  results  is  the  improvement 
in  methods  of  investigation  seen  in  later  expeditions.  It  is 
easy  to  criticize  the  ''  Challenger"  equipment  and  methods, 
and  even  the  contents  of  some  of  the  reports,  but  it  must 
be  remembered  that  it  all  happened  fifty  years  ago,  and 
that  the  methods  of  science  may  become  old-fashioned  in  a 
very  few  years.  The  naturalists  on  the  '*  Challenger  "  were 
the  pioneers  of  deep-sea  exploration,  and  their  experiences 
taught  many  lessons  by  which  later  expeditions  profited. 
Improved  methods  of  capture  of  oceanic  animals  have  resulted 


68  FOUNDERS   OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

from  the  uncertainty  felt  on  the  "  Challenger  "  as  to  the  zone 
from  which  particular  organisms  found  in  the  nets  had  been 
really  obtained.  Instruments,  invented  since,  that  can  be 
opened  and  closed  at  any  given  depth,  will  prevent,  or  at 
least  minimize,  any  such  possible  errors  in  the  future.  Wire 
has  been  substituted  for  rope  in  both  sounding  and  dredging, 
and  all  the  physical  and  chemical  apparatus  and  methods 
are  now  much  more  reliable  and  refined  than  those  employed 
by  the  "  Challenger  "  pioneers.  This  is  merely  the  natural 
result  of  the  progress  of  science,  and  especially  of  such  a 
new  and  rapidly  advancing  science  as  oceanography,  during 
half  a  century  of  strenuous  endeavour. 

Some  of  the  "  Challenger  "  reports  may  be  found  old- 
fashioned  and  unsatisfying  in  transcendental  morphology  by 
the  student  of  the  present  day,  but  the  fifty  noble  volumes 
form  a  zoological  library  in  themselves,  and  every  young 
specialist  on  a  group  of  marine  animals  has  still  to  consult 
them,  and  before  proceeding  to  new  and  no  doubt  more 
profound  researches,  must  ascertain  what  was  made  known 
by  his  predecessors  from  their  work  on  the  collections  brought 
home  from  the  abysses  of  the  ocean  by  the  "  Challenger  " 
circumnavigating  expedition. 


CHAPTER  IV 

SIR  JOHN  MURRAY,  THE  PIONEER  OF  MODERN 

OCEANOGRAPHY 

We  now  pass  to  the  third  and  last  of  the  periods  chosen 
to  illustrate  oceanographic  research  during  the  nineteenth 
century,  and  I  associate  it  with  the  name  of  Sir  John  Murray, 
whose  life  and  work  extended  to  the  year  of  the  outbreak 
of  war  ;  and,  as  in  the  two  former  cases,  I  shall  begin  with 
some  account  of  the  man,  his  surroundings  and  the  conditions 
under  which  he  did  his  work,  and  then  deal  with  some  of 
the  results  of  his  contributions  to  oceanography.  Murray's 
period  was  absolutely  continuous  with  that  of  Sir  Wyville 
Thomson,  and  in  fact  overlapped  it ;  so  that,  as  we  shall 
see,  it  fell  to  Murray  to  continue  and  complete  the  work 
of  Thomson,  in  addition  to  undertaking  other  more  recent 
investigations.  While  Sir  Wjr^ille  Thomson's  name  will 
always  be  remembered  as  the  leader  of  the  "  Challenger  " 
expedition.  Sir  John  Murray  will  be  known  in  the  history 
of  science  as  the  naturalist  who  brought  to  a  successful 
issue  the  investigation  of  the  enormous  collections  and  the 
publication  of  the  scientific  results  of  that  memorable 
voyage  :  these  two  Scots  share  the  honour  of  having  guided 
the  destinies  of  what  is  still  the  greatest  oceanographic  ex- 
ploration of  all  times. 

John  Murray,  although  a  typical  Scot  in  all  his  ways,  was 
born  in  Canada — at  Coburg,  Ontario,  on  March  3,  1841. 
But  he  was  of  Scottish  descent,  and  returned  in  early  life 
to  maternal  relatives  in  Scotland  to  complete  his  education. 
The  lives  of  our  three  pioneers  just  occupied  a  century  (1815 

69 


70  FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

to  1914),  and  to  some  extent  overlapped.  Forbes  was  only 
fifteen  years  senior  to  Wyville  Thomson,  and  Thomson  eleven 
years  senior  to  Murray.  While  John  Murray  was  still  a 
school-boy  in  Upper  Canada,  Forbes  was  running  his  brief 
meteoric  career  as  professor  in  Edinburgh,  and  Wyville 
Thomson  was  a  young  lecturer  on  the  natural  sciences  in 
Ireland.  Curiously  enough,  all  three  went  through  unusually 
extended  courses  as  students  of  medicine  and  science  at  the 
University  of  Edinburgh,  and  not  one  of  them  took  a  degree. 
Forbes  was  a  genius  who  neglected  his  work  and  frankly 
"  funked "  his  examinations  when  the  time  came.  In 
Thomson's  case  ill-health,  fortunately  for  science,  stopped 
his  proposed  career  in  medicine  ;  while  Murray  despised 
examinations  and  degrees,  and  probably  never  proposed  to 
take  them.  He  studied  a  subject  because  he  wanted  to  know 
it,  and  in  that  spirit  he  ranged  widely  over  the  Faculties  of 
his  university.  When  I  was  a  student  and  young  graduate 
I  used  to  hear  him  denounce  in  vigorous  language  all  examina- 
tions and  other  formal  tests  of  knowledge,  and  yet,  late  in 
life,  there  was  probably  no  man  of  his  time  who  had  so  many 
honorary  degrees  and  titles  conferred  upon  him  by  the  univer- 
sities and  learned  academies  of  Europe  and  America. 

After  returning  to  Scotland  as  a  boy  in  the  teens,  he  lived 
for  some  time  with  a  grandfather  at  Bridge  of  Allan,  and 
attended  the  High  School  at  Stirling.  During  this  time  he 
seems  to  have  been  most  interested  in  the  physical  sciences, 
and  especially  electricity.  He  established  some  electrical 
apparatus  at  his  home,  and  in  an  address  to  his  old  school,  in 
1899,  he  gives  an  amusing  account  of  some  of  the  results  of  his 
experiments  with  a  large  induction  coil,  such  as  the  following: 
"  On  another  occasion,  several  companions  arrived  from 
Stirling  to  see  my  experiments  ;  they  had  with  them  five 
dogs,  one  of  them  being  '  Mysie,'  a  large  dog  belonging  to 
Sir  John  Hay,  and  I  had  a  large  Newfoundland  called  '  Max.* 
We  resolved  to  give  the  dogs  a  shock.  They  were  duly 
arranged  in  the  room,  and  the  circuit  was  completed  by 


JOHN  MURRAY  71 

bringing  the  noses  of  the  two  largest  dogs  together.  Pande- 
monium was  the  result.  Each  dog  believed  he  had  been 
bitten  by  the  other.  They  fought,  chairs  and  tables  were 
overturned,  and  much  of  the  apparatus  broken.  In  the 
future,  I  was  requested  to  turn  my  attention  to  the  observa- 
tional sciences  of  botany,  zoology,  and  geology." 

He  then  spent  some  years,  in  the  sixties,  at  the  University 
of  Edinbmrgh,  where  he  was  known  as  a  "  chronic  "  student, 
working  at  the  subjects  in  which  he  was  interested  without 
following  any  definite  course.  Amongst  the  professors  under 
whom  he  studied  at  that  time,  and  who  became  his  close 
friends  in  later  life,  were  P.  G.  Tait  in  physics,  Crum  Brown 
in  chemistry,  Turner  in  anatomy  and  Archibald  Geikie  in 
geology.  A  decade  or  so  later,  after  the  return  of  the 
"  Challenger  "  expedition,  he  became  once  more  a  student  at 
the  University  of  Edinburgh,  and  that  was  when  I  had  the 
good  fortune  first  to  meet  him. 

In  1868  he  visited  Spitzbergen  and  Jan  May  en  and  other 
parts  of  the  Arctic  regions  on  board  a  Peterhead  whaler,  on 
which,  on  the  strength  of  having  once  been  a  medical  student, 
he  was  shipped  as  surgeon.  This  voyage  of  seven  months 
probably  did  much  to  confirm  that  interest  in  the  phenomena 
and  problems  of  the  ocean  which  had  been  first  aroused 
on  his  passage  home  from  Canada,  ten  years  before.  This 
interest  was  doubtless  further  stimulated  diuring  the  imme- 
diately following  years  by  the  epoch-making  results  of  the 
pioneer  deep-sea  expeditions  in  the  "  Lightning "  and 
"  Porcupine,"  then  exploring,  under  the  direction  of  Wyville 
Thomson,  Carpenter,  and  Gwyn  Je£freys,  the  Atlantic  coasts 
of  Europe.  And  then,  fortunately,  in  1870,  Wyville  Thom- 
son was  appointed  professor  at  Edinburgh,  which  now 
became  the  centre  of  the  negotiations  and  arrangements 
with  the  Admiralty  and  the  Royal  Society  that  led  eventually, 
in  1872,  to  the  equipment  and  despatch  of  our  great  British 
Deep-sea  Exploring  Expedition. 

It  was  only  an  odd  chance  that  [led  to  Murray's  connection 


72  FOUNDERS  OF   OCEANOGRAPHY 

with  the  "  Challenger."     The  scientific  staff  had  already  been 
definitely  appointed  when,  at  the  last  moment,  one  of  the 
assistant  naturalists  dropped  out,  and,  mainly  on  the  strong 
recommendation  of  Professor  Tait,   in  whose    laboratory 
Murray  was  at  the  time  working.  Sir  Wyville  Thomson  offered 
him  the  vacant  post — surely  one  of  the  best  examples  in  the 
history  of  science  of  the  right  man  being  chosen  to  fill  a  post. 
In  addition  to  taking  his  part  in  the  general  work  of 
the  expedition,  Murray  devoted  special  attention  to  three 
subjects  of  primary  importance  in  the  science  of  the  sea, 
viz.,  the  plankton  or  floating  life  of  the  oceans,  the  deposits 
forming  on  the  sea  bottoms,  and  the  origin  and  mode  of 
formation  of  coral  reefs  and  islands.     It  was  characteristic  of 
his  broad  and  synthetic  outlook  on  nature  that,  in  place  of 
working  at  the  speciography  and  anatomy  of  some  group  of 
organisms,  however  novel,  interesting,  and  attractive  to  the 
naturalist  the  deep-sea  organisms  might  seem  to  be,  he  took 
up  wide-reaching    general    problems    with   economic   and 
geological  as  well  as  biological  applications.     Amongst  the 
preliminary  reports  sent  home  during  the  course  of   the 
expedition,  and  published  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Royal 
Society  (vol.  xxiv.  No.  170,  p.  471),  we  find  those  by  John 
Murray,  written  from  Valparaiso,  December  9,  1875,  dealing 
with  (1)  Oceanic  Deposits,  (2)  Surface  Organisms  and  their 
relation  to  Oceanic  Deposits,  and  (3)  Vertebrata  (mainly 
Fishes),  which,  though  superseded  by  the  later  work  of  him- 
self and  others,  are  still  of  great  historic  interest.     In  that 
preHminary  account  of  the  Oceanic  Deposits  we  find  Murray's 
first  classification  into  (1)  Shore  deposits,    (2)  Globigerina 
ooze,  (3)  Radiolarian  ooze,  (4)  Diatomaceous  ooze,  and  (5) 
Red  and  Grey  Clays,  which  has  been  adopted  with  little  or 
no  change  in  all  succeeding  works  ;  and,  in  his  report  on  the 
surface  organisms,  we   find   the  first  figures  of  the  living 
Hastigerina,  Pyrocystis,  and    the    remarkable    deep-water 
Radiolaria  known  as  ''  Challengerida." 

Each  of  the  three  main  lines  of  investigation — deposits, 


JOHN  MURRAY  73 

plankton,  and  coral  reefs — which  Murray  undertook  on  board 
the  "  Challenger  "  has  been  most  fruitful  of  results  both  in  his 
own  hands  and  those  of  others.  His  plankton  work  has  led 
on  to  those  modern  planktonic  researches  which  are  closely 
bound  up  with  the  scientific  investigation  of  our  sea-fisheries. 
His  observations  on  coral  reefs,  in  conjunction  with  the 
"  Challenger  "  results  as  to  depths  of  the  ocean  and  the 
presence  of  submarine  volcanic  elevations,  resulted  in  his  new 
and  most  original  theory  as  to  the  formation  of  "  atolls," 
which  removed  certain  difficulties  that  had  long  been  felt  by 
zoologists  and  geologists  alike  to  stand  in  the  way  of  the 
universal  acceptance  of  Darwin's  well-known  theory  of  coral 
reefs  and  islands. 

His  work  on  the  deposits  accumulating  on  the  floor  of  the 
ocean  resulted,  after  years  of  study  in  the  laboratory  as  well 
as  in  the  field,  in  collaboration  with  the  Abbe  Renard  of  the 
Brussels  Museum,  afterwards  Professor  at  Ghent,  in  the  pro- 
duction of  the  monumental  Deep -sea  Deposits  volume,  one 
of  the  ''  Challenger "  reports,  which  first  revealed  to  the 
scientific  world  the  detailed  nature  and  distribution  of  the 
varied  submarine  deposits  of  the  globe  and  their  relation  to 
the  rocks  forming  the  crust  of  the  earth. 

These  studies  led,  moreover,  to  one  of  the  romances  of 
science  which  deeply  influenced  Murray's  future  life  and 
work.  In  accumulating  material  from  all  parts  of  the  world 
and  all  deep-sea  exploring  expeditions  for  comparison  with 
the  "  Challenger  "  series,  some  ten  years  later,  Murray  found 
that  a  sample  of  rock  from  Christmas  Island,  in  the  Indian 
Ocean,  which  had  been  sent  to  him  by  Commander  (now 
Admiral)  Aldrich,  of  H.M.S.  "  Egeria,"  was  composed  of  a 
valuable  phosphatic  deposit. 

Murray's  interest  in  this  rock  was  at  first  solely  in  relation 
to  the  "  Challenger  "  deposits  and  its  possible  bearing  on  his 
coral-reef  theory  ;  but  he  soon  realized  its  economic  as  well  as 
scientific  interest,  and  was  convinced  that  the  island  would  be 
of  value  to  the  nation.     After  overcoming  many  difficulties, 


74  FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

he  induced  the  British  Government  to  annex  this  lonely, 
uninhabited  volcanic  island,  and  to  give  a  concession  to  work 
the  deposits  to  a  company  which  he  formed.  He  sent  out 
scientific  investigators  to  study  and  report  on  the  products, 
and  the  results  have  been  highly  successful  on  both  the 
scientific  and  the  commercial  sides.  Sir  John  Murray  visited 
Christmas  Island  himself  on  several  occasions,  he  had  roads 
cleared,  a  railway  constructed,  waterworks  established,  piers 
built,  and  the  necessary  buildings  erected.  In  fact,  the 
lonely  island  was  colonized  by  about  1,500  inhabitants,  and 
flourishing  plantations  of  various  kinds  were  established  in 
addition  to  the  working  of  the  phosphatic  deposits.  Murray 
was  able  to  show  that  some  years  before  the  war  the  British 
Treasury  had  already  received  in  royalties  and  taxes  from 
the  island  considerably  more  than  the  total  cost  of  the 
"  Challenger  "  expedition.  This  is  one  of  these  cases  where 
a  purely  scientific  investigation  has  led  directly  to  great 
wealth — wealth,  it  may  be  added,  which  in  this  case  has 
been  used  to  a  great  extent  for  the  advancement  of  science. 

In  the  case  of  Sir  John  Murray,  as  in  that  of  Sir  Wyville 
Thomson,  I  am  writing  of  a  man  who  made  a  strong  personal 
impression  as  one  of  my  teachers  in  science  at  Edinburgh 
some  forty-five  years  ago.  It  is  not  from  one's  formal 
instructors  alone  that  one  learns.  Murray  was  never  on  the 
teaching  staff  of  the  university  ;  but  a  few  of  us  (generally 
Major-General  Sir  David  Bruce,  now  of  the  Lister  Institute, 
Professor  Noel-Paton,  now  of  Glasgow,  and  myself),  who 
were  then,  in  the  late  seventies,  young  students  of  science, 
and  were  privileged  to  have  the  run  of  the  "  Challenger  " 
Office,  learned  more  of  practical  Natural  History  from  John 
Murray  than  we  did  from  many  university  lectures. 

This  was  in  the  few  years  following  on  the  return  of  the 
"  Challenger  "  expedition  in  1876,  and  the  vast  collections 
of  all  kinds  brought  back  from  all  the  seas  and  remote 
islands  were  being  classified  and  sorted  out  into  groups  for 
further  examination  in  a  house  near  the  university,  known  as 


JOHN  MURRAY  75 

the  "  Challenger  "  Office.  Murray,  as  First  Assistant  on  the 
Staff,  had  charge  of  the  office  and  the  collections,  and  wel- 
comed a  few  eager  young  workers  who  were  wiUing  to  devote 
free  afternoons  to  helping  in  the  multifarious  work  always  in 
progress. 

There  we  first  made  acquaintance  with  the  celebrated 
new  deep-sea  "  oozes,"  learnt  to  distinguish  them  under  the 
microscope,  and  how  to  demonstrate  the  silicious  Radiolaria 
hidden  in  the  calcareous  Globigerina  ooze  ;  and  there  we 
first  saw  such  wonders  of  the  deep  as  Holoj^us  and  Cephalo- 
discus,  and  the  extraordinary  new  abyssal  Holothurians, 
afterwards  known  as  Elasipoda.  These — now  the  common- 
places of  marine  biology — were  then  revelations,  and  those 
of  us  who  witnessed  the  discoveries  in-the-making  will  always 
associate  them  with  "  Challenger  Murray "  as  the  arch- 
magician  of  the  laboratory — a  sort  of  modern  scientific 
alchemist,  bringing  mysterious  unknown  things  out  of  store- 
bottles,  and  then  showing  us  how  to  demonstrate  their  true 
nature.  I  am  afraid  that  we  who  are  trying  to  inspire 
students  with  the  sacred  fire  at  the  present  day  have  no  such 
wonders  to  show  as  those  first-fruits  in  the  early  days  of 
deep-sea  research.  Then  between  times,  while  waiting  for 
a  reaction,  or  after  work,  Murray  would  tell  us  stories  of  the 
great  expedition — how  the  first  living  Globigerina  (Hastigerina 
murrayi),  seen  in  all  its  glory  of  vesicular  protoplasm  expanded 
far  beyond  its  tiny  shell,  was  picked  up  in  a  teaspoon  from  a 
small  boat  during  a  dead  calm  in  mid-ocean  ;  and  how  the 
naval  officers  wrote  their  names  with  their  fingers  in  letters 
of  fire  on  the  phosphorescing  giant  Pyrosoma  (over  four  feet 
long)  as  it  lay  on  the  deck  at  night ;  how  they  "  iced  "  their 
champagne  in  the  tropics  by  plunging  the  bottles  into  the 
trawKul  of  ooze  just  brought  up  from  the  abyss,  and  still 
retaining  its  abyssal  low  temperature  ;  and,  finally,  he  would 
sing  us  a  most  amusing  song — we  never  knew  whether  he 
had  invented  it  or  not — about  a  Chinaman  eating  a  little 
white  dog. 


76  FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

A  few  years  later,  after  Sir  Wyville  Thomson's  death 
in  1882,  Murray  had  supreme  control  of  both  the  collections 
and  the  editing  of  the  reports  ;  and  of  the  "  Office,"  by  that 
time  moved  to  more  commodious  quarters  at  32  Queen 
Street,  which  was  the  scene  of  his  labours  for  many  years,  and 
where  I  for  a  time  held  the  post  of  *'  Assistant-Naturalist," 
and  saw  Murray  practically  every  day. 

When  I  first  knew  John  Murray,  although  he  was  an  older 
man,  we  were  really  in  one  respect  fellow-students,  as  we 
attended  together  Professor  Archibald  Geikie's  course  on 
geology.  One  very  pleasant  and  not  the  least  instructive 
part  of  the  course  at  that  time  was  the  series  of  geological 
walks  personally  conducted  by  the  professor,  not  merely 
Saturday  walks  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Edinburgh,  but  also 
longer  expeditions  of  a  week  or  ten  days  at  the  end  of  the 
session,  to  localities  of  special  geological  interest  farther 
afield,  such  as  the  Highlands  or  the  Island  of  Arran.  I  well 
remember  one  such  long  excursion  to  the  Grampian  and  the 
Cairngorm  Mountains  and  Speyside,  when  we  had,  as  some- 
what senior  members  of  the  party — in  addition  to  Professor 
Geikie — Dr.  Benjamin  Peach  and  Dr.  John  Home  of  the 
Geological  Survey,  Dr.  Aitken  of  the  University  Chemical 
Department,  Joseph  Thomson  the  African  explorer,  and  John 
Murray  of  the  "  Challenger."  The  rest  of  us  were  ordinary 
students  of  science,  and  all  will  realize  how  we  enjoyed  and 
profited  by  the  conversation  of  these  senior  men,  how  we 
dogged  their  steps  and  hung  upon  their  every  word.  All 
who  ever  met  John  Murray  will  readily  understand  that 
in  the  frequent  discussions  that  took  place  between  these 
geologists  and  chemists,  he  always  took  a  leading  and  forcible 
part — he  was  nothing  if  not  original  in  his  views  and  vigorous 
in  his  language. 

The  reader  need  not  think  that  all  this  had  nothing  to  do 
with  oceanography.  It  was  very  much  otherwise.  These 
were  all  Edinburgh  men  deeply  interested  in  the  "  Challenger" 
results.     On  the  long  tramps  there  were  hot  discussions, 


JOHN  MURRAY  77 

and  wherever  Murray  was  he  was  apt  sooner  or  later  to  bring 
a  discussion  round  to  some  fundamental  problem  of  the  ocean 
or  the  deposits  forming  on  its  floor,  or  to  illustrate  an  argu- 
ment by  something  he  once  saw  in  the  Pacific,  or  the  Ant- 
arctic— or  elsewhere.  And,  moreover,  on  the  tops  of  these 
ancient  mountains  of  Scotland  we  could,  and  did,  consider  the 
changes  of  continents  and  the  supposed  'permanence  of  ocean 
basins.  I,  for  one,  then  came  to  realize  that  geology  has 
a  close  bearing  on  oceanography  ;  and  I  suspect  that  it 
was  on  occasions  like  these,  in  keen  discussion  with  geologists 
and  chemists,  that  Murray  formulated  some  of  the  theories 
as  to  past  history  of  land  and  sea  that  he  afterwards  published 
in  the  Summary  volumes  of  the  "Challenger  "  series. 

Murray's  first  paper  on  his  theory  of  coral  reefs  was  read 
before  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh  on  April  5,  1880, 
and  was  pubHshed  in  the  Proceedings,  vol.  x.,  p.  505.  I  well 
remember  the  occasion,  and  also  the  rehearsal  which  took 
place  some  days  before  in  Sir  Wyi^ille  Thomson's  house  of 
Bonsyde,  when  Murray  read  his  MS.  to  a  small  but  highly 
critical  audience,  consisting  of  Sir  Wyville  Thomson,  Sir 
William  Turner,  and  myself.  For  months  before  I  had  daily 
seen  Murray  preparing  the  paper  in  a  large  room  at  the 
"  Challenger  "  Office,  sitting  at  his  notes  in  the  centre  of  a 
multitude  of  charts  showing  all  the  reefs  and  coral  islands  of 
tropical  seas — some  of  the  charts  spread  out  on  tables,  others 
carpeting  the  fioor  or  stacked  in  piles  and  rolls — while  he 
measured  and  drew  sections  of  the  contours  so  as  to  see  which 
reefs  supported  his  views  and  which  presented  difficulties. 
His  coral-reef  theory  was  a  direct  outcome  of  his  "  Challenger  " 
work.  The  soundings  had  revealed  the  presence  of  volcanic 
elevations,  and  the  distribution  of  the  calcareous  deposits 
showed  how  these  might  contribute  to  build  up  suitable  plat- 
forms as  the  foundation  of  reefs  which  might  grow  to  the 
surface  independent  of  all  sunken  lands  such  as  Darwin's 
theory  had  required.  It  may  be  said  that  Murray  demolished 
the  supposed  need  of  vast  oceanic  subsidence,  which  had  been 


78  FOUNDERS   OF   OCEANOGRAPHY 

felt  to  be  a  difficulty  by  many  geologists,  and  showed  that  all 
types  of  coral  reef  could  be  accounted  for  without  subsidence, 
and  even  in  some  cases  along  with  elevation  of  land. 

Some  of  Murray's  friends  were  disappointed  that  his 
theory  did  not  receive  more  serious  and  more  immediate 
attention,  and  the  then  Duke  of  Argyll  wrote  a  couple  of 
articles  with  somewhat  sensational  titles — "A  Great  Lesson,** 
in  the  Nineteenth  Century  for  September,  1887,  and  *'  A  Con- 
spiracy of  Silence,"  in  Nature  for  November  17,  1887 — 
which  gave  rise  to  answers  from  some  of  the  leading  men  of 
science  of  the  day,  Huxley,  Bonney,  and  Judd.  Murray 
went  on  his  way  undisturbed,  collecting  further  evidence 
and  publishing  at  intervals  further  papers  dealing  with  one 
or  another  part  of  the  large  subject — such  as  his  paper  on  the 
structure  and  origin  of  coral  reefs  in  the  Proceedings  of  the 
Royal  Institution  for  1888,  his  account  of  the  Balfour  Shoal 
in  the  Coral  Sea  (1897),  a  submarine  elevation  in  process  of 
being  built  up  by  calcareous  deposits,  his  '*  Distribution  of 
Pelagic  Foraminifera  at  the  surface  and  on  the  floor  of  the 
Ocean  "  (1897),  and  a  series  of  reports  upon  bottom  deposits 
from  the  "  Blake  "  (1885)  and  many  other  expeditions. 

Later  on  (1896-8)  Murray  took  a  lively  interest  in  the 
investigation,  by  a  Committee  of  the  British  Association  and 
the  Royal  Society,  of  a  selected  typical  case,  the  atoll  of 
Funafuti,  one  of  the  EUice  Group,  in  the  South  Pacific.  A 
first  expedition  was  sent  out  from  this  country  under  Pro- 
fessor SoUas,  and  then  two  others  from  Australia,  under 
Professor  Edgeworth  David,  of  Sydney,  and  borings  were 
eventually  obtained  reaching  an  extreme  depth  of  over  1,100 
feet.  The  core  was  brought  home  and  subjected  to  detailed 
microscopic  examination,  with  the  extraordinary  result  that 
the  supporters  of  both  rival  theories  find  that  it  can  be 
interpreted  so  as  to  support  their  views.  The  Funafuti 
boring  cannot  be  said  to  have  settled  the  matter.  I  beHeve 
the  verdict  at  the  present  time  of  most  zoologists  and  geolo- 
gists would  be  that  whereas  Darwin's  beautiful  theory  would 


JOHN  MURRAY  79 

certainly  hold  good  for  coral  reefs  growing  on  a  sinking  area, 
Murray's  explanation,  based  upon  observations  and  ascer- 
tained facts,  probably  applies  to  many  of  the  "  atolls  "  and 
"  barrier  reefs  "  of  tropical  seas. 

But  I  have  been  led  on  to  these  more  recent  times  by  his 
paper  of  1880.  Let  us  now  return  to  his  work  at  the  "  Chal- 
lenger "  Office.  During  the  last  couple  of  years  of  Sir 
Wyville  Thomson's  life,  when  he  was  more  or  less  of  an 
invalid,  Mr.  John  Murray  (as  he  then  was)  came  gradually  to 
take  over  more  and  more  the  complete  charge  of  affairs  at  the 
"  Challenger  "  Office,  including  the  distribution  of  the  groups 
of  animals  to  specialists  and  the  editing  of  the  volumes  of 
reports.  It  was  very  fortunate  for  zoological  science  that 
such  a  man  was  on  the  staff,  ready  to  take  up  and  carry  out 
to  a  successful  issue  the  work  that  Sir  Wyville  Thomson  was 
no  longer  able  to  continue.  Murray  brought  to  the  task  a 
complete  knowledge  of  all  that  had  to  be  done  and  how  best 
to  do  it,  along  with  an  extraordinary  amount  of  zeal  and 
energy.  During  the  years  that  followed,  until  the  completion 
of  the  work,  he  seemed  to  be  doing  several  men's  work.  He 
was  in  constant  communication,  both  by  correspondence  and 
personal  visits,  with  the  authors  of  reports  in  various  parts 
of  Europe  and  America  ;  he  had  frequent  dealings  with  the 
Government  departments  concerned  in  the  production  of  the 
work  ;  and  all  the  time  he  was  also  himself  investigating  some 
of  the  great  general  problems  of  oceanography.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  imagine  that  any  other  man  than  John  Murray  could 
have  carried  through  all  this  mass  of  detailed  and  difficult 
work  and  have  produced  the  fifty  thick  quarto  volumes  within 
twenty  years  of  the  return  of  the  expedition.  About  five  of 
these  large  volumes  are  the  result  of  Murray's  own  work. 
Along  with  Staff-Commander  T.  H.  Tizard,  the  late  Professor 
H.  N.  Moseley,  and  Mr.  J.  Y.  Buchanan,  he  drew  up  the 
general  Narrative  of  the  Expedition  ;  along  with  the  late 
Professor  Renard  he  wrote  the  very  important  report  upon 
the  Deep-sea  Deposits  (1891),  generally  recognized  as  the 


80  FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

authoritative  work  on  the  subject ;  and  finally,  at  the 
conclusion  of  the  series,  he  produced  two  volumes  entitled 
Summary  of  Results  (1895),  which  give  an  elaborate  historical 
account  of  our  knowledge  of  the  sea  and  the  development  of 
the  science  of  oceanography  from  the  earliest  times  to  the 
present  day,  and  also,  in  addition  to  complete  lists  of  all 
the  organisms  at  all  the  "  Challenger  "  stations,  includes  a 
discussion  of  many  important  matters,  geological  as  well  as 
biological,  relating  to  the  origin  of  the  present  configuration 
of  land  and  water  and  of  the  distribution  of  the  marine  fauna 
and  flora  of  the  globe. 

It  was  characteristic  of  him  to  put  forward,  especially  in 
these  Summary  volumes,  views  which  were  novel  and  even 
daring,  which  he  believed  he  had  evidence  to  support,  but 
which  a  less  courageous  man  might  have  kept  back  or  ex- 
pressed more  cautiously.  He  always  had  the  courage  of  his 
convictions.  He  admitted  that  he  sometimes  made  mistakes, 
but  held  that  the  man  who  never  made  a  mistake  never  made 
anything  else.  That  was  one  of  his  ohiter  dicta  which  were 
flying  about  the  "  Challenger  "  Office,  and  stuck  in  my 
impressionable  youth.  Let  me  quote  here  a  passage  from 
one  of  his  many  letters  that  I  have,  and  which  refers  to  the 
kind  of  views  he  afterwards  published  in  his  Summary.  It  is 
dated  September  13,  1894^  and  is  evidently  in  answer  to 
some  question  I  had  asked  as  to  his  views  on  the  past  history 
of  life  in  the  sea. 

"...  I  gave  two  papers  to  the  R.S.E.  and  also  said  some- 
thing about  distribution  at  the  British  Association,  but  I 
have  not  yet  published  anything.  I  am  now  considering 
whether  or  not  I  will  add  a  chapter  to  the  last '  Challenger  ' 
volume,  giving  my  views. 

"  I  believe  the  continental  areas  are  very  permanent,  and 
for  instance  Africa  has  separated  marine  faunas  and  floras 
longer  than  the  time  when  there  was  a  very  nearly  similar 
fauna  at  both  poles.  However,  the  faunas  of  the  sea  are  now 
arranged  more  according  to  zones  of  temperature  than  by 


JOHN  MURRAY  81 

land  barriers.  The  tropics  extend  polewards  as  we  go  down 
in  the  geological  formations  till  just  before  the  Chalk  there 
was  a  universally  warm  sea — from  equator  to  poles  and  from 
top  to  bottom— say  80°  F.  Coral  reefs  once  flourished  at  the 
poles.  These  have  now  been  driven  to  equatorial  regions 
where  the  temperature  has  remained  nearly  the  above.  The 
animals  which  in  the  universal  warm  sea  came  to  live  in  the 
mud  at  a  little  depth,  remained  behind  when  cooling  of  the 
poles  commenced.  These  animals  without  pelagic  free- 
swimming  larvae  also  descended  to  the  deep  sea  as  the  waters 
cooled.  When  the  sea  was  all  70°  or  80°  F.  the  deep  sea  was 
not  inhabited.  Polar  animals  and  deep-sea  animals  have  all 
a  direct  development  (so  also  fresh-water  animals,  also 
derived  from  the  deeper  part  of  the  shore  estuarine  universal 
fauna). 

"  It  is  nonsense  to  suppose  that  while  the  earth  was  devel- 
oping the  sun  has  always  been  the  same  as  now.  It  has  been 
contracting.  In  Chalk  times  it  had  a  diameter  seen  from  the 
earth  equal  to  an  angle  of  10°  in  the  heavens.  This  would 
give  all  the  heat  and  light  that  is  necessary  for  a  great  Car- 
boniferous forest  at  the  poles. 

"  You  can  tell  me  how  much  of  this  is  d d  nonsense. 

"  Yours  sincerely,  John  Murray. 

''  Fresh  water  fauna  is  much  more  archaic  than  deep-sea." 

The  following,  from  his  little  book  The  Ocean  (p.  226),  is 
a  good  example  of  Murray's  bold  speculations  :  "  We  look 
back  on  a  past  when  the  crust  of  the  earth  was  in  a  molten 
condition  with  a  temperature  of  400°  F.,  when  what  is  now 
the  water  of  the  ocean  existed  as  water  vapour  in  the  atmo- 
sphere. We  can  imagine  a  future  when  the  waters  of  the 
ocean  will,  because  of  the  low  temperature,  have  become 
solid  rock,  and  over  this  will  roll  an  ocean  of  liquid  air  about 
forty  feet  in  depth." 

One  of  the  theories  which  he  supported,  and  which  is  not 
now  generally  accepted,  although  he  believed  he  had  much 

G 


82  FOUNDERS   OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

evidence  in  favour  of  it  from  the  "  Challenger  "  results,  was 
the  theory  of  "  Bipolarity,"  viz.,  that  identical  organisms 
were  found  in  Arctic  and  Antarctic  seas  and  not  in  inter- 
mediate waters,  and  that  they  represented  the  original  marine 
fauna  which  at  some  earHer  period  of  the  earth's  history 
inhabited  all  the  oceans.  This  bipolarity  hypothesis  has 
been  vigorously  controverted,  and,  like  some  other  theories  in 
science  which  have  had  to  be  abandoned,  was  most  useful 
in  its  day  as  giving  rise  to  much  new  investigation.  A 
good  deal  of  evidence  against  Murray's  views  on  bipolarity 
has  been  accumulated  as  the  result  of  recent  Antarctic 
expeditions. 

But  whether  all  his  views  are  accepted  or  not,  they  are  all 
very  stimulating  and  useful,  and  have  given  rise  to  much 
investigation  and  discussion  in  the  history  of  oceanography. 
His  five  great  volumes  are  a  notable  monument  to  his 
memory.  They  and  the  other  "  Challenger  "  reports  which 
he  edited  record  collectively  the  greatest  advance  in  the 
knowledge  of  our  planet  since  the  great  geographical  dis- 
coveries of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries. 

I  referred  in  the  last  chapter  to  the  subsidiary  expeditions 
(1880-2)  for  the  purpose  of  investigating  the  very  remark- 
able conditions  of  temperature  and  fauna  in  the  Faroe  Channel. 
We  saw  how  Carpenter  and  Wyville  Thomson,  during 
the  preliminary  investigations  in  the  "  Lightning  "  and 
"  Porcupine,"  had  found  that  the  Faroe  Channel  was  divided 
into  two  regions — a  "  cold  "  and  a  "  warm  "  area.  The 
temperature  of  the  water  to  a  depth  of  200  fathoms  is  much 
the  same  in  the  two  areas  ;  but  in  the  cold  area  to  the  N.E. 
the  temperature  is  about  34°  F.  at  250  fathoms,  and  about 
30°  at  the  bottom  in  640  fathoms,  while  in  the  warm  area, 
which  stretches  S.W.  from  the  line  of  demarcation,  the  tem- 
perature is  47°  F.  at  250  fathoms,  and  42°  at  the  bottom 
in  600  fathoms.  A  consideration  of  the  "  Challenger " 
temperatures  led  to  the  conclusion  that  the  cold  and  warm 
areas  of  the  Faroe  Channel  must  be  separated  by  a  very  con- 


JOHN  MURRAY 


83 


siderable  submarine  ridge  rising  to  within  200  or  300  fathoms 
of  the  surface.  Sir  Wyville  Thomson  induced  the  Admiralty 
to  give  the  use  of  a  surveying  vessel  for  a  few  weeks  for  the 
purpose  of  sounding  the  Faroe  Channel  with  a  view  of  testing 
this  opinion.  That  was  the  origin  of  the  "  Knight-Errant  " 
expedition  in  the  summer  of  1880,  conducted  by  Captain 
Tizard,  R.N.,  and  Mr.  John  Murray,  under  the  general 
direction  of  Sir  Wyville  Thomson,  who  remained  at  Storno- 
way,  in  the  Outer  Hebrides,  during  the  four  traverses  of  the 


ICE- 
tANDd 


TT 


;'    Deep  Arctic  Ocean    \ 


0' 

I 
Faroes 


.■•••■  /e,^/'  .• 


Deep 
Atlantic 
Ocean 


Area,  y'     Thomson  oo; 

y    yy   Ridge    ^. 


Fjg,   3. — Sketch-chart   showing   the   Wyville   Thomson 

THE  Faroe  Channel. 


Ridge   in 


region  in  question.  The  results  {Proc.  Roy.  Soc.  Edin.  for 
1882,  vol.  xi)  showed  that  a  ridge-rising  to  within  300  fathoms 
of  the  surface  runs  from  the  N.W.  of  Scotland  by  the  island 
of  N.  Rona  to  the  southern  end  of  the  Faroe  fishing-bank. 

This  was  followed,  after  the  death  of  Sir  Wyville  Thomson, 
by  a  further  expedition  in  H.M.S.  "  Triton,"  in  the  summer 
of  1882,  again  under  Murray  and  Tizard,  which  was  very 
fruitful  of  zoological  results.  The  discovery  of  two  very 
different  assemblages  of  animals  living  on  the  two  sides  of 


84  FOUNDERS  OF   OCEANOGRAPHY 

the  Wyville  Thomson  ridge — Arctic  forms  to  the  North  and 
Atlantic  forms  to  the  South — gives  us  a  notable  example 
of  the  ejffect  of  the  environment  on  the  distribution  of 
marine  forms  of  life.  The  results  of  the  "  Triton "  ex- 
pedition, written  by  a  number  of  specialists,  were  pubHshed 
in  the  Trans.  Roy.  Soc.  Edin.  during  the  next  few  years,  and 
attracted  much  attention  to  the  subject. 

Dr.  Johan  Hjort,  the  Norwegian  oceanographer,  referring 
some  thirty  years  later  to  these  expeditions,  said  {The  Depths 
of  the  Ocean,  1912,  p.  661)  :  "In  the  history  of  oceanic 
research  possibly  nothing  has  contributed  so  much  to  the 
awakening  of  this  interest  as  the  discovery  of  entirely  different 
animal  communities  living  on  either  side  of  the  Wyville 
Thomson  Ridge.  Atlantic  forms  occur  to  the  south  and 
Arctic  forms  to  the  north  of  the  ridge,  corresponding  to  the 
very  different  thermal  conditions  on  either  side." 

During  these  few  years  after  the  "  Triton  "  expedition, 
and  when,  in  consequence  of  Sir  Wyville  Thomson's  death, 
he  was  given  complete  charge  of  the  "  Challenger  "  Office, 
Murray  came  to  occupy  a  more  and  more  prominent  position 
in  the  scientific  world  of  the  North.  When  we  remember  that 
his  earlier  fellow-workers  and  associates  at  the  university 
were  such  men  as  Robertson  Smith  the  theologian,  Dittmar 
the  chemist.  Sir  John  Jackson  the  great  contractor,  and 
Robert  Louis  Stevenson  ;  and  his  later  friends,  after  the 
return  of  the  "  Challenger,"  were  such  men  as  Agassiz, 
Turner,  Crum-Brown,  Tait,  Renard,  Haeckel,  Geikie,  Blackie, 
Masson,  Buchan,  and  Lord  McLaren,  we  can  understand  the 
stimulating  intellectual  atmosphere  he  lived  and  worked 
in,  and  to  which  he  doubtless  contributed  as  much  as  he 
received. 

We  now  come  to  a  period  of  great  local  scientific  activity, 
when  Murray  exercised  a  notable  influence  in  the  university 
scientific  circle  and  took  a  leading  part  in  every  new  move- 
ment. He  was  a  prominent  member  of  the  Royal  Society  of 
Edinburgh,  and  of  the  Scottish  Meteorological  and  Geo- 


JOHN  IVIURRAY  85 

graphical  Societies;  he  helped  to  establish  the  Observatory  on 
the  summit  of  Ben  Nevis  ;  and  in  1884,  along  with  his  friend, 
Robert  Irvine,  of  Caroline  Park,  on  the  shores  of  the  Firth  of 
Forth,  he  acquired  the  lease  of  an  old  sandstone  quarry  near 
Granton,  into  which  the  sea  had  burst  some  thirty  years  before, 
drowning  the  quarry  and  leaving  it  as  a  land-locked  sheet  of 
sheltered  deep  water  which  rose  and  fell  with  every  tide. 
Here  he  moored  a  large  canal  barge,  upon  which  he  had  built 
a  wooden  house,  divided  into  chemical  and  biological  labora- 
tories, and  which,  for  obvious  reasons,  he  named  "  The  Ark." 
Two  little  Norwegian  skiffs  were  attached  to  "  The  Ark," 
one  for  the  chemists  and  the  other  for  the  biologists,  and  on 
the  opening  day  Dr.  Hugh  Robert  Mill  and  I  were  invited  to 
name  them.  He  called  his  ''  The  Asymptote,"  and  I  named 
the  other  "  Appendicularia."  Murray  ridiculed  our  preten- 
tious names,  and  said  that  in  a  few  days  the  one  would 
probably  be  called  "  the  Simmie,"  or  "  the  Tottie,"  and  the 
other  "Dick." 

This  floating  biological  station,  after  some  years'  work  at 
Granton,  was  towed  through  the  Forth  and  Clyde  Canal  to 
Millport,  on  the  Cumbrae  island,  and  there  it  was  beached  and 
became  an  annex  of  the  Millport  biological  station.  During 
the  period  when  "  The  Ark  "  was  at  Granton,  and  later, 
Murray  and  Irvine  turned  out  a  good  deal  of  joint  work  on  the 
chemistry  of  the  secretion  of  carbonate  of  lime  by  marine 
organisms,  on  the  solution  of  carbonate  of  lime  by  the  carbon- 
dioxide  in  sea-water,  and  on  the  chemical  changes  taking 
place  in  muds  and  other  deposits  on  the  sea  bottom. 

But  his  chief  scientific  work  at  this  time  and  for  years 
afterwards  was  the  joint  investigation  at  the  "  Challenger  " 
Ofiice  of  the  enormous  series  of  deposits  (said  to  be  over 
12,000)  which  he  and  the  Abbe  Renard  had  accumulated 
from  many  expeditions  and  all  seas.  When  one  entered  the 
little  laboratory  on  the  top  floor  of  32  Queen  Street,  after 
penetrating  the  dense  cloud  of  tobacco  smoke,  the  first  thing 
one  heard,  rather  than  saw,  was  John  Murray  issuing  some 


86  FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

order  or  announcing  some  result ;  the  next  was  the  figure  of 
the  portly  Abbe  waving  a  courteous  greeting  with  his  per- 
petual cigar.  Then  there  were  the  two  assistants,  Mr.  F. 
Pearcey,  who  had  himself,  as  a  boy,  taken  part  in  the  great 
expedition,  and  had  been  retained  as  assistant  curator  of  the 
collections  at  the  "  Challenger "  Office ;  and  Mr.  James 
Chumley,  the  secretary.  Murray  and  Renard  were  hard  at 
work  at  the  microscope  or  at  chemical  reactions  in  test-tubes 
over  Bunsen  burners,  Pearcey  was  preparing  fresh  samples 
to  be  examined,  and  Chumley  was  noting  down  results. 
There  has  probably  never  been  in  recent  years  such  a  small 
laboratory,  so  poorly  equipped,  which  has  turned  out  such 
epoch-making  results.  Everything  absolutely  essential  was 
there,  but  nothing  in  the  least  extravagant.  The  place 
looked,  with  its  plain  boards  and  deal  tables  and  sinks, 
more  like  an  overcrowded  scullery  than  an  oceanographic 
laboratory. 

But  even  in  his  busiest  years  at  the  "  Challenger  "  Office 
Murray  never  gave  up  wholly  his  work  at  sea.  He  was  a 
good  hand  at  "  roughing  it  "  and  making  the  best  of  circum- 
stances, and  no  one  could  have  had  a  greater  appreciation  of 
the  open-air  life.  The  practical  work  that  he  did,  more  or 
less  periodically  all  the  year  round,  on  the  west  coast  of 
Scotland,  from  his  little  yacht  "  Medusa,"  is  a  good  example 
of  careful  planning  and  resolute  carrying  out. 

It  seems  that  while  working  at  the  results  of  the  "  Chal- 
lenger "  and  other  deep-sea  expeditions,  it  occurred  to 
Murray  that  for  the  purpose  of  comparison  a  detailed  ex- 
amination of  the  physical  and  biological  conditions  in  the 
fjord-like  sea-lochs  of  the  West  of  Scotland  might  yield  valu- 
able information.  He  accordingly  built  a  small  steam-yacht 
of  about  38  tons,  called  the  "  Medusa,"  fitted  up  with  all 
necessary  apparatus  for  dredging  and  trawhng  and  for  taking 
deep-sea  temperatures  and  other  hydrographic  observations. 
This  little  vessel  was,  in  fact,  fully  equipped  for  oceano- 
graphical  investigations  in  the  neighbourhood  of  land,  and 


JOHN  MURRAY  87 

during  the  years  1884  to  1892  she  was  almost  contmuously 
engaged  in  exploring  the  deep  sea-lochs  of  the  Western  High- 
lands. Various  younger  scientific  men,  such  as  Dr.  W.  E. 
Hoyle  and  Dr.  H.  R.  Mill,  were  associated  with  Murray  in 
this  work ;  considerable  collections  were  made,  some  of 
which  are  now  in  the  British  Museum,  and  many  scientific 
papers  contributed  to  various  journals  have  resulted  from  the 
periodic  cruises  of  the  "  Medusa."  One  of  the  most  notable 
of  these  is  H.  R.  Mill's  detailed  description  of  the  oceano- 
graphic  characters  of  the  Clyde  sea-area  (1891-4).  Another 
result  was  the  discovery  in  the  deeper  waters  of  Loch  Etive 
and  Upper  Loch  Fyne  of  the  remnants  of  an  Arctic  fauna — 
"  boreal  outliers  "  of  Edward  Forbes. 

From  time  to  time  during  these  researches  in  the  sea -lochs 
the  "  Medusa  "  penetrated  to  the  fresh- water  lochs,  such  as 
Loch  Lochie  and  Loch  Ness,  which  are  united  by  the  Cale- 
donian Canal,  and  Murray  was  greatly  impressed  by  the 
differences  in  the  physical  and  biological  conditions  between 
the  salt  and  the  fresh -water  lochs.  This  observation  seems 
to  have  led  to  another  of  Murray's  scientific  activities,  namely, 
the  bathymetrical  survey  of  the  fresh-water  lochs  of  Scotland, 
undertaken  between  the  years  1897  and  1909.  It  was 
already  known  that,  like  some  of  the  salt-water  fjords  outside, 
certain  of  these  fresh -water  lochs  are  of  surprising  depth. 
For  example,  175  fathoms  had  been  recorded  by  Buchanan 
in  Loch  Morar,  and  Murray,  subsequently  running  a  line 
of  soundings  along  this  loch,  found  at  one  spot  a  depth  of 
180  fathoms.  No  such  depth  is  found  in  the  sea  outside  on 
the  continental  shelf. 

The  survey  was  undertaken  at  first  in  collaboration  with 
his  young  friend,  Mr.  Frederick  P.  Pullar,  who  was  drowned 
in  a  gallant  attempt  to  save  the  lives  of  others  in  a  skating 
accident  on  Loch  Airthrey  in  1901.  The  results  of  the  Lake 
Survey  were  pubHshed  in  a  series  of  six  volumes  (Edinburgh, 
1910),  edited  by  Sir  John  Murray  and  Mr.  Lawrence  Pullar, 
and  dedicated  to  the  memory  of  Mr.  F.  P.  Pullar,  who  had 


88  FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

done  much  to  initiate  and  promote  the  investigation  in  its 
earlier  stages. 

The  work  dealt  with  the  determination  of  the  depths  of 
the  lakes  and  of  the  general  form  of  the  basins  they  occupy, 
along  with  observations  in  other  branches  of  limnography 
from  the  topographical,  geological,  physical,  chemical,  and 
biological  points  of  view.  Some  important  novel  investiga- 
tions, such  as  those  on  the  temperature  seiche  and  variations 
in  the  viscosity  of  the  water  with  temperature,  help  to  throw 
light  on  some  oceanographical  problems.  In  fact,  the  whole 
investigation,  comprising  60,000  soundings  taken  in  562 
lakes,  resulted  in  very  substantial  contributions  to  know- 
ledge, and  is  probably  the  most  complete  accoimt  of  the 
depths  and  other  physical  features  of  lakes  that  has  been 
published  in  any  country. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  Murray  ever  finished  his  work  on 
the  west  coast  of  Scotland,  and  I  have  evidence  in  a  letter 
that  he  wrote  to  me  late  in  life  that  he  still  thought  of  return- 
ing to  the  work.  The  passage  is  worth  quoting,  both  for  its 
scientific  interest  and  for  the  kindly  consideration  which  it 
shows.  It  is  dated  May  20,  1913,  less  than  a  year  before 
his  death  : — 

"...  I  am  seriously  thinking  of  overhauling  all  the 
*  Medusa '  work  on  the  west  coast,  and  repeating  a  lot  of 
these  old  observations  for  two  years  or  more ;  then  pub- 
lishing a  book  on  the  lochs  of  the  west  coast.  Would  that  in 
any  way  interfere  with  your  work  ?  I  am  being  pressed  by 
the  Clyde  people  to  do  something  of  the  kind. 

"  Could  I  afford  it  at  present,  I  would  be  off  to  the  Pacific 
in  a  Diesel-engined  ship  !  !  "  .  .  . 

During  the  years  when  he  was  working  at  the  "  Challenger  '* 
results  and  subsequently  Murray  published  many  papers 
in  the  Geographical  Journal  and  in  the  Scottish  GeograjMcal 
Magazine  and  elsewhere,  which  deal  with  world-wide  ques- 
tions in  oceanography  or  in  physical  geography,  such  as  the 
annual  rainfall  of  the  globe  and  its  relation  to  the  discharge 


JOHN  MURRAY  89 

of  rivers,  the  effects  of  winds  on  the  distribution  of  tempera- 
ture in  lochs,  the  annual  range  of  temperature  in  the  surface 
waters  of  the  ocean,  and  the  temperature  of  the  floor  of  the 
ocean,  on  the  height  of  the  land  and  the  depth  of  the  ocean 
(1888),  and  on  the  depths,  temperatures,  and  marine  deposits 
of  the  South  Pacific  Ocean  (1906). 

In  1897  Dr.  John  Murray  (as  he  then  was)  formally  opened 
the  present  Biological  Station  at  IVIillport  and  the  associated 
Robertson  Museum,  and  delivered  an  address  on  the  marine 
biology  of  the  Clyde  district.  He  continued  to  take  a  lively 
interest  in  the  affairs  of  this  West  Coast  Biological  Station, 
and  frequently  looked  in  there  with  scientific  friends  when 
on  his  cruises  in  the  ^'  Medusa."  I  recollect,  for  example,  an 
occasion  when,  after  dredging  in  Loch  Fyne,  we  ran  to  Mill- 
port for  the  night,  and  the  party  included  Canon  Norman, 
old  Dr.  David  Robertson,  Professor  Haeckel,  and  Mr.  Isaac 
Thompson.  He  frequently  had  foreign  men  of  science  as 
his  guests,  and  was,  I  think,  especially  friendly  with  the 
Scandinavians,  such  as  Nansen,  Hjort,  Otto  Pettersson  the 
Swede,  and  C.  G.  Joh.  Petersen  the  Dane. 

Murray's  oceanographic  work  was  not  limited  to  any 
particular  region  or  special  series  of  problems,  but  was  world- 
wide, both  in  extent  and  subject-matter.  He  was  a  great 
traveller,  and  had  probably  personally  explored  more  of  the 
oceanic  waters  of  the  globe  than  any  other  man.  He  had 
ranged  from  Spitzbergen  in  the  North  to  the  Antarctic  Ice- 
barrier,  dredging,  trawling,  tow-netting,  and  sampling  the 
waters  and  bottom  deposits  in  every  possible  way.  Even 
when  travelling  as  an  ordinary  passenger  on  a  Hner,  he  would 
engage  emigrants  in  the  steerage  to  pump  water  daily  from 
the  sea  through  his  silk  nets,  or  would  arrange  with  a  bath- 
steward  to  let  the  sea-water  tap  run  through  his  net  day  and 
night  in  order  that  he  might  have  living  plankton  to  examine. 

Murray  was  not  only  an  investigator  of  special  problems, 
but  we  owe  to  him  much  sjnithetic  work,  in  which  he  gathered 
together  the  results  of  many  observations  and  put  them  in 


90  FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

the  form  of  short  conclusions  or  statistical  statements.  Some 
of  these  were  published  in  the  form  of  useful  maps  and  charts, 
such,  for  example,  as  the  map  showing  the  57  "  deeps,"  or 
parts  of  the  ocean  in  which  soundings  of  over  3,000  fathoms 
have  been  obtained.  Most  of  these  deeps  (32)  are  in  the 
Pacific,  including  the  deepest  soundings  of  all,  which  extend 
down  to  over  six  English  miles. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  British  Association  held  at  Ipswich 
in  September,  1895,  a  meeting  of  contributors  to  the  "  Chal- 
lenger "  reports  was  held,  at  which  the  then  President  of 
the  Zoological  Section  (W.  A.  Herdman)  presided,  and  about 
fifty  biologists  or  oceanographers  either  attended  or  wrote 
expressing  their  concurrence  in  the  objects  of  the  meeting. 
It  was  then  proposed  and  resolved  "  that  this  meeting  of 
those  who  have  taken  part  in  the  production  of  the  *  Chal- 
lenger *  reports  agrees  to  signalize  the  completion  of  the 
series  by  offering  congratulations  in  some  appropriate  form 
to  Dr.  John  Murray."  Eventually  this  congratulatory 
offering  took  the  form  of  an  address  in  an  album,  containing 
the  portraits  and  autographs  of  all  the  "  Challenger " 
workers,  with  an  illuminated  cover  and  dedicatory  design  by 
Walter  Crane.  This  book  was  afterwards  reproduced  for  the 
contributors  in  the  form  of  a  thin  quarto  volume,  which 
forms  a  very  interesting  record  of  the  completion  of  the  work 
connected  with  the  "  Challenger  "  expedition. 

Dr.  Murray  himself  provided  a  very  pleasing  memento  of 
the  conclusion  of  the  great  work  by  having  a  handsome 
medal  designed  and  struck,  an  example  of  which  was  pre- 
sented to  each  of  the  authors  of  "  Challenger  "  reports.  The 
medal,  in  a  bronze  alloy,  measures  75  mm.  in  diameter,  and 
shows  on  the  obverse  the  head  of  Minerva  encircled  by  mer- 
maids, a  dolphin,  and  Neptune  holding  in  his  left  hand  the 
trident,  and  in  his  right  the  naturalist's  dredge,  with  the 
legend,  "  Voyage  of  H.M.S.  '  Challenger,' 1872-76  "  ;  and  on 
the  reverse  an  armoured  knight  casting  down  his  gauntlet  in 
challenge  to  the  waters— being  the  crest  of  H.M.S.  "  Chal- 


JOHN  MURRAY  91 

lenger  " — with  the  legend,  "  Report  on  the  scientific  results 
of  the  '  Challenger  '  Expedition,  1886-95."  The  name  of  the 
recipient  of  the  medal  is  engraved  on  the  lower  margin. 

After  Sir  Wyville  Thomson's  death,  when  Murray  came 
to  be  recognized  by  the  scientific  world  as  the  moving  spirit 
in  connection  with  all  the  "  Challenger  "  work,  and  especially 
when  the  great  series  of  publications  was  completed,  honours 
of  all  kinds  came  pouring  in  upon  him — for  which  he  probably 
cared  little.  He  was  an  honorary  doctor  of  many  univer- 
sities, he  was  awarded  the  "  prix  Cuvier  "  medal  by  the  Paris 
Academy  of  Sciences,  and  he  was  created  K.C.B.  in  1898.  He 
gave  the  Lowell  lectures  at  Boston  in  1899,  and  again  in  191 1. 
He  was  chief  British  delegate  at  the  International  Congress 
for  the  Exploration  of  the  Sea,  at  Stockholm,  in  1899.  He 
was  President  of  the  Geographical  Section  of  the  British 
Association  in  the  same  year  ;  and  it  is  an  open  secret  that 
he  might  have  been  President  of  the  Association  had  he  been 
able  to  undertake  it.  He  was  approached  no  less  than  three 
times  in  connection  with  three  different  meetings  (two  of  them 
overseas  meetings,  at  which  it  was  felt  that  a  man  of  world- 
wide associations,  such  as  Murray,  would  be  singularly  appro- 
priate), but  after  some  hesitation  and  careful  consideration, 
he  felt  that  circumstances  compelled  him  to  decline  the 
honour.  Some  of  his  letters  to  me,  from  which  I  quote  a  few 
passages,  allude  to  these  offers. 

This  is  a  letter  from  Mentone,  on  April  1,  1904,  referring 
to  the  first  of  these  occasions  : — 

"  .  .  .  At  first,  I  said  it  was  impossible  to  alter  our  family 
and  other  arrangements  so  as  to  go  to  South  Africa.  .  .  . 
To  my  astonishment,  my  wife  seems  taken  with  the  idea  of 
going  to  the  Cape,  and  says  it  is  by  no  means  impossible  to 
alter  our  arrangements.  I've  promised  to  think  over  the 
matter  for  a  week.  I'll  let  you  know  definitely  a  day  or  two 
after  I  reach  Edinburgh. 

"  I  feel  that  you  are  predisposed  to  honour  me,  but  I  also 
feel  I  have  given  the  Association  very  little  of  my  attention  : 


92  FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

others  have  more  claims  on  the  honour.  I  don't  care  a  bit 
about  it.  If  I  consult  my  own  feelings,  I  would  much  rather 
have  nothing  to  do  with  it.  My  wife  suggests  there  may  be 
some  question  of  duty.  Perhaps  ?  I  had  not  heard  you  had 
taken  on  the  General  Secretaryship."  .  .  . 

In  a  letter  from  Boston,  U.S.A.,  he  writes  on  March  20, 
1911:— 

"...  On  Saturday  I  received  your  letter  of  the 
3rd  March.  By  same  post  had  letters  from  Geikie  and 
Bonney.  Had  I  been  at  home,  I  would  of  course  have  seen 
you  before  sending  any  reply,  but  I  am  not  likely  to  be  in 
England  before  June. 

"...  To-morrow  I  deliver  the  Agassiz  address  at 
Harvard.  I  came  over  for  that  address,  but  have  been  let  in 
for  the  Lowell  lectures  (eight)  and  addresses  here  [Boston], 
Princeton,  New  York,  and  Washington.  We  go  to  Wash- 
ington next  month.  .  .  . 

"  During  the  last  two  days  I've  had  frequent  deliberations 
with  my  wife  and  daughter,  who  are  with  me,  and  the  only 
way  out  seemed  to  be  to  decline  the  nomination.  For  some 
time  past  I  have  been  planning  a  cruise  as  far  as  the  Pacific 
during  1912  and  1913,  and  I  have  made  a  good  many  business 
and  domestic  arrangements  with  that  object  in  view.  It 
must  take  place  in  these  years  or  not  at  all,  and  if  my  health 
be  good  I  cannot  well  withdraw. 

"  I  know  your  enthusiastic  nature  and  your  too  favourable 
opinion  of  my  poor  labours.  I  know  you  like  to  do  me 
honour.  For  these  reasons  I  very  much  regret  the  nature  of 
the  cables  I  have  just  sent  off  to  you,  Bonney,  and  Geikie.  I 
am  anxious  to  do  anything  to  assist  the  progress  of  oceano- 
graphy, but  I  fear  my  presidentship  of  the  British  Association 
would  not  do  much  in  that  direction.  However,  it  is  very 
good  and  nice  of  you  to  say  you  think  it  would.  I  find  many 
enthusiastic  young  workers  here,  and  I  believe  there  will  Hkely 
be  a  ship  fitted  out  for  a  deep-sea  expedition  in  1912.  They 
wish  to  consult  me  at  Washington  and  New  York  about  this. 


JOHN  MURRAY  93 

Townsend  is  now  away  in  the  '  Albatross,'  off  the  Pacific 
coast.  They  invited  me  to  go  with  them,  also  to  go  to  the 
Tortugas  Station,  where  some  very  interesting  work  is 
going  on."  .  .  . 

This  f mother  letter  refers  to  the  same  occasion.  It  is  from 
Washington,  D.C.,  April  19,  1911  :— 

"...  I  duly  received  your  letter  of  the  20th.  I  have 
not  replied  at  once,  especially  as  I  had  written  to  you  when 
I  sent  off  my  cable,  and  I  had  also  cabled  and  written  to 
Bonney  and  Geikie.  I  have  not  changed  my  mind  about  the 
presidency.  I  cannot  see  my  way  to  accept.  I  am  very 
sorry,  for  I  would  willingly  do  very  much  to  please  you  and 
my  other  friends  on  the  Council.  I  also  believe  that  some 
scientific  man  less  known  locally  would  be  more  agreeable  to 
the  Dundee  people. 

*'  You  will  see  from  the  enclosed  cutting  that  they  have 
been  doing  us  much  honour  here.  There  was  a  dinner  in  our 
honour  last  week,  about  seventy-five  scientific  men  here  and 
their  wives.  The  British  Ambassador  and  his  wife  were 
present.  Taft  accepted,  but  sent  an  excuse  at  the  last . 
minute. 

*'....  We  go  to  Philadelphia  to-morrow  to  meetings  of 
Philadelphia  Academy.  Then  to  New  York.  Osborn  is  to 
have  14  millionaires  to  hear  me  at  the  Museum  as  to  what  they 
should  do  for  the  study  of  the  Ocean  !  !  May  it  have  some 
effect ! 

"  On  the  26th  we  start  for  the  West  to  see  rocks  and  mines 
in  Nevada.     We  sail  from  Boston  on  the  30th  May. 

"  With  my  very  best  thanks  to  you  for  all  your  endeavours 
to  honour  me,  and  to  cultivate  an  interest  in  oceanography." 

The  following  letter  of  November  12,  1912,  refers  to  the 
final  occasion.  He  was  killed  before  the  meeting  in  question 
took  place  : — 

"...  I  shall  not  refuse  at  once.  I'll  consult  with  my 
wife.  All  the  same,  I  do  not  think  it  is  the  sort  of  thing  for 
a  man  over  seventy.     I'm  very  well  just  now — have  been  for 


94  FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

the  past  three  months  shooting  over  the  moors  nearly  every 
day  !  Some  people  say  even  that  I  am  a  wonder  !  but  who 
can  tell  what  I'll  be  like  in  two  years.  Men  over  seventy 
years  are  likely  to  break  down,  then  what  a  nuisance  I  would 
be  to  every  one  ! 

"  I  would,  of  course,  appreciate  the  honour,  but  honours 
are  not  worth  much  to  an  old  man.  The  only  question  would 
be,  a  real  service  to  Science,  and  would  it  be  a  duty.  At  my 
age  it  can  hardly  be  a  duty.  I  have  no  message  to  give  to  the 
world  !  !  I  honestly  think  some  young  scientific  man  would 
do  the  trick  very  much  better.  I'll  consider  it.  I'll  be  in 
London,  Piccadilly  Hotel,  the  first  ten  days  of  December,  and 
could  perhaps  see  you. 

"  I  really  very  much  appreciate  your  desire  to  honour 
me.  It  is  really  very  good  of  you.  It  is  not  quite  out  of  the 
possible  that  I  may  be  in  the  Pacific  in  1914  in  a  boat  of  my 
own.  I  would  have  been  there  now  had  the  cost  not  been 
much  greater  than  I,  at  first,  calculated." 

At  the  inauguration  of  the  new  Zoological  Laboratories 
of  the  University  of  Liverpool  in  November,  1905,  Sir  John 
Murray  was  one  of  the  honoured  guests  of  the  university, 
and  after  the  formal  opening  by  the  Earl  of  Onslow,  Sir  John 
gave  a  short  address  upon  oceanography,  the  first  lecture  to 
be  delivered  in  the  zoology  lecture  theatre  of  the  university. 
A  few  years  later,  in  1907,  the  university  conferred  upon  him 
the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Science. 

We  now  come  to  Sir  John  Murray's  last  great  scientific 
expedition — a  four  months'  cruise  in  the  North  Atlantic,  in 
the  summer  of  1910 — a  very  notable  achievement  for  a  man 
in  his  seventieth  year.  The  investigating  steamer  "  Michael 
Sars  "  was  built  by  the  Norwegian  Government  in  1900,  on 
the  lines  of  a  large  high-class  trawler  of  about  226  tons,  but 
specially  fitted  out  for  scientific  work  under  the  direction  of 
Murray's  friend.  Dr.  Johan  Hjort.  At  Murray's  request 
this  vessel  was  lent,  with  her  crew  and  equipment,  by  the 


PLATE   VI. 


SiK  John  Murray. 


JOHN  MURRAY  95 

Norwegian  Government  for  the  North  Atlantic  cruise,  Sir 
John  Murray  undertaking  to  pay  all  the  expenses.  The 
scientific  reports  on  the  expedition  will  be  published  in  a 
series  of  volumes  by  the  Bergen  Museum  ;  but  the  more 
general  results  have  appeared  in  popular  form  in  a  volume 
entitled  The  Depths  of  the  Ocean  (Macmillan,  1912),  by 
Murray  and  Hjort,  with  contributions  by  several  other 
naturalists,  which  gives  a  condensed  account  of  the  modern 
science  of  oceanography,  with  special  chapters  on  the  latest 
discoveries,  based  largely  upon  the  experiences  of  this  North 
Atlantic  cruise  taken  along  with  the  previous  cruises  of  the 
"  Michael  Sars  "  in  the  Norwegian  seas. 

Amongst  noteworthy  matters  that  are  discussed  in  this 
volume  we  find  : — 

(1)  Methods  of  plankton  collecting,  including  the  towing 
of  as  many  as  ten  large  horizontal  nets,  at  various  depths, 
simultaneously.  The  pelagic  plants  collected,  either  in  the 
nets  or  by  centrifuging  the  water,  are  discussed  in  a  notable 
chapter  by  Gran. 

(2)  The  "  Mud-line,"  a  favourite  subject  with  Murray,  as 
being  the  great  feeding-ground  of  the  ocean.  He  places  it  at 
an  average  depth  of  100  fathoms,  on  the  edge  of  the  "  Con- 
tinental-shelf," at  the  top  of  the  "  Continental-slope,"  which 
descends  more  or  less  precipitately  to  the  floor  of  the  Atlantic 
at  an  average  depth  of  2,000  fathoms.  We  know  from 
Murray's  careful  estimations  that,  if  all  the  elevations  of  the 
globe  were  filled  into  the  depressions,  we  should  have  a 
smooth  sphere  covered  by  an  ocean  1,450  fathoms  deep. 
The  floor  of  this  ocean  is  the  "  mean  sphere  level." 

(3)  Dr.  Helland-Hansen,  the  physicist  on  board  the 
"  Michael  Sars,"  had  devised  a  new  form  of  photometer, 
which  registered  light  as  far  down  as  500  fathoms  in  the 
Sargasso  Sea.  At  between  800  and  900  fathoms,  however, 
no  trace  of  light  was  registered  on  the  photographic  plates, 
even  after  two  hours'  exposure.  The  observations  show  that 
light  in  considerable  quantity  penetrates  to  a  depth  of  at 


96  FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

least  1,000  metres  (547  fathoms),  which  is  much  deeper  than 
had  been  previously  supposed.  It  was  shown  that  the  red 
rays  of  light  are  those  that  disappear  first,  and  the  ultra 
violet  are  those  that  penetrate  most  deeply. 

(4)  A  special  study  was  made  on  the  "  Michael  Sars  " 
of  the  characteristic  colour  of  the  fishes  in  various  zones  of 
depth.  In  the  superficial  layers  of  the  ocean  small  colourless 
or  transparent  forms  abound,  forming  a  part  of  the  well- 
known  pelagic  fauna.  Below  this,  at  an  average  depth  of 
about  200  fathoms,  are  found  fishes  of  a  silvery  and  greyish 
hue,  along  with  red-coloured  Crustaceans.  At  depths  of 
from  500  fathoms  downwards  black  fishes  make  their  appear- 
ance, still  associated  with  red  Crustaceans  and  other  strongly 
coloured  red,  brown,  or  black  Invertebrates.  This  chapter 
is  illustrated  by  some  beautiful  coloured  plates  of  the  fishes. 

(5)  Lastly,  the  "  Michael  Sars  "  got  important  evidence 
in  support  of  the  view  that  the  fresh-water  eel  spawns  south 
of  the  Azores,  and  that  the  larvae  are  carried  by  currents 
back  to  the  coasts  of  North-west  Europe. 

In  1 9 1 3  Murray  published  in  the  Home  University  Library  a 
small  book  of  about  250  pages,  entitled  The  Ocean :  A  General 
Account  of  the  Science  of  the  Sea,  which  is  undoubtedly  the 
most  concise  and  accurate  and,  so  far  as  is  possible  within  its 
small  compass,  complete  account  that  has  yet  appeared  of 
all  that  pertains  to  the  scientific  investigation  of  the  sea. 
It  is  written  in  simple  language  for  the  general  reader,  and  is 
probably  the  best  introduction  to  oceanography  that  can  be 
recommended  to  the  junior  student  or  the  intelligent  non- 
specialist  inquirer  who  desires  information  merely  as  a  matter 
of  general  culture.  It  deals  with  the  history,  methods,  and 
instruments  of  marine  research,  the  depths  and  physical 
characters  of  the  ocean,  the  circulation  of  the  waters,  life  in 
the  ocean,  submarine  deposits,  and  finally  the  nature  and 
relations  of  the  various  "  Geospheres  "  that  constitute  the 
globe.  Coloured  maps  and  plates  illustrate  depths,  salinities, 
temperatures,  currents,  deposits,  and  many  of  the  charac- 


JOHN  MURRAY  97 

teristic  plants  and  animals  of  the  plankton  and  of  the 
"  oozes."  As  Murray's  final  contribution  to  science  it  is  an 
appropriate  summary  of  his  life-work,  and  will  do  much  to 
spread  the  knowledge  of  his  discoveries  and  to  make  his 
name  widely  known  amongst  intelligent  readers  of  popular 
works  on  science. 

If  I  try  now  to  give  a  personal  impression  of  John  Murray 
as  I  remember  him  in  earlier  life,  I  picture  him  as  a  short, 
thick-set,  broad-shouldered  man,  with  a  finely  shaped  head 
and  very  forcible -looking  blue  eyes  under  rather  shaggy 
eyebrows.  His  hair  was  fair,  somewhat  reddish  on  the 
whiskers  and  moustache.  Later  in  life,  when  his  hair  was 
turning  white,  he  wore  a  closely- clipped  beard.  It  was  a 
strong,  determined-looking  face,  with  those  arresting  eyes, 
making  him  a  noticeable  and  dominant  figure  in  any 
assembly.  But  the  eyes  could  dance  with  fun  on  occasions, 
and  his  good  Scot's  tongue  was  kindly  as  well  as  outspoken. 
He  remained  sturdy  and  energetic  to  the  last,  although  he  was 
seventy-three  years  of  age  a  few  days  before  the  motor 
accident  in  which  he  was  instantaneously  killed  on  March  16, 
1914. 

John  Murray  was  a  man  of  upright  character  and  of  down- 
right speech.  He  was  apt  to  tell  you  what  he  thought  of  you, 
or  anyone  else,  in  plain  and  emphatic  language  without  fear 
or  favour.  Some  people  of  more  conventional  habits  may 
have  been  shocked  or  offended  at  times  ;  but  the  better  one 
knew  him  the  more  one  came  to  appreciate  and  admire 
his  transparent  honesty  of  thought  and  speech,  his  most 
uncommon  "  common  sense,"  his  purity  of  motive  and 
directness  of  purpose,  and  his  genuine  kindness  and  good- 
heartedness,  especially  to  all  the  young  scientific  men  who 
worked  with  or  under  him,  and  whom  he  in  large  measure 
trained.  He  was  absolutely  free  from  all  guile  and  humbug 
of  any  kind,  and  had  no  sympathy  with  intrigue  or  vacillation. 

I  may  appropriately  conclude  this  short  account  of  John 

H 


98  FOUNDERS   OF   OCEANOGRAPHY 

Murray's  life  and  work  with  a  few  sentences  quoted  from  an 
appreciation  (Nature,  1914,  p.  89)  by  his  old  friend,  and 
former  teacher.  Sir  Archibald  Geikie  : — 

"  Sir  John  Murray's  devotion  to  science  and  his  sagacity 
in  following  out  the  branches  of  inquiry  which  he  resolved  to 
pursue,  were  not  more  conspicuous  than  his  warm  sympathy 
with  every  line  of  investigation  that  seemed  to  promise 
further  discoveries.  He  was  an  eminently  broad-minded 
naturalist  to  whom  the  whole  wide  domain  of  nature  was  of 
interest.  Full  of  originality  and  suggestiveness,  he  not  only 
struck  out  into  new  paths  for  himself,  but  pointed  them  out 
to  others,  especially  to  younger  men,  whom  he  encouraged 
and  assisted.  His  genial  nature,  his  sense  of  humour,  his 
generous  helpfulness,  and  a  certain  delightful  boyishness 
which  he  retained  to  the  last,  endeared  him  to  a  wide 
circle  of  friends,  who  will  long  miss  his  kindly  and  cheery 
presence." 


CHAPTER  V 

LOUIS  AND  ALEXANDER  AGASSIZ  AND 
AMERICAN  EXPLORATIONS 

The  "  Challenger  "  expedition  was  a  national  undertaking, 
and  it  was  followed  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth 
century  by  a  number  of  other  less  extensive  but  still 
important  national  explorations,  such  as  the  "  Tusca- 
rora  "  (United  States),  "  Travailleur  "  and  "  Talisman  " 
(French),  "National"  and  "  Valdivia  "  (German),  "  Vettor 
Pisani  "(ItaUan),  "  IngoK  "  (Danish),  and  "  Siboga  "  (Dutch), 
all  of  which  supplemented  in  one  direction  or  another  the 
fundamental  discoveries  of  the  British  expedition. 

In  addition  to  these,  various  unofficial  explorations,  due 
to  the  enterprise  of  private  oceanographers,  began  to  make 
notable  contributions  to  science,  and  of  these  men  two  may 
be  selected  as  outstanding  examples,  on  account  of  the  extent 
and  importance  of  their  work  and  of  their  personal  devotion 
to  the  subject ;  these  two  are  Alexander  Agassiz,  of  the  United 
States,  and  H.S.H.  Albert  I,  Prince  of  Monaco. 

There  are  two  Agassizs  well  known  in  the  history  of 
science,  Louis  and  Alexander,  father  and  son,  and  both  made 
contributions  to  our  knowledge  of  the  sea.  It  is  true  that 
Louis  Agassiz  is  better  known  from  his  other  work  in  zoology 
and  from  his  fame  as  a  teacher  of  natural  science  at  Har- 
vard ;  but  in  addition  to  his  pioneer  marine  work  on  the 
eastern  coasts  of  the  United  States,  we  must  remember  the 
influence  he  exercised  upon  his  assistants  and  students, 
including  his  distinguished  son,  and  the  inspiration  and 
direction  he  gave  to  marine  biological  exploration  in  the 

99 


100     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

land  of  his  adoption.  Consequently,  I  have  no  hesitation  in 
claiming  him  also  as  a  pioneer  of  oceanography. 

It  has  been  said  of  the  two  Agassizs  that  the  father  and 
son  were  very  unlike  in  character  and  essential  nature,  and 
that  is  no  doubt  true  to  some  extent.  Louis  was  an  enthu- 
siast and  was  pre-eminently  a  great  teacher  and  public 
expositor.  Alexander  was  a  quiet,  reserved  man,  the 
typical  student  and  investigator,  who  did  not  care  for  teach- 
ing and  avoided  publicity.  But  still,  in  considering  their 
lives  and  the  work  they  did,  it  is  possible  to  trace  some 
common  characteristics.  Both  were  great  collectors  all 
their  lives,  and  between  them  they  built  up  at  Harvard  a 
notable  museum  of  an  original  character.  Both  also  were 
indefatigable  in  seeking  out  the  truths  of  nature,  in  accumu- 
lating facts  rather  than  in  spinning  theories.  Louis,  in 
speaking  of  Oken  and  the  nature-philosophers  of  his  student 
days  in  Germany,  who  were  "  constructing  the  universe  out 
of  their  own  brains,"  said,  "  He  is  the  truest  student  of 
nature  who,  while  seeking  the  solution  of  these  great  pro- 
blems, admits  that  the  only  true  scientific  system  must  be 
one  in  which  the  thought,  the  intellectual  structure,  rises  out 
of  and  is  based  upon  facts  "  ;  while  Alexander,  half  a  century 
later,  speaking  of  theories  of  coral  reefs,  said,  "  I  am  glad 
that  I  always  stuck  to  writing  what  I  saw  in  each  group  and 
explaining  what  I  saw  as  best  I  could,  without  trying  all  the 
time  to  have  an  all-embracing  theory  "  ;  and  Murray,  in  the 
same  connection,  remarks  of  him,  ''  He  professed  never  to 
engage  in  discussions  except  where  it  was  possible  to  verify 
one's  conclusions  by  an  appeal  to  observation  or  experi- 
ment." Thus  we  see  the  same  dependence  upon  facts  and 
avoidance  of  theories  in  both  men. 

Louis  Agassiz,  a  Swiss,  was  born  in  1807  in  a  small  village, 
near  Neuchatel,  in  the  Canton  de  Vaud.  His  education 
consisted  first  of  a  school  at  Lausanne,  then  at  the  Medical 
School  of  Zurich,  and  finally  the  universities  of  Heidelberg 
and  Munich,  where,  like  Edward  Forbes  at  Edinburgh,  he 


LOUIS  AGASSIZ  101 

became  a  leader  of  a  body,  called  the  "  Small  Academy,"  of 
the  more  intellectual  of  his  fellow-students,  several  of  whom 
became  distinguished  scientific  men  afterwards,  but  who  at 
that  time  were  known  in  their  own  society  by  nicknames  such 
as  "  MoUuscus,"  *'  Cyprinus,"  ''  Rhubarb,"  etc.  While  still 
a  student  he  started  original  investigations  on  the  fresh- 
water fishes  of  Central  Europe  and  on  the  fishes  collected  by 
Martins  and  Spix  in  Brazil ;  and  before  he  was  twenty  years 
of  age  he  had  already  engaged  two  young  artists  to  draw  his 
specimens  and  another  assistant  to  help  him  in  dissecting 
them,  and  he  kept  up  that  practice  throughout  all  his  earlier 
struggling  years  as  a  student  and  a  young  scientific  man  in 
Europe.  One  of  his  artists,  called  Dinkel,  who  remained 
with  him  for  about  sixteen  years,  generally  shared  his  room, 
and  we  are  told  that  they  used  the  same  vessel  to  make  their 
coffee  in  the  morning,  to  contain  specimens  in  process  of 
maceration  as  skeletons  during  the  remainder  of  the  day, 
and  then,  being  temporarily  emptied  of  its  scientific  contents, 
to  make  tea  in  for  their  evening  meal.  Professor  Agassiz's 
widow,  writing  of  these  early  days,  says  :  ^  "  He  was  of  frugal 
personal  habits  ;  at  this  very  time,  when  he  was  keeping 
two  or  three  artists  on  his  slender  means,  he  made  his  own 
breakfast  in  his  room,  and  dined  for  a  few  cents  a  day  at  the 
cheapest  eating-houses.  But  where  science  was  concerned, 
the  only  economy  he  recognized,  either  in  youth  or  old  age, 
was  that  of  an  expenditure  as  bold  as  it  was  carefully 
considered."  On  one  vacation,  when  he  proposed  to  come 
home  to  the  small  Swiss  parsonage,  at  that  time  much 
overcrowded  because  of  the  impending  marriage  of  one  of  his 
sisters,  he  wrote  telling  them  of  all  the  things  he  was  going  to 
bring  with  him  for  work  during  the  vacation,  collections  and 
so  on,  including  one  of  his  artists,  to  which  his  father  writes 
back  :  "  By  all  means  bring  them  all  except  your  painter.'' 
But  when  he  arrived  the  painter  was  with  him,  and  had  to 
be  accommodated  somehow. 

^  Louis  Agassiz,  edited  by  Elizabeth  Gary  Agassiz,  London,  1885. 


102     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

Agassiz  himself,  talking  of  these  days,  said  :  "I  kept 
always  one  and  sometimes  two  artists  in  my  pay  ;  it  was 
not  easy,  with  an  allowance  of  $250  (£50)  a  year,  but  they 
were  even  poorer  than  I,  and  so  we  managed  to  get  along 
together.  My  microscope  I  had  earned  by  writing."  In 
this  way  he  took  both  a  Ph.D.  and  an  M.D.  degree,  and  at  the 
same  time  produced  important  treatises  on  both  fresh-water 
and  fossil  fishes,  which  brought  him  into  correspondence 
with  the  great  French  comparative  anatomist  Cuvier,  with 
Humboldt  and  others. 

In  1832,  when  twenty-five  years  of  age,  he  was  appointed 
to  a  newly  established  Chair  of  Natural  History  at  Neuchatel, 
the  salary  of  which  was  about  £64  a  year!  On  this,  the 
following  year  he  married  the  sister  of  one  of  his  fellow- 
students,  and  his  wife,  we  are  told,  made  some  of  the  best 
drawings  which  illustrate  his  celebrated  work  on  fossil 
fishes.  His  grandson,  G.  R.  Agassiz,^  writes  :  "  The  salary  of 
Louis  Agassiz  was  entirely  insufficient  to  support  his  family 
and  publish  his  scientific  works.  By  1846  he  had  exhausted 
the  resources  of  his  relatives,  friends,  and,  indeed,  the  entire 
little  community  of  Neuchatel,  who  came  generously  to  his 
assistance.  He  gladly,  therefore,  accepted  a  subsidy  from 
the  Prussian  Crown,  obtained  through  the  influence  of 
Humboldt,  to  make  a  scientific  exploration  in  the  United 
States."  This  was  the  turning-point  of  his  life,  and  opened 
up  a  career  of  extraordinary  success.  Previous  to  migrating 
to  the  United  States,  he  had,  however,  made  important  visits 
to  Paris,  where  he  was  befriended  by  the  great  comparative 
anatomist,  Cuvier,  then  nearing  the  end  of  his  career,  and 
Humboldt,  the  great  traveller  ;  and  to  England,  where  he 
met  Lyell,  Buckland,  Sedgwick,  and  other  geologists,  and 
incidentally  received  a  grant  from  the  British  Association 
towards  the  expenses  of  the  interesting  work  which  he,  with 
some  of  his  friends  and  students,  had  started  on  the  nature, 

^  Letters  and  Recollections  of  Alexander  Agassiz,  edited  by 
G.  R.  Agassiz,  London,  1913. 


LOUIS  AGASSIZ  103 

movements,  and  former  extension  of  the  glaciers  in  Switzer- 
land. 

In  1846  he  went  to  America,  leaving  his  son  Alexander  at 
school  in  Switzerland,  and  his  wife  and  two  young  daughters 
with  her  brother,  who  was  then  a  professor  at  Karlsruhe.  He 
gave  a  course  of  Lowell  lectures  at  Boston,  and  became  at  once 
a  tremendous  success  as  a  popular  expositor  of  all  the  natural 
history  sciences  and  a  great  influence,  not  merely  in  the 
university  circle  at  Harvard  and  amongst  the  intellectuals  of 
Boston,  but  even  amongst  the  hard-headed  New  England 
business  men.  He  was  extraordinarily  enthusiastic  and 
energetic,  not  merely  in  giving  courses  of  lectures  at  various 
centres  in  the  Eastern  States,  but  also  in  making  important 
scientific  investigations  wherever  he  went,  beginning  with 
the  study  of  successive  upheavals  of  the  coast  near  Boston, 
the  geographical  distribution  of  marine  animals  and  their 
relation  to  the  Tertiary  fossils,  and  the  investigation  of  many 
groups  of  animals  both  on  land  and  sea. 

From  1847  onwards  the  hospitality  of  the  U.S.  Coast 
Survey  vessels  seems  to  have  been  constantly  open  to  him, 
and  thus  his  influence  on  oceanography  began.  Under  no 
other  Government  probably  could  he  have  had  opportunities 
so  valuable  to  a  naturalist,  and  probably  no  Government  ever 
got  a  better  return  for  friendly  co-operation  with  men  of 
science.  Louis  Agassiz  had  intended  merely  to  pay  a  visit 
to  the  States,  give  his  Lowell  lectures,  and  then  return  to 
Switzerland,  but  one  engagement  at  Boston  led  to  another,  to 
delay  his  return.  The  following  year,  1848,  he  was  offered  a 
newly  established  Chair  of  Natural  History  at  Harvard,  at  a 
salary  of  £300,  and  in  that  post  he  remained  to  the  end  of  his 
days.  He  began  to  accumulate  what  is  now  the  celebrated 
Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology,  housed  at  first  in  an  old 
wooden  shanty  set  on  piles  on  the  bank  of  the  Charles  river, 
and  it  was  not  until  ten  or  twelve  years  later  that  the 
university  commenced  to  build  for  him  the  present  great 
University  Museum  at  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,   which 


104     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

displays  the  wonderful  collections  made  by  both  Louis  and 
Alexander  Agassiz  as  the  result  of  their  many  expeditions. 

In  the  meantime  his  wife  in  Switzerland  had  died,  and 
shortly  afterwards  he  brought  his  son  Alexander,  then  a 
youth  of  thirteen,  to  join  him  at  Boston.  His  grandson, 
writing  of  this  time,  says  :  "  Professor  Agassiz's  little  house 
in  Oxford  Street  must  surely  have  seemed  a  strange  home  to 
the  small  foreigner.  The  household,  besides  the  father, 
consisted  of  a  dear  old  artist,  Mr.  Burkhardt,  a  young 
Harvard  student,  Mr.  Edward  King,  an  old  Swiss  minister 
called  '  Papa  Christinat,'  who  was  supposed  to  look  after  the 
housekeeping,  a  bear,  some  eagles,  a  crocodile,  a  few  snakes, 
and  sundry  other  live  stock.  These  last  enlivened  the  home 
life  in  various  ways.  Sometimes  there  was  a  wild  chase  to 
capture  the  eagles,  or  a  hunt  to  discover  in  what  corner  of  the 
house  the  snakes  had  hidden  themselves.  Once,  when  there 
was  a  large  party  at  dinner,  an  uncertain  and  heavy  tread 
was  heard  upon  the  cellar  stairs,  and  Bruin,  having  broken 
his  chain,  and  broached  a  cask  of  wine,  lurched  into  the 
room."  A  year  afterwards,  however,  Agassiz  married 
Elizabeth  Gary,  of  Boston,  who  seems  to  have  reduced  chaos 
to  order  and  taken  charge  of  the  erratic  professor  and  his 
children  and  eventually  the  grandchildren,  in  the  most 
admirable  and  loving  manner,  which  Alexander  Agassiz 
repaid  by  taking  affectionate  care  of  her  for  many  years 
after  his  father's  death. 

Louis  Agassiz  now  became  an  oceanographer.  His 
important  investigation  of  the  Florida  Reefs  and  Keys 
on  behaK  of  the  Coast  Survey  took  place  in  1851.  The 
peninsula  of  Florida  he  made  out  to  be  formed  by  a  succes- 
sion of  concentric  reefs,  separated  by  deep  channels,  the 
older  of  which  have  become  silted  up  to  form  the  well- 
known  "  Everglades  "  ;  while  the  Tortugas  show  a  real  atoll, 
but  formed  without  the  remotest  indication  of  subsidence. 
He  remarks  further  in  his  report  that  "  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  peculiarities  of  the  rocks  in  the  reefs  of  the 


LOUIS  AGASSIZ  105 

Tortugas  consists  in  their  composition  ;  they  are  chiefly 
made  up  of  coralUnes,  limestone  algae,  and,  to  a  small  extent 
only,  of  real  corals."  This  is  a  matter  which  has  been 
rediscovered  since  by  many  investigators  of  coral  reefs  in 
various  parts  of  the  world,  but  Louis  Agassiz  was,  I  think, 
the  first  to  notice  the  important  fact  that  so-called  coral 
reefs  are  not  always  formed  of  coral. 

At  this  time,  about  1855,  we  a,ie  told  {Letters,  d;c.,  of  Alex- 
ander Agassiz)  that  "  his  father's  affairs,  notwithstanding  the 
fostering  care  of  the  son,  were  in  a  more  than  usually  deplor- 
able muddle  shortly  after  Alexander  Agassiz  left  college. 
Louis  Agassiz  possessed  but  a  hazy  idea  of  the  value  of  a 
dollar,  and  the  modest  funds  of  the  household  budget  had 
an  alarming  way  of  converting  themselves  into  alcohoUc 
specimens  at  the  most  inopportune  moments."  So  in  order 
to  retrieve  the  family  fortunes,  Mrs.  Agassiz  and  her  stepson 
Alexander  resolved  to  start  a  school  for  girls  in  the  upper 
part  of  their  house  at  Harvard,  which  at  once  became  an 
unqualified  success.  "  It  became  the  girls'  school  of  its  day  ; 
special  omnibuses  brought  the  pupils  out  from  Boston  ; 
while  parents  in  other  parts  of  the  country  made  arrange- 
ments for  their  daughters  to  live  in  the  neighbourhood,  that 
they  might  enjoy  its  special  advantages."  Agassiz  himseK 
gave  a  daily  lecture  to  some  sixty  or  seventy  girls,  and 
remarked  enthusiastically  :  "  We  will  teach  the  girls  every- 
thing but  mathematics,  and  the  poor  things  can  learn  that 
almost  anywhere  else."  His  son,  however,  who  was  an 
excellent  mathematician,  attended  efficiently,  no  doubt,  to 
that  branch  of  their  education.  This  school  flourished  for 
about  eight  years  and  was  then  closed,  as  the  improved 
finances  of  the  family  made  it  no  longer  necessary. 

About  1860  Harvard  commenced  the  building  of  what  is 
now  the  magnificent  Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology,  for  the 
purpose  of  containing  Professor  Agassiz 's  rapidly  increasing 
collections.  In  the  first  endowment  given  for  this  purpose 
it  was  stated  as  a  condition  that  the  museum  was  to  be  called 


106     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

by  no  other  name  than  the  "  Museum  of  Comparative 
Zoology,"  but  this  decision,  although  officially  adhered  to, 
has  been  defeated  by  popular  acclaim,  as  the  museum  is 
known  in  Harvard,  and  probably  amongst  most  scientific 
men  all  over  the  world,  as  the  "  Agassiz  "  museum. 

In  1865  Louis  Agassiz  organized  an  important  expedition 
to  Brazil,  largely  in  the  interests  of  the  museum,  and  in  1870, 
along  with  his  friend  Count  de  Pourtales,  who  had  followed 
him  from  Europe,  he  undertook  his  last  cruise  in  the  Coast 
Survey  steamer  "  Bibb,"  on  which  he  conducted  important 
deep-sea  surveying  and  dredging  in  the  region  of  the  West 
Indies,  and  amongst  other  oceanographic  results  pronounced 
in  favour  of  the  permanence  of  the  great  ocean  basins.  In 
the  following  year,  1871-2,  he  conducted  an  extensive 
dredging  cruise  on  the  "  Hassler  "  round  the  whole  of  the 
South  American  coast  from  Florida  to  San  Francisco. 
Incidentally,  it  may  be  remarked  that  some  of  their  deepest 
and  possibly  most  interesting  hauls  were  lost,  it  is  said,  through 
the  rottenness  of  the  towing-ropes  due  to  damp.  Alexander 
Agassiz,  in  the  many  expeditions  in  which  he  continued  and 
extended  the  work  of  his  father,  avoided  this  difficulty  by 
introducing  the  use  of  wire  rope  for  dredging  purposes. 

We  now  come  to  the  last  episode  in  the  life  of  the  old 
professor.  In  1873  a  New  York  merchant,  Mr.  John 
Anderson,  reading  accidentally  a  report  in  an  evening  paper 
of  an  address  by  Agassiz  setting  forth  the  advantages  that 
would  result  in  the  training  of  young  biologists  from  the 
establishment  of  a  marine  laboratory,  wrote  offering  for  the 
purpose  the  island  of  Penikese,  at  the  mouth  of  Buzzard's 
Bay,  off  the  New  England  coast,  with  its  existing  buildings, 
and  a  sum  of  $50,000  for  the  purpose  of  converting  these  and 
equipping  them  for  the  required  purpose.  This  offer  was 
made  in  the  early  summer,  and  by  July  8,  as  the  result  of 
strenuous  endeavour  and  a  combined  ejffort  on  the  part  of  the 
professor,  his  students  and  the  workmen,  the  buildings  were 
converted,  furnished  and  equipped,  and  were  opened  for  the 


PLATE  VII. 


m^ 


Professor  Louis  Agassiz. 


ALEXANDER  AGASSIZ  107 

accommodation  of  a  summer  school  of  marine  biology, 
attended  by  about  fifty  students,  many  of  whom  were 
teachers  of  science  in  various  parts  of  the  country.  Agassiz 
lectured,  assisted  by  several  other  younger  biologists, 
throughout  the  summer,  and  conducted  all  the  operations 
with  great  enthusiasm.  But  it  was  his  last  effort.  His 
health  was  failing  rapidly,  and  he  died  towards  the  close  of 
that  year  (1873). 

Now  we  must  turn  attention  more  closely  to  the  son, 
Alexander  Agassiz,  who  may  truly  be  said  to  have  devoted 
his  Hfe  and  fortune  to  marine  exploring  expeditions. 

Shortly  after  the  time  when  Alexander  Agassiz  arrived  as  a 
boy  in  the  United  States,  he  was  taken  by  his  father  for  a 
voyage  in  the  "  Bibb,"  one  of  the  Coast  Survey  vessels. 
This  was  his  first,  and  we  are  told  that  it  seemed  very  likely 
to  be  his  last,  experience  of  oceanic  exploration,  for  after 
coming  on  board  he  fell  down  a  hatchway  and  was  laid  out 
apparently  dead  in  the  saloon.  However,  he  soon  recovered, 
and  afterwards  made  many  successive  voyages  in  Coast 
Survey  vessels,  notably  the  "  Blake  "  and  the  "  Albatross," 
and  also  in  other  special  steamers  which  he  chartered  for  his 
expeditions.  His  voyages  covered  more  than  100,000  miles 
in  tropical  seas,  and  it  has  been  said  that  he  personally  has 
run  more  lines  of  investigation  across  the  great  oceans  and 
has  made  more  deep-sea  soundings  than  all  other  oceano- 
graphers  taken  together.  His  first  expedition  in  the  "  Blake ' ' 
was  in  1877,  when  he  had  with  him,  as  commander.  Captain 
C.  D.  Sigsbee,  who  was  afterwards  in  charge  of  the  ill-fated 
"  Maine,"  the  exciting  cause  of  the  outbreak  of  the  war 
with  Spain. 

Agassiz's  knowledge  and  experience  as  a  mining  engineer 
were  of  the  greatest  value  on  board  the  "  Blake  "  in  devising 
improvements  in  the  apparatus  for  deep-sea  work.  He 
substituted  steel- wire  rope  for  dredging  in  place  of  hemp,  and 
invented  mechanical  contrivances  for  equalizing  the  strain 


108     FOUNDEKS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

and  facilitating  the  hoisting  in  of  the  apparatus.     He  and 
Captain  Sigsbee  together  devised  a  new  form  of  double-edged 
dredge,  generally  known  as  the  "  Agassiz  "  or  the  "  Blake  " 
dredge  or  trawl,  which  will  work  equally  well  whichever  way 
it  falls  on  the  bottom  ;    and  also  a  very  ingenious  closing 
tow-net  (called  the  "  gravitating  trap  "),  which  could  be 
lowered  to  any  depth,  opened  and  towed,  and  then  closed 
again,  so  that  it  was  possible  to  strain  the  plankton  or  minute 
organisms  from  a  column  of  water  of  any  given  length  at  a 
particular  depth.     As  the  result  of  experiments  with  this 
apparatus,  they  were  unable  to  find  any  planktonic  organisms 
in  the  region  investigated  below   100  fathoms  from  the 
surface.     These,   and  other  later  investigations  with  the 
"  Tanner  "  closing  tow-net  in  the  "  Albatross,"  led  Agassiz 
to  believe  that,  between  the  plankton  fauna  living  at  or  near 
the  surface,  say  down  to  200  fathoms,  and  that  on  or  near  the 
bottom,  there  was  a  vast  region  where  practically  no  life 
existed.     This  theory  (the  non-existence  of  a  mesoplankton), 
with  some  modifications  as  to  the  extent  of  the  upper  zone  of 
life  (he  defined  it  later  on,    after  experiments  with  the 
*'  Tanner  "  net  in  the  "  Albatross,"  as  "  a  marked  falHng  off 
below  200  fathoms  "),  Agassiz  maintained  to  the  end  of  his 
days  in  opposition  to  most  other  oceanographers,  including 
his  friend  Sir  John  Murray.     It  was  during  the  successive 
voyages  in  the  "  Blake  "  that  Agassiz  was  able  to  add  to  our 
knowledge  of  that  great  warm  current   the  Gulf  Stream, 
from  the  Strait  of  Florida  to  the  Newfoundland  Banks,  and, 
as  the  result  of  this  and  later  work,  to  show  the  connection 
between  ocean  currents  and  an  abundant  surface  plankton 
and  the  dependence  of  the  bottom  fauna  upon  the  plankton. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  as  the  climax  of  Alexander  Agassiz 's 
connection  with  the  Coast  Survey  that  in  1885  President 
Cleveland  offered  him  the  position  of  superintendent  of  the 
whole  of  that  work  and  Scientific  Adviser  to  the  Government. 
However,   considerations   of  health   and   of   the   probable 
sacrifice  of  his  own  scientific  work  which  would  be  necessary, 


ALEXANDER  AGASSIZ  109 

caused  him  to  refuse  what  must  have  been  in  some  ways  a 
very  tempting  offer.  There  is  no  doubt  that  he  gave  much 
scientific  service  in  hydrographic  work  for  the  U.S.  Coast 
Survey,  in  charting  the  seas  of  both  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific 
shores  of  his  adopted  land. 

Although  trained  as  an  engineer,  there  is  no  doubt  that 
even  in  his  younger  days,  when  working  at  his  profession,  his 
heart  was  really  in  marine  biology,  and  he  made  notable 
contributions  to  embryology  and  morphology  quite  apart 
from  his  constant  museum  work  at  Harvard  and  his  later 
oceanographic  expeditions.  His  memoirs  on  the  North 
American  Acalephce,  on  the  Embryology  of  the  Star-Fish  and 
his  Revision  of  the  Echini  established  his  position  as  a  first- 
rate  zoologist.  He  discovered  the  relation  of  the  ' '  Tornaria  " 
larva  to  the  chordate  Balanoglossus,  the  larval  stages  of 
various  Annelids,  the  pelagic  young  of  certain  fishes,  the  fact 
that  the  pincer-like  pedicellarise  of  Echinids  are  modified 
spines,  and  many  new  deep-sea  animals,  all  before  his 
fortieth  year. 

Upon  the  death  of  his  father  in  1873  he  undertook  the 
direction  of  the  marine  biological  laboratory  which  had  just 
been  established  on  Penikese  Island,  but  after  running  it, 
with  the  valued  assistance  of  Packard  and  Putnam,  for  one 
succeeding  year,  he  found  that  the  strain  was  more  than  his 
health  could  stand,  and,  consequently,  as  that  isolated  island 
was  in  many  ways  inconvenient  for  the  purpose,  he  was  led  to 
abandon  that  first  American  marine  station  and  erect  a 
private  laboratory  beside  his  house  at  Castle  Hill,  near 
Newport,  Rhode  Island,  which,  for  the  next  quarter  of  a 
century,  was  an  active  centre  for  a  small  body  of  the  leading 
younger  biologists  of  America.  The  Newport  laboratory 
was  finally  closed  to  students  in  1898,  when  its  place  was 
taken  by  the  now  celebrated  marine  laboratory  and  the  Fish 
Commission  Hatchery  at  Woods  Hole,  near  the  junction  of 
Buzzard's  Bay  and  Vineyard  Sound. 

Another  piece  of  work  which  Alexander  Agassiz  took  over 


no  FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

on  the  death  of  his  father  in  1873  was  the  direction  of  what  is 
now  one  of  the  great  museums  of  the  world,  and  to  which 
during  his  life  time  he  gave  a  million  and  a  half  of  dollars  and 
devoted  nearly  fifty  years  of  service.  As  a  boy  he  had  seen  it 
housed  in  a  ramshackle  wooden  shed  and  then  grow  in  his 
father's  hands  to  something  like  what  it  eventually  became, 
and  as  an  old  man  he  left  it  after  one  of  his  last  endowments 
practically  complete  as  to  the  scheme  and  arrangement  and 
exhibiting,  as  no  other  museum  in  the  world  does,  the  geo- 
graphical and  oceanographical  distribution  of  animal  life. 
At  the  time  of  his  death,  in  1910,  the  museum  had  pub- 
lished fifty-four  volumes  of  its  Bulletin  and  forty  volumes 
of  the  larger  Memoirs^  for  the  most  part  at  the  expense 
of  Mr.  Agassiz. 

In  addition  to  all  his  scientific  work  it  must  be  remembered 
that  Alexander  Agassiz  was  a  highly  successful  man  of 
business.  He  had  been  trained  at  the  university  as  a  mining 
engineer,  and  as  a  young  man  he  took  over  the  management 
of  the  Calumet  and  Hecla  copper-mines,  on  the  southern  shore 
of  Lake  Superior,  which  were  then  in  a  desperate  state. 
These  are  remarkable  mines  in  this  respect,  that  the  metal 
occurs  not  as  an  ore,  but  in  the  form  of  native  copper.  By 
his  engineering  knowledge,  his  business  ability  and  his 
indomitable  perseverance  he  managed  to  overcome  great 
difficulties  and  convert  an  enterprise  that  seemed  doomed  to 
failure  into  a  great  financial  success.  He  was  president  of 
this  very  important  mining  company  up  to  the  time  of  his 
death  in  1910. 

The  hardships  he  endured  during  many  winter  months  in 
the  wilds,  while  seeing  his  mines  through  their  early  troubles, 
brought  on  a  severe  illness  (1868)  from  which,  it  is  said,  he 
never  completely  recovered.  In  his  convalescence  the 
liberality  of  a  Boston  friend  enabled  liim  to  reahze  a  long- 
wished-for  opportunity  of  visiting  and  examining  the 
collections  of  Echinoderms  in  European  museums,  and  of 
becoming  personally  acquainted  with  the  British  naturalists 


ALEXANDER   AGASSIZ  111 

then  engaged  in  oceanographical  work,  and  especially  in 
deep-sea  exploration.  He  visited  Wjnrille  Thomson  in 
BeKast  in  order  to  see  and  hear  about  the  results  of  the 
"  Lightning  "  and  "  Porcupine  "  expeditions.  After  this 
visit,  it  seems  that  Wyville  Thomson  "  had  written  to 
Agassiz  complaining  that  he  had  lost  or  mislaid  some  deep- 
sea  specimen,  and  Agassiz  jocularly  replied  from  London 
assuring  him  that  he  had  *  taken  nothing  away  from 
Ireland  except  a  bad  cold.'  " 

Returning  now  to  the  consideration  of  his  oceanographical 
work,  his  book  The  Three  Cruises  of  the  "  Blake  "  gives  in 
popular  form  the  general  results  of  all  his  voyages  in  the 
"  Blake  "  from  1877  to  1880,  illustrated  by  545  maps  and 
figures  of  the  remarkable  inhabitants  of  the  cold  dark  floor 
of  the  deep  sea  and  of  many  of  the  most  interesting  forms  of 
the  surface  plankton  of  the  GuK  Stream  and  the  West 
Indies.  The  value  to  science  of  the  355  deep-sea  observations 
made  on  the  Atlantic  coasts  of  the  United  States  may  be 
gathered  from  the  following  statement  by  Sir  John  Murray  : 

"If  we  can  say  that  we  now  know  the  physical  and 
biological  conditions  of  the  great  ocean  basins  in  their  broad 
general  outlines — and  I  believe  we  can  do  so — the  present 
state  of  our  knowledge  is  due  to  the  combined  work  and 
observations  of  a  great  many  men  belonging  to  many 
nationalities,  but  most  probably  more  to  the  work  and 
inspiration  of  Alexander  Agassiz  than  to  any  other  single 
man.  Agassiz 's  researches  in  the  Atlantic  resulted  in  very 
definite  knowledge  concerning  the  submarine  topography  of 
the  West  Indian  region  and  of  the  animals  inhabiting  these 
seas  at  all  depths — probably  we  know  more  of  this  submarine 
area  than  of  any  other  area  of  equal  extent  in  the  world 
because  of  his  explorations.  He  arrived  at  the  general  result 
that  the  deep-sea  animals  of  the  Gulf  of  Panama  were  more 
closely  aUied  to  those  in  the  deep  waters  of  the  Caribbean 
Sea  than  the  Caribbean  forms  were  to  those  of  the  deep 
Atlantic.     Hence  he  concluded  that  the  Caribbean  Sea  was 


112     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

at  one  time  a  bay  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  that  since 
Cretaceous  times  it  had  been  cut  off  from  the  Pacific  by  the 
uprise  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama." 

This  conclusion,  it  may  be  added,  is  in  close  agreement 
with  the  later  discoveries  of  geologists  as  to  the  movements  of 
land  and  sea  in  Central  America. 

His  later,  and  more  specially  oceanographic,  expeditions 
were  primarily  devoted  to  the  exploration  of  coral  reef 
problems.  After  the  death  of  his  father,  closely  followed 
by  that  of  his  young  wife,  in  1873,  he  spent  much  time  in 
travel  abroad,  and  it  was  apparently  during  a  visit  to  the 
"  Challenger  "  Office  at  Edinburgh,  in  1876  or  1877  (when  I, 
then  a  young  student  of  zoology,  first  saw  him),  that  he 
became  interested  in  Murray's  work  on  the  building  up  and 
the  breaking  down  of  calcareous  deposits  in  tropical  seas, 
and  especially  in  relation  to  the  mode  of  formation  of  coral 
reefs.  The  situation  at  that  time,  or  at  any  rate  the  views 
held  at  the  "  Challenger  "  Office  and  which  excited  Agassiz's 
interest,  are  summarized  in  the  following  quotation  from 
Miwray's  obituary  notice  of  his  friend,  published  in  the 
Bulletin  of  the  Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology,  vol.  54, 1911. 

I  shall  discuss  the  various  theories  as  to  the  growth  of 
coral  reefs  and  islands  more  fully  in  a  later  chapter,  but  this 
will  be  sufficient  to  indicate  the  object  and  the  bearing  of 
Agassiz's  contributions  to  the  subject  as  the  result  of  his 
many  expeditions  in  coral  seas.     Murray  says : — 

"  One  of  the  most  striking  results  of  the  *  Challenger ' 
expedition  was  the  discovery  of  enormous  numbers  of 
pelagic  calcareous  Algae,  pelagic  Foraminifera,  and  pelagic 
Mollusca  in  the  surface  and  sub -surface  waters  everywhere 
within  tropical  and  sub -tropical  regions,  but  the  dead 
calcareous  shells  of  these  pelagic  organisms  were  not  dis- 
tributed with  similar  uniformity  over  the  floor  of  the  ocean. 
In  some  places  they  formed  pteropod  and  globigerina  oozes, 
but  in  the  very  greatest  depths  not  a  trace  of  these  shells 
could  be  found  in  the  red  clays  which  covered  the  bed  of  the 


ALEXANDER  AGASSIZ  113 

ocean.  It  was  observed  that  the  thinner  and  more  delicate 
shells  disappeared  first  from  the  marine  deposits  with 
increasing  depth,  and  only  the  thicker  and  more  compact 
shells  or  their  fragments  reached  the  greater  depths.  These 
conclusions  were  verified  again  and  again  during  the  cruise 
of  the  '  Challenger,'  and  subsequently  by  Agassiz  in  his 
expeditions.  Evidently  the  calcareous  shells  were  removed 
by  the  solvent  action  of  sea  water  as  they  fell  towards,  or 
shortly  after  they  reached,  the  bottom  of  the  ocean.  In  the 
shallower  depths  the  majority  of  the  shells  reached  the 
bottom  before  being  completely  dissolved,  and  there  accumu- 
lated. The  solvent  action  was  also  retarded,  in  these  lesser 
depths,  through  the  sea  water  in  direct  contact  with  the 
deposit  becoming  saturated,  and  therefore  unable  to  take  up 
more  lime.  The  explanations  thus  given  to  account  for  the 
disappearance  of  carbonate  of  lime  from  deep-sea  deposits 
were  then  applied  to  the  interpretation  of  the  phenomena  of 
coral  atolls  and  barrier  reefs.  It  was  argued  that  all  the 
characteristic  features  of  atolls  and  barrier  reefs  could  be 
explained  by  a  reference  to  the  biological,  mechanical,  and 
chemical  processes  everywhere  going  on  in  the  ocean  without 
calling  in  the  extensive  subsidences  demanded  by  the 
theories  of  Darwin  and  Dana." 

Alexander  Agassiz's  examination  of  the  coral  growths  on 
the  coast  of  Florida  in  his  first  cruise  in  the  "  Blake," 
supported  by  w^hat  he  had  seen  of  the  "  Challenger  "  results, 
excited  an  interest  which  lasted  during  the  remainder  of  his 
life,  and  gave  rise  to  many  special  expeditions  for  the 
purpose  of  exploring  reefs  in  all  parts  of  the  tropical  seas. 
It  may  be  said  that  the  last  thirty  years  of  his  life  were  given 
over  to  the  investigation  of  coral  reef  problems.  He  devoted 
himseK  to  accumulating  facts,  and  was  on  all  occasions  averse 
to  committing  himself  to  theoretical  views.  He  certainly 
held  that  the  explanations  given  by  Darwin  and  Dana  of  the 
formation  of  an  atoll  could  only  be  of  limited  application,  if 
even  that.     And  there  is  no  doubt  that,  as  the  result  of  his 

I 


114     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

unrivalled  experience,  he  is  to  be  reckoned  as  a  supporter  in 
the  main  of  Murray's  theory.  When  he  first  heard  of  it  he 
said,  "  This  new  view  is  founded  on  observation  and  can  be 
verified,  and  I'll  attempt  to  do  it,  and  will  visit  the  coral-reef 
regions  for  the  purpose  "  ;  and  he  certainly  explored  and 
described  and  illustrated  with  much  photographic  detail 
every  important  coral-reef  region  in  the  tropical  Atlantic, 
Pacific  and  Indian  Oceans.  When,  in  1903,  he  gave  an 
address  to  the  Royal  Society  of  London  on  the  subject,  he 
stated  in  the  discussion  that  in  all  his  investigations  and 
voyages  he  had  not  seen  one  single  atoll  or  barrier  reef  which 
could  be  said  to  be  an  illustration  of  the  Darwinian  theory  of 
coral  reefs. 

According  to  Sir  John  Murray  ^  Agassiz  claimed  to  have 
shown  (1)  that  existing  atolls  and  barrier  reefs  in  no  way 
indicate  the  former  position  of  shore-lines  around  islands 
now  deeply  submerged  ;  (2)  that  the  platforms  or  banks 
from  which  atolls  and  reefs  arise  have  been  built  up  or 
levelled  down  in  a  variety  of  ways  and  at  different  times,  each 
coral-reef  region  requiring  to  have  its  special  conditions 
studied,  as  no  general  law  applies  to  all ;  (3)  that  the 
characteristic  features  of  the  atoll,  the  single  shallow  lagoon 
and  the  surrounding  rim  of  living  coral  with  deep  water 
outside,  can  be  explained  by  biological,  chemical  and 
mechanical  activities  continuously  in  operation  at  the 
present  time,  and  that  therefore  the  atoll  and  the  barrier  reef 
cannot  be  accepted  as  evidence  of  subsidence  ;  the  character- 
istic features  of  these  reefs  might  be  developed  in  a  stationary, 
and  in  a  slowly  rising,  as  well  as  in  a  slowly  sinking  area  ; 
(4)  that  the  coral  atoll  on  reaching  the  surface  would,  under 
certain  conditions,  advance  seawards  on  a  talus  of  its  own 
debris,  expanding  like  a  *' fairy  ring"  in  grass,  and  his 
interpretation  of  the  Funafuti  boring  was  that  it  was  driven 
down  through  such  a  talus  with  an  underljdng  tertiary  base. 

As  he  returned  from  each  of  his  expeditions  with  the  result 
^  Bull.  Mus.  Comp.  ZooL,  Harvard,  vol.  54,  3,  1911. 


ALEXANDER  AGASSIZ  115 

that  he  had  been  unable  to  find  any  traces  of  subsidence,  his 
opponents  retorted  that  the  region  he  had  been  investigating 
must  be  an  exceptional  one.  This  occurred  so  frequently 
that  his  long-continued  exploration  of  the  tropical  seas  may 
be  described  as  an  exhaustive  and  fruitless  search  for  a 
typical  coral  reef.  After  his  visit  to  the  Maldives  in  the 
Indian  Ocean  in  1901,  his  son  writes  :  "  Agassiz  had  now 
visited  practically  all  the  important  coral-reef  regions  of  the 
world,  and  in  no  single  instance  had  he  seen  an  atoll  or 
barrier  reef  whose  formation  he  thought  could  be  satis- 
factorily explained  by  subsidence.  It  naturally  followed 
that  his  final  conclusion  was  a  total  dissent  from  Darwin's 
theory  on  the  subject." 

Professor  Stanley  Gardiner  had  visited  the  Maldives  just 
before  Agassiz,  and  it  is  important  to  note  that  in  all  essential 
respects  they  are  in  accord,  and  both  have  decided  that 
*'  Darwin's  theory  is  not  applicable  to  the  Maldives." 

The  late  Dr.  A.  G.  Mayer,  formerly  Director  of  the  Carnegie 
Institute  Research  Laboratory  on  the  Tortugas,  who  had 
been  with  Agassiz  on  several  of  his  expeditions,  writing  of  his 
coral-reef  explorations,  says  :  "  I  believe  science  will  come  to 
see  that  he  succeeded  in  showing  that  Darwin's  simple 
explanation  of  the  formation  of  atolls  does  not  hold  in  any 
part  of  the  world." 

It  was  during  Agassiz 's  Maldive  trip  in  the  winter  of  1901-2 
that  I  had  a  most  interesting  interview  with  him.  I  had 
met  him  before  that  in  Edinburgh,  had  visited  him  in  his 
Newport  laboratory,  and,  again  since  at  Harvard,  but  at 
Colombo  in  Ceylon  in  January,  1902,  we  spent  a  long  day 
and  evening  together.  He  had  just  returned  from  his 
Maldive  expedition  and  I  was  just  starting  on  mine  to  the 
pearl  banks  in  the  Gulf  of  Manaar.  Our  two  steamers,  both 
chartered  from  the  British  India  Co.,  lay  at  anchor  side  by 
side  in  the  harbour,  and  we  dined  on  shore  that  evening  and 
discussed  coral  reefs,  tropical  seas  and  marine  biology  in 
general.     My  expedition  profited  greatly  by  that  chance 


116     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

encounter,  for  next  morning,  before  I  sailed,  Agassiz  had 
shipped  from  his  vessel  to  mine  some  600  fathoms  of  steel 
dredging  wire  and  an  odd  assortment  of  store  bottles  and 
tubes  left  over  from  his  expedition. 

I  had  thought  of  him  before  as  a  quiet,  reserved  man  of 
great  determination  and  ability.  It  has  been  said  of  him  in 
America  :  "  He  was  a  colossal  leader  of  great  enterprises 
fully  as  much  as  he  was  a  man  of  science."  But  at  that  time 
at  Colombo,  and  also  since,  I  have  felt  that  he  was  also  very 
thoughtful  for  others  and  of  a  kindly  and  generous  disposition. 

When  the  "  Challenger  "  expedition  carried  her  explora- 
tions down  through  the  central  Southern  Pacific,  she  found 
a  rather  puzzling  state  of  things.  In  deep  water  relatively 
very  few  animals  were  captured  on  the  bottom  of  the  ocean 
when  compared  with  those  taken  in  the  Great  Southern 
Ocean  or  nearer  continental  shores  ;  those  obtained  were, 
however,  of  rather  pronounced  archaic  types.  The  deposits 
in  the  same  area  were  of  surpassing  interest ;  large  quantities 
of  a  deep-brown  clay  were  hauled  up,  in  which  were  imbedded 
enormous  numbers  of  manganese  nodules  and  concretions, 
some  of  them  being  formed  around  sharks'  teeth,  ear-bones 
and  other  bones  of  whales,  and  others  around  volcanic 
fragments  mostly  converted  into  the  mineral  palagonite. 
Sometimes  hundreds  of  sharks'  teeth  and  dozens  of  whales' 
ear-bones  were  captured  in  a  single  haul,  and  most  of  them 
belonged  to  extinct  species  ;  some  of  the  teeth  were  of  such 
size  that  the  sharks  must  have  been  100  feet  in  length. 
Small  zeolitic  crystals  and  crystal  balls  were  also  mixed  up 
in  these  red-brown  clays,  evidently  formed  in  situ.  More 
extraordinary  still  were  the  minute  spherules,  having  a  hard 
black  coating  and  an  interior  of  pure  iron  and  nickel,  as 
well  as  other  minute  spherules,  called  chondres,  found 
hitherto  only  in  meteorites.  These  spherules  are  believed  to 
have  an  extra-terrestrial  origin,  and  to  have  formed  at  one 
time  the  tails  of  meteorites  or  faUing  stars.  This  was  a 
strange  assemblage  of  things,  and  some  scientific  men  argued 


ALEXAJSFDER  AGASSIZ  117 

that  such  a  condition  of  matters  must  be  regarded  as  local 
and  accidental. 

Now,  Alexander  Agassiz,  on  his  last  expedition,  to  the 
Eastern  Pacific,  in  1904-5,  explored  anew  this  region  of  the 
earth's  surface  the  furthest  removed  from  the  shores  of 
continental  land,  and  he  found  that  this  same  condition  of 
things  extended  over  vast  areas  of  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Here 
we  have  almost  certainly  the  region  of  minimum  accumu- 
lation on  the  sea-floor,  and  recent  investigations  indicate  that 
there  is  in  these  deep  deposits  more  radio-active  matter 
than  anywhere  else  in  the  solid  crust  of  our  planet.  A 
satisfactory  and  clear  understanding  of  the  chemical 
phenomena  taking  place  on  the  floor  of  the  ocean  in  this 
region  has  not  yet  been  obtained,  but  Agassiz's  researches 
take  us  a  long  way  on  the  road  to  a  solution  of  some  exceed- 
ingly interesting  and  important  oceanic  problems.  Take,  for 
example,  his  conclusion  that  the  bottom  fauna  depends  upon 
the  surface  plankton,  and  that  depends  upon  the  presence  of 
strong  currents,  which  may  be  expressed  briefly  as — no 
currents,  no  plankton,  no  bottom  fauna.  This  was  one 
of  his  last  contributions  to  oceanography ;  and  Prof.  C.  A. 
Kofoid,  who  was  with  him  on  the  occasion,  has  kindly  given 
me  the  use  of  a  photograph  (PI.  VIII.)  he  took  of  Agassiz 
watching  the  arrival  of  the  deep-sea  trawl  on  the  deck  of  the 
*'  Albatross."  He  passed  his  seventieth  birthday  at  sea  on  this 
Pacific  expedition,  and  he  actually  died  at  sea  in  mid-ocean 
five  years  later,  while  returning  from  a  visit  to  Europe. 

The  following  list  of  his  more  notable  expeditions  may  be 
of  interest : — 

"  Blake "    .  .  Caribbean  Sea      .  .  1877-80 

"  Albatross  "       .         South  Seas  and  Pacific  .  1899-1900 

I  Bahamas  and  Cuba       .  .      1892 

Bermuda  and  Florida    .  .      1894 

Barrier  Reef,  Australia  .      1896 

Fiji  Islands  .  .  .1897-8 

Maldives      .  .  .  .1902 

"Albatross"        .         Eastern  Tropical  Pacific  .1904-5 


118     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

Professor  Kof oid,  of  the  University  of  California,  who  acted 
as  one  of  his  scientific  assistants  on  his  last  great  Pacific 
expedition,  writes  :  "  The  oceanographer  of  the  future  will 
acknowledge  his  great  debt  to  this  the  greatest  of  explorers  of 
the  sea.  His  explorations  carried  him  over  100,000  miles  of 
voyaging  in  tropical  seas,  principally  in  the  Caribbean  and 
about  its  adjacent  islands,  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  especially 
in  the  tropical  Pacific.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  his  expeditions 
mapped  more  lines  across  deep-sea  basins  and  made  more 
deep-sea  soundings  than  all  other  scientific  expeditions 
combined." 


PLATE  VIII. 


[Photo  by  C.  A.  KOFOID. 


Alexander    Agassiz    on    U.S.S.    "Albatross"    in    Tropical    Pacific, 

WATCHING    ARRIVAL    ON    DECK    OF    DeEP-SeA    TrAWL. 


CHAPTER    VI 

THE    PRINCE    OF    MONACO    AND    THE    OCEANO- 
GRAPHIC  MUSEUM 

Not  infrequently  in  the  past  have  princes  and  nobles  been 
munificent  patrons  of  science  and  done  much  for  the  advance- 
ment of  knowledge ;  but  it  must  be  rare,  indeed,  for  a  reigning 
prince  to  attain  recognition  and  distinction  as  a  practical 
working  man  of  science.  The  late  Prince  of  Monaco  was 
both.  He  has  given  to  France  and  the  world  of  science  at 
least  three  research  institutions  of  first-rate  importance  ;  and 
throughout  many  years  of  his  life,  during  the  last  half -century, 
since  on  one  of  his  early  expeditions  his  little  yacht  lay 
alongside  the  "  Challenger  "  in  the  Tagus,  in  January,  1873, 
he  has  himself  planned  and  carried  out  many  notable 
investigations  in  oceanography. 

His  Serene  Highness  Prince  Albert  Honor6  Charles,  a 
descendant  of  the  ancient  house  of  Grimaldi,  was  born  in 
1848,  and  succeeded  his  father,  Prince  Charles  III,  as 
sovereign  ruler  of  Monaco  in  1889.     He  died  in  1922. 

In  his  early  youth  he  served  as  lieutenant  in  the  Spanish 
Navy,  and  since  then  has  shown  a  Lifelong  devotion  to  the 
pea  and  its  exploration,  and  consequently  both  nature  and 
training  conspired  to  make  him  an  accomplished  navigator, 
competent  to  take  command  of  his  own  ship.  Probably  the 
most  characteristic  representation  of  the  Prince  is  the  statue 
in  the  Oceanographic  Museum  at  Monaco,  showing  him  in 
plain  sailor's  uniform  standing  at  the  rail  on  the  bridge  of 
his  yacht.     (See  also  the  photograph  on  Plate  IX.) 

He  must  have  spent  a  large  portion  of  his  life,  and  much 

119 


120     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

of  the  ample  funds  fortune  placed  at  his  disposal,  in  the 
many  expeditions  which  he  conducted  in  his  successively 
larger  and  more  perfectly  equipped  yachts,  from  the  200-ton 
schooner  ''  Hirondelle  "  up  to  the  second  "  Princesse  Alice  " 
(1898),  a  magnificent  ocean-going  steam  vessel  of  1,420  tons, 
and  about  240  feet  in  length,  fitted  and  manned  for  every 
kind  of  exploring  work  at  sea.  The  GuK  Stream,  the  Azores, 
Spitzbergen,  the  Mediterranean,  and  much  of  the  Atlantic 
from  the  Equator  to  the  Arctic  Circle,  were  systematically 
investigated  in  both  their  physical  and  their  biological 
characters.  His  companions  and  assistants  on  these 
expeditions  have  included  the  Baron  de  Guerne,  Dr.  Jules 
Richard,  and  our  countrymen,  Mr.  J.  Y.  Buchanan  (of  the 
"  Challenger  ")  and  Dr.  W.  S.  Bruce,  the  Antarctic  explorer  ; 
and  the  results,  both  in  general  oceanography  and  on  the 
zoology  of  various  groups  of  animals,  have  been  made  known 
to  science  first  by  the  Prince's  preliminary  reports  of  over 
thirty  annual  cruises  in  the  Comptes-Eendus  of  the  Paris 
Academy,  and  later  in  full  detail  in  those  beautifully  illus- 
trated publications,  Resultats  des  Champagnes  Scientifiques, 
etc.  (over  50  parts),  and  the  later  series  of  octavo 
Bulletins  (upwards  of  400  parts)  and  the  quarto  Annales  de 
rinstitut  Oceanogr.,  all  issued  by  the  Monaco  Press,  with 
the  co-operation  of  Dr.  Jules  Richard,  Director  of  the 
Museum. 

It  is  chiefly  in  connection  with  the  devising  of  apparatus 
for  deep-sea  research  and  in  introducing  new  methods  of 
investigation  that  the  Prince's  expeditions  differ  from  others. 
Amongst  other  new  appliances  which  have  yielded  notable 
results  may  be  mentioned  his  huge  baited  traps  (the  "  nasse  "), 
his  "  stirrup-trawl  "  and  other  types  of  trawls  and  nets  for 
various  depths  of  water,  and  his  use  of  submarine  electric 
lights  to  attract  fishes  and  Crustacea.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  his  practical  knowledge  as  a  seaman  and  as  a  mechanical 
engineer  added  greatly  to  the  efficiency  and  success  of  all  his 
work  on  the  yacht.     His  chief  assistant,  Dr.  Richard,  gave 


THE  PRINCE  OF  MONACO  121 

full  descriptions  and  useful  illustrations  of  many  of  these 
appliances  for  oceanographical  investigation  in  Bulletin  No. 
162,  published  from  Monaco  in  1910. 

All  the  Prince's  successive  voyages  were  very  fruitful  of 
scientific  results,  and  biology  owes  the  knowledge  of  many 
new  deep-sea  Atlantic  animals  to  the  special  memoirs  issued 
from  the  Monaco  Press.  But  none  of  these  have  been  more 
novel,  and  almost  sensational,  than  the  results  of  the  Prince's 
whale -fishing  expeditions  in  the  Mediterranean  and  the 
Atlantic,  when  he  obtained  the  more  or  less  perfect  remains 
of  various  new  and,  in  some  cases,  gigantic  cuttle-fishes  (such 
as  Lepidoteuthis  grimaldii  and  Cucioteuthis  unguiculata)  from 
the  stomachs  of  the  toothed  sperm-whales,  or  "  cachalot." 
These  huge  and  previously  unknown  ''  squids,"  or  cuttle-fish, 
seem  to  be  the  principal,  if  not  the  sole,  food  of  these  toothed 
whales. 

In  the  various  reports  of  the  expeditions  from  about  1896 
onwards  we  have  interesting  accounts  of  Homeric  fights 
with  these  monsters  of  the  sea,  of  which  the  following 
sentences — in  part  quotations  from  a  letter  of  the  Prince  to 
Mr.  J.  Y.  Buchanan,  who  had  accompanied  him  on  many  of 
his  expeditions — may  be  taken  as  a  sample.  ]\'Ir.  Buchanan 
prefaces^  the  letter  by  telling  us  that  in  1895,  while  they  were 
pursuing  deep-sea  research  near  the  Azores,  a  native  crew  in 
their  neighbourhood  killed  a  sperm-whale  which  died  under 
the  bottom  of  the  Prince's  j^acht,  having  charged  the  ship  in 
its  death-agony  as  its  apparent  enemy.  On  floating  up  at 
the  other  side  it  emitted  from  its  widely- opened  mouth  the 
remains  of  its  last  meal,  which  proved  to  be  fragments  of 
gigantic  cuttle-fishes  hitherto  unknown  to  science.  These 
were  in  such  good  condition  that  they  could  be  examined 
zoologically,  and  were  afterwards  described  and  figured  in 
communications  to  the  Paris  Academy  of  Sciences.  As  soon 
as  the  yacht  returned  after  this  experience  from  the  Azores, 
the  Prince  equipped  her  for  the  whale  fishery,  and  engaged 

^  Accounts  Render edi  Cambridge  University  Press,  1919,  p.  259. 


122     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

a  Dundee  whaler  called  Wedderburn  as  his  mate.     Extracts 
from  the  Prince's  letter  are  as  follows  : 

"  The  trial  of  our  whaling  business  has  given  splendid 
results  ...  in  twenty-four  hours  we  harpooned  and  secured 
three  big  cetaceans  and  lost  a  whale.  Each  of  these  cases 
was  very  dramatic  ;  the  whale  .  .  .  was  one  of  those  who 
dive  very  deep  and  straight  towards  the  bottom.  She  pulled 
out  the  400  metres  of  line  that  we  had,  in  three  minutes  or 
less,  with  such  a  powerful  speed  that  the  fore  part  of  the  boat 
took  fire.  We  had  to  cut  just  when  a  few  fathoms  were 
left,  and  then  our  boat  was  full  of  water.  Then  the  animal 
reappeared  on  the  surface,  about  half  an  hour  later  and  at  a 
distance  of  three  miles  ;  we  steamed  after  it,  and  the  run 
lasted  the  whole  day  without  loss  or  gain,  but  after  all, 
without  the  possibility  for  us  to  shoot  the  rocket  to  cause  an 
end,  the  whale  having  got  the  harpoon  in  some  part  which 
was  not  deadly  and  losing  no  blood  at  all.  At  night  I  had, 
of  course,  to  abandon  the  pursuit."  He  then  proceeds  to 
describe  a  fight  they  had  with  three  huge  specimens  of 
Orca  gladiator,  the  killer-whale,  which  is  described  as  the 
tiger  of  the  ocean,  carrying  jaws  filled  with  formidable  teeth 
for  attack  and  animated  with  dauntless  courage.  They 
succeeded  in  killing  one  at  once.  Then  the  two  others 
attacked  the  boat  and  worked  so  as  to  squeeze  it  between 
them,  which  did  not  succeed  because  the  dead  one,  which  had 
been  hauled  up  close,  served  as  a  protection  on  one  side,  and 
also  because  the  rounded  shape  of  the  boat  and  of  the 
animals  produced  the  effect  of  lifting  the  boat  out  of  the 
water.  Other  boats  were  immediately  launched  from  the 
yacht  and  sent  to  the  battlefield.  Meanwhile  Wedderburn 
succeeded  in  killing  with  one  stroke  of  his  harpoon  the  biggest 
of  the  two  enemies.  The  incident  was  a  real  battle,  which 
lasted  an  hour,  and  in  which  four  boats  and  seventeen  men 
were  engaged.  As  the  result  of  these  and  similar  occur- 
rences, the  Prince  tells  us,  in  the  letter,  that  the  beach  at 
Monaco  was  now   being   turned   into  a  whaling    station, 


THE  PRINCE  OF  MONACO  123 

where  the  skeletons  were  being  prepared  for  the  museum. 

These  were  only  the  first  experiences  of  a  series  of  investi- 
gations which  the  Prince  has  since  made  into  the  occurrence, 
habits,  and  structure  of  both  the  whales  and  their  food,  the 
cuttle-fishes.  Professor  Joubin,  in  a  paper  on  the  zoological 
details,  tells  us  that  when  the  stomach  of  the  sperm-whale 
caught  in  1895  was  opened,  it  was  found  filled  with  a  quantity, 
estimated  at  over  100  kilograms,  of  partially  digested  remains 
of  these  Cephalopods,  all  of  them  of  enormous  size.  He 
describes  some  of  the  muscular  arms,  though  much  shrunken 
and  contracted,  as  being  as  thick  as  those  of  a  man  and 
covered  with  more  than  a  hundred  great  suckers,  each  armed 
with  a  short  claw  as  powerful  as  those  of  a  lion  or  a  tiger. 
The  stomachs  of  the  sperm-whales  usually  contain  in  addition 
a  large  number  of  the  horny  beaks  and  other  harder  parts  of 
cuttle-fishes,  the  more  indigestible  residue  of  former  repasts. 

Another  case  reported  is  where  a  whale  contained  a  single 
arm  or  tentacle  which,  "  though  incomplete  from  having 
been  partially  digested,  still  measured  27  feet  in  length," 
and  this  seems  to  justify  the  common  saying  of  the  sailors 
that  "  the  squids  are  the  biggest  fish  in  the  sea." 

It  is  well  known  that  the  sperm-whale  is  valuable,  not 
merely  on  account  of  its  blubber,  from  which  oil  is  obtained, 
but  also  because  of  two  very  important  commercial  products, 
the  one  being  the  spermaceti,  a  wax  which  occurs  in  liquid 
condition  in  a  large  cavity  of  the  head,  and  the  other  being 
the  still  more  valuable  material,  ambergris,  w^hich  occurs  in 
the  form  of  lumps  or  concretions  in  the  animal's  intestine. 
It  seems  probable  that  this  ambergris,  which  is  not  found  in 
all  sperm-whales,  but  only,  it  is  said,  in  those  that  seem 
torpid  and  sickly,  is  really  a  pathological  product,  and  it  is 
suggested  that  it  may  be  produced  as  a  result  of  the  irritation 
caused  by  the  cuttle-fish  beaks  and  other  hard  parts,  which 
are  frequently  found  embedded  in  the  concretions.  Lumps 
of  ambergris,  which  is  used  in  the  arts  both  as  a  drug  and  also 
as  the  basis  of  many  of  the  finest  perfumes,  may  be  found  on 


124     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

occasions  weighing  up  to  100  or  even,  exceptionally,  close  on 
200  lb.,  and  may  be  of  the  value  of  anything  up  to  £1,000 
sterling. 

It  seems  probable  that  the  huge  cuttle-fish,  upon  which  the 
sperm-whale  feeds,  are  inhabitants  neither  of  the  surface 
nor  of  the  bottom,  but  of  the  deep  intermediate  waters,  the 
region  of  the  sea  which  is  least  known.  They  apparently 
never  come  to  the  surface,  nor  are  they  caught  in  our  trawls. 
They  are  powerful  swimmers  and  very  muscular,  and  up  to 
the  present,  as  Mr.  Buchanan  says,^  "  the  only  means  of 
capturing  these  interesting  and  gigantic  animals  is  to  engage 
a  bigger  giant  to  undertake  the  task,  and  to  kill  him  in  his 
turn  when  he  has  performed  the  service." 

It  seems  probable  that  the  whale  usually  brings  its 
captured  prey  to  the  surface  in  order  to  devour  it,  and  the 
combat  of  the  "  thresher  "  and  the  whale,  or  the  supposed 
sea-serpent  and  the  whale,  which  occurs  in  so  many  sailors' 
stories,  seems  to  be  explainable  as  the  violent  and  desperate 
resistance  of  the  giant  cuttle-fish  to  being  swallowed  when 
brought  to  the  surface  by  the  cachalot.  Whales  have  been 
found  with  wounds,  scratches,  and  impressions  on  their  skin, 
which  are  clearly  due  to  the  claws  and  suckers  of  the  cuttle- 
fish, and  there  is  one  specimen  described  from  the  Monaco 
Museum  which  has  an  impress  of  gigantic  suckers  round  the 
lips  of  the  whale —as  if  the  prey  had  resisted  to  the  last 
being  swallowed  by  its  captor. 

As  an  example  of  a  totally  different  kind  of  oceanographic 
research  conducted  by  the  Prince,  we  may  take  the  cruise  of 
the  summer  of  1902,  when,  just  outside  the  mouth  of  the 
Mediterranean,  at  a  depth  of  800  fathoms,  he  found  the 
bottom  water  to  have  the  remarkably  high  temperature  of 
9-4°  C.  Now,  the  temperature  of  the  bottom  water  of  that 
region  of  the  Atlantic  at  a  depth  of  800  fathoms  ought  not  to 
be  higher  than  4-5°  C.  "It  was  evident,  therefore,"  says 
]VIr.  Buchanan  in  discussing  this  result,  ''  that  we  had  here 
^  Accounts  Bendered,  p.  274. 


THE  PRINCE  OF  MONACO  125 

struck  one  of  the  main  drains  of  overflow  from  the  abysmal 
regions  of  the  Mediterranean,"  where  the  water  at  the  bottom 
is  a  good  deal  warmer  than  in  the  Atlantic.  The  Mediter- 
ranean is  so  situated  that  it  loses  more  water  by  evaporation 
from  its  surface  than  is  supplied  to  it  during  the  year  by  rain 
and  rivers.  If  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar  were  closed,  it  is 
calculated  that  the  Mediterranean  would  shrink  in  size  and 
increase  in  saltness  till  it  attained  a  condition  similar  to  that 
of  the  Dead  Sea.  The  deficiency  due  to  over- evaporation  is 
compensated  by  the  surface  current  of  Atlantic  water  which 
it  is  well  known  enters  at  the  Straits,  and  every  gallon  of  this 
Atlantic  water  brings  with  it  about  six  ounces  of  salt,  which 
remains  in  the  sea  when  the  water  evaporates,  and  would 
tend  to  accumulate  as  water  of  high  density  at  the  bottom 
were  it  not  that  it  is  discharged  in  a  deep  current  into  the 
Atlantic.  This  outflow,  after  passing  between  Capes 
Spartel  and  Trafalgar,  naturally  follows  the  deepest  channels 
outwards  until  it  is  lost  in  the  ocean.  Mr.  Buchanan  argues 
that  the  high  temperature  obtained  outside  the  Straits  at  a 
depth  of  800  fathoms  on  this  occasion  was  due  to  one  of  these 
local  rivers  of  relatively  warm  and  salt  water,  and  he  calcu- 
lates, from  a  comparison  of  temperatures,  that  at  that  point  it 
consisted  roughly  of  50  per  cent,  of  Mediterranean  and  50  per 
cent,   of  Atlantic  water. 

As  another  example  of  the  Prince's  oceanographical  work 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Azores,  we  may  take  the  dis- 
covery in  1902  of  the  existence  of  an  enclosed  basin,  appro- 
priately known  as  the  "  Monaco "  deep,  in  which  the 
temperature  at  a  depth  of  1,645  fathoms  was  5°  C.  Now,  in 
the  open  water  of  the  North  Atlantic  of  the  neighbourhood 
the  temperature  at  such  a  depth  ought  not  to  be  higher 
than  3°  C.  It  was  evident,  then,  that  the  sounding  had  been 
taken  in  an  enclosed  basin  shut  off  from  the  water  of  the 
surrounding  ocean  by  a  lip  situated  at  such  a  depth  below  the 
surface  that  the  minimum  temperature  of  the  water  which 
can  gain  access  to  it  is  5°  C.     This  result  was  confirmed  by 


126     FOUNDERS  OP  OCEANOGRAPHY 

a  number  of  subsequent  soundings  and  temperature  deter- 
minations. The  depth  of  the  barrier  separating  the 
"  Monaco  "  deep  from  the  ocean  outside,  it  is  calculated  by 
Mr.  Buchanan,  must  be  between  850  and  900  fathoms.  This 
feature  of  enclosed  basins,  cut  off  by  submarine  barriers  from 
the  ocean  around,  and  containing  warmer  water  than  their 
depth  warrants,  seems  to  be  one  that  is  common  to  many 
archipelagos,  and  examples  are  known  from  the  West 
Indies,  the  Sulu  Seas,  Celebes,  the  Mediterranean,  and  the 
Red  Sea.  In  a  previous  chapter  we  have  seen  a  somewhat 
similar  case  in  the  Faroe  Channel,  where  the  Wy ville  Thom- 
son ridge  prevents  the  cold  bottom  Arctic  water  from  flowing 
into  the  area  of  warmer  Atlantic  water. 

There  is  another  investigation  which  will  always  be 
connected  with  the  Prince  of  Monaco's  name,  and  that  is  his 
distribution,  commenced  as  far  back  as  1885,  of  floats  or 
drift  bottles  over  wide  areas  of  the  Atlantic  starting  from  the 
Azores  as  a  centre,  in  order  to  determine  the  set  of  the 
currents.  These  floats,  in  some  cases  bottles,  in  others 
blocks  of  wood,  but  in  the  later  development  of  the  work 
spherical  copper  vessels  so  weighted  as  to  float  just  below  the 
surface  in  order  to  avoid  the  direct  action  of  the  wind, 
contained  in  sealed  tubes  a  paper  printed  in  nine  languages, 
requesting  the  finder  to  fill  up  certain  details  and  return 
it  to  the  ofiice  at  Monaco.  In  his  first  experiments,  out  of 
931  floats  so  distributed  on  certain  lines  across  the  ocean, 
226  have  been  found  and  returned,  and  the  results  of  their 
wanderings  have  yielded  a  considerable  amount  of  valuable 
information  in  regard  to  the  movements  of  currents  in  the 
North  Atlantic  and  especially  of  the  Gulf  Stream  water. 
These  and  other  later  observations,  resulting  from  the 
distribution  of  about  2,000  floats  in  all,  have  enabled  the 
Prince  to  draw  up  a  valuable  chart  showing  the  surface 
circulation  of  the  Atlantic  water,  upon  which  he  was  un- 
doubtedly at  the  time  of  his  death  the  leading  authority. 

It  is  of  interest  to  notice  in  this  connection  a  recent  paper 


THE   PRINCE   OF  MONACO  127 

by  the  Prince,  communicated  to  the  French  Academy  of 
Sciences  in  1919,  dealing  with  the  futm-e  of  the  floating 
mines  which  have  gone  adrift  as  a  result  of  operations  in  the 
recent  war,  and  showing  that  some  of  them  may  be  a  danger 
to  navigation  in  certain  parts  of  the  North  Atlantic  for  at 
least  four  years  from  that  date.  He  showed  that  those  from 
mine-fields  in  the  North  Sea  will  eventually  find  their  way  to 
the  fjords  of  Norway,  while  those  from  the  western  shores  of 
Europe  will  enter  into  the  great  Atlantic  circulation  deter- 
mined by  the  influence  of  the  Gulf  Stream,  and  will  be 
carried  south  towards  the  Cape  Verde  Islands,  and  will  then 
work  westward  in  the  equatorial  current  towards  America, 
visiting  the  Antilles  and  Bahamas,  They  wiU  then  fall  into 
the  current  of  the  Gulf  Stream,  which  will  enable  them  to 
reach  Bermuda  on  the  way  to  the  Azores,  so  circulating 
round  the  Sargasso  Sea  between  the  fiftieth  latitude  to  the 
north  and  the  fifteenth  to  the  south.  Some  may  continue 
to  circulate  in  this  great  cycle,  while  others  may  be  carried 
north-east  towards  the  western  coasts  of  the  British  Isles. 
Those  that  take  this  latter  course  will  eventually  reach  the 
Norwegian  fjords,  and  probably,  in  the  end,  the  Arctic  Ocean 
by  the  North  Cape,  and  be,  no  doubt,  ultimately  destroyed  in 
their  encounter  with  the  ice.  The  Prince  calculates  that  the 
rate  of  wandering  of  these  mines  in  the  great  Atlantic  circu- 
lation will  be  about  five  miles  per  twenty-four  hours.  He 
gives  some  useful  advice  to  navigators  as  to  the  safest  routes 
and  the  lines  of  greatest  danger  in  crossing  the  Atlantic,  and 
adds  that  the  coasts  of  the  United  States  will  be  protected 
against  this  danger  of  mines  coming  from  Europe  by  the  cold 
Labrador  current  which  descends  from  the  north  to  the 
coasts  of  Florida. 

As  a  further  contribution  to  oceanography  the  Prince  has 
had  prepared,  and  has  published  at  Monaco,  a  very  valuable 
"  Carte  Generale  Bathymetrique  des  Oceans,"  on  which  are 
collected  all  the  really  accurate  deep-water  soundings  of 
the  various  expeditions.     Shortly  before  his  death  he  had 


128     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

appointed  a  commission  of  experts  to  revise  the  chart  and 
issue  a  new  and  improved  edition. 

In  July,  1891,  the  Prince  of  Monaco,  accompanied  by  his 
collaborator.  Baron  Jules  de  Guerne  (then  President  of  the 
Zoological  Society  of  France),  attended  a  special  meeting  of 
the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh  for  the  purpose  of  delivering 
an  address  ^  upon  the  arrangements  he  had  adopted  in  his  new 
yacht  ("PrincesseAliceI")f or  the  adequate  study  of  problems 
of  the  ocean.  In  speaking  of  his  earlier  work  on  the  schooner 
"  Hirondelle,"  after  some  remarks  on  the  importance  of 
work  at  sea  and  the  difficulty  of  finding  scientific  men  who  can 
carry  it  out,  he  said  :  "It  was  consequent  on  such  reflections 
that,  some  seven  or  eight  years  ago,  I  undertook  the  mission 
that  lay  before  me  because  I  was  at  once  a  sailor  and  devoted 
to  science."  He  then  describes  his  soundings,  temperature 
observations  and  dredgings  in  the  Gulf  of  Gascony  down  to  a 
depth  of  500  metres,  and  his  arrangements  on  the  new  yacht 
for  similar  work  in  any  depths  up  to  8,000  metres.  He  gave 
an  account  also  of  the  results  of  his  "  drift-floats  "  up  to  that 
time  in  regard  to  the  directions  and  mean  velocity  of  the 
currents  in  the  North  Atlantic.  Incidentally,  in  answer  to 
the  question,  "  What  is  oceanography  ?  "  he  says  it  will  soon 
appear  as  strange  as  the  question  would  be,  "  What  is 
geography  ?  "  and  he  divides  physiography  into  these  two 
departments  of  knowledge,  geography  and   oceanography. 

The  magnificent  oceanographical  museum,  which  the 
Prince  has  built  on  the  southern  face  of  the  ancient  rock  of 
Monaco  rising  steeply  from  the  edge  of  the  Mediterranean, 
was  inaugurated  by  a  series  of  impressive  functions  lasting 
for  four  days  at  the  end  of  March,  1910.  Oceanographers 
and  other  scientific  men  representative  of  many  countries 
were  present  on  the  invitation  of  the  Prince,  and  France, 
Italy  and  Germany  at  least  had  sent  ships  of  their  navy, 
which  were  thrown  open  to  the  scientific  visitors  along  with 
the  Prince's  yacht.  In  his  inaugural  address  the  Prince  gave 
^  Proc.  Roy.  Soc.  Edin.,  vol.  xviii,  p.  295. 


PLATE  IX, 


The  Prince  on  the  Bridgk  ot   hl>  Yacht. 


The  Monaco  Museum  of  Oceanography. 


THE   PRINCE   OF  MONACO  129 

a  generous  recognition  of  British  pre-eminence  in  oceano- 
graphical  research.  It  is,  therefore,  little  short  of  a  deplor- 
able omission  that  the  British  Government  failed  to  send  any 
ship  of  the  navy  and  was  not  officially  represented  at  the 
inaugm'ation,  although  several  of  us  from  this  country  were 
present  as  the  Prince's  guests. 

This  museum  of  oceanography  demonstrates  the  methods 
of  investigation  and  the  results  obtained.  It  contains  the 
extensive  collections  made  on  the  Prince's  expeditions,  and 
also  shows  the  various  tjrpes  of  dredges,  trawls,  tow-nets,  deep- 
sea  thermometers,  water-bottles,  current  meters  and  other 
apparatus  used  by  the  different  nations  in  their  explorations. 

It  may  perhaps  serve  to  give  an  impression  of  the  circum- 
stances surrounding  the  very  striking  inauguration  of  this 
Musee  Oceanographique  de  Monaco  if  I  quote  a  few  sentences 
written  in  1910  when  returning  home  from  that  great  meeting. 
As  the  Prince  had  been  recognized  for  the  previous  quarter  of 
a  century,  by  men  of  science,  as  an  ardent  and  successful 
explorer  of  the  sea,  it  is  not  surprising  that,  when  he  built  and 
endowed  this  unique  museum,  it  was  visited  at  the  opening 
celebration  by  such  a  gathering  of  scientific  men  interested  in 
the  sea  as  had  probably  never  been  seen  before  or  since. 
"  Official  representatives  of  France,  Italy,  Germany,  Spain, 
Portugal,  Russia  and  other  countries,  delegates  from  the 
leading  academies  of  the  world— the  Academy  of  Sciences  of 
Paris,  the  Royal  Society  of  London,  the  Academy  '  dei 
Lincei '  of  Rome,  and  the  corresponding  scientific  societies  of 
Berlin,  Vienna,  Madrid,  and  St.  Petersburg — along  with 
many  other  scientific  men  invited  personally  by  the  Prince, 
were  united  in  celebrating  the  progress  of  oceanography,  and 
in  launching  an  institution  unique  in  character  and  of 
first-rate  importance  for  science.  .  .  . 

''  The  museum  building  is  a  mass  of  white  masonry,  about 
100  metres  in  length  and  over  70  metres  high,  planted 
actually  on  the  face  of  the  cHff,  on  the  seaward  side  of  the 
rock  of  Monaco.     It  rises  sheer  from  the  sea,  and  its  lower 

K 


130     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

three  storeys  are  below  the  level  of  the  top  of  the  rock  on 
which  the  old  town  and  palace  stand,  so  that  the  main 
entrance  from  the  streets  of  the  town  is  haK-way  up  the 
building.  Its  appearance  architecturally  is  fine  from  every 
point  of  view,  but  is  especially  striking  from  the  sea,  where 
the  masonry  appears  to  be  almost  a  part  of  the  rock,  and  to 
grow  up  in  a  series  of  arches  from  the  ledges  of  the  cliff 
itself.  .  .  .     (That  aspect  is  shown  in  Fig.  2,  on  PI.  IX.) 

"  The  Prince's  inaugural  address,  in  which  he  set  forth  his 
aims  in  founding  the  museum,  was  followed  by  congratu- 
latory speeches  from  M.  Loubet,  M.  Pichon,  Admiral  von 
Koester,  and  other  representatives  of  the  Great  Powers 
present,  and  the  formal  proceedings  terminated  with  brief 
discourses  on  departments  of  oceanography  by  the  three 
professors  attached  to  the  institution — Joubin,  Poirier  and 
Berget — after  which  the  company  was  conducted  round  the 
museum  by  the  Prince  and  his  scientific  staff.  .  .  . 

*'  It  is  unnecessary  to  recount  all  the  ceremonies  and  fetes 
of  the  four  days.  It  will  suffice  to  mention  that  on  one  of  the 
days  the  Prince  gave  a  banquet  to  his  300  guests,  followed  by 
congratulatory  speeches  from  the  representatives  of  the 
great  academies  present  and  other  scientific  men  ;  on  one 
evening  he  entertained  us  to  a  gala  representation  at  the 
opera.  A  second  evening  was  devoted  to  a '  Fete  Venitienne ' 
on  the  bay,  on  a  scale  which  even  our  southern  friends,  who 
are  accustomed  to  such  displays  in  the  open  air,  on  a  smooth 
sea,  under  a  serene  sky,  and  in  a  balmy  atmosphere,  told  us 
had  never  in  their  experience  been  equalled.  The  pageant, 
performed  after  dark,  represented  the  legend  of  Monaco — to 
the  effect  that  Hercules,  in  his  wanderings,  entered  the 
ancient  port  (still  known  as  the  Port  of  Hercules),  lying 
between  the  rock  of  Monaco  and  the  modern  Monte  Carlo, 
and,  struck  by  the  wonderful  natural  features  of  the  situation, 
chanted  a  hymn  in  praise  of  beauty  and  knowledge  (art  and 
science),  and,  notwithstanding  the  savage  assaults  of  the 
primitive    inhabitants,    half    human,    haH    beasts,    took 


THE   PRINCE   OF  MONACO  131 

possession  of  the  rock,  which  he  named  Monaco  (from  his  own 
title  Monoechos),  and  dedicated  it  to  the  advancement  of 
knowledge — all  very  appropriate  to  the  Prince's  new 
institution.  The  whole  story  was  represented  in  that  evening 
fete  by  brilliant  illuminations  on  the  dark  waters  of  the  bay. 
First,  huge  brightly- coloured  monsters  of  the  deep,  Behe- 
moths and  Chimaeras  (I  suppose  really  motor-boats  with 
erections  of  lath  and  canvas  painted  and  illuminated  inside), 
were  seen  approaching  the  mouth  of  the  harbour,  followed  by 
three  gorgeous  barges,  on  the  foremost  of  which  stood 
Hercules,  played  by  a  gigantic  Italian  singer,  Titta  Ruffo, 
whose  magnificent  baritone  voice  filled  the  huge  natural 
amphitheatre,  extending  from  the  rock  of  Monaco  to  the 
casino  of  Monte  Carlo,  as  he  chanted  his  hymn  of  dedication. 
The  primitive  inhabitants  were  there  in  numerous  boats  filled 
with  coloured  lanterns.  The  fierce  battle  was  represented 
by  volleys  of  rockets  and  other  fireworks,  and  by  explosions 
of  coloured  fire.  Finally,  the  triumph  of  Hercules  was 
celebrated  by  the  bursting  into  light  in  the  centre  of  the  bay 
of  three  large  set-pieces,  showing  in  the  centre  the  arms  of  the 
Grimaldi  (the  Monaco  family,  said  to  be  the  most  ancient  in 
Europe),  supported  on  the  one  side  by  Art  and  on  the  other 
by  Science — all  three  with  mottoes  and  appropriate  devices. 

"  The  Prince's  yacht  and  other  visiting  yachts,  and  the 
three  or  four  French  and  Italian  gunboats  and  torpedo- 
destroyers  that  had  been  sent  in  honour  of  the  occasion, 
were  also  illuminated  at  night,  and  the  latter  gave  searchlight 
displays,  and  were  open  for  inspection  during  the  day.  A 
reception  at  the  palace,  various  other  entertainments  and 
scientific  meetings  in  the  museum,  a  visit  to  the  prehistoric 
caves  of  Grimaldi  (where  the  remains  of  early  Mediterranean 
man  have  been  found),  and  other  interesting  excursions  in  the 
neighbourhood  filled  up  the  rest  of  what  was  certainly  a  most 
notable  occasion  in  the  history  both  of  the  principality  of 
Monaco  and  of  the  science  of  the  sea." 

That  is  what  I  wrote  at  the  time.     On  reading  it  over  now, 


132     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

I  only  desire  to  add  that  our  time  was  not  wholly,  nor  even 
mostly,  taken  up  with  these  festivities,  magnificent  and 
worthy  of  the  occasion  though  they  were.  These  were 
evening  functions,  but  the  days  were  largely  occupied  with 
serious  scientific  conferences,  as  they  were  called,  committees 
of  oceanographers  discussing  physical  and  biological  problems 
of  the  sea  and  plans  for  future  work — all  of  which  were  put 
an  end  to  a  few  years  later  by  the  outbreak  of  war. 

The  establishment  at  Monaco,  which  serves  as  a  centre  of 
oceanographic  research  for  the  southern  nations  of  Europe, 
is  to  be  congratulated  on  the  fact  that  work  at  sea — so  far  as 
the  Mediterranean  is  concerned — is  now  being  resumed.  A 
meeting  of  the  "  Commission  Internationale  pour  1' Explora- 
tion Scientifique  de  la  Mer  Mediterranee  "  took  place  at 
Madrid  in  November,  1919,  under  the  presidency  of  the 
Prince  of  Monaco,  when  a  programme  of  work  was  drawn  up, 
and  spheres  of  operations  were  allocated  to  different  countries. 

The  oceanographical  museum  at  Monaco  is,  however,  only 
one  part  of  the  foundation  which  the  Prince  has  laid  for  the 
study  of  the  sea.  With  the  object  of  arousing  interest  in 
scientific  marine  studies  in  France,  the  Prince  started  a 
series  of  lectures  at  the  Sorbonne  in  1903,  and  in  1906  he 
gave  permanence  to  these  studies  by  endowing  them  and 
presenting  to  the  French  nation  a  building  specially  devoted 
to  university  instruction  in  oceanography.  In  connection 
with  this  "Institut"  at  Paris  three  prof  essorships  have  been 
established,  one  of  physical  oceanography,  one  of  biological 
oceanography  and  the  third  of  the  physiology  of  marine 
life.     As  one  of  the  inaugural  addresses  stated : — 

"  By  his  researches  the  Prince  of  Monaco  has  won  for 
himself  a  place  in  the  foremost  rank  of  men  of  science,  and 
by  enshrining  the  results  in  the  monumental  buildings 
at  Monaco  and  Paris  he  has  invested  his  labours  with 
permanent  value  for  all  time." 

It  has  been  said  in  France  of  the  two  oceanographic 
institutions  that,  "  the  factory  is  at  Monaco,  the  sale-room  at 


THE  PRINCE   OF  [MONACO  133 

Paris."     But  it  is  a  distribution  oi  knowledge  rather  than  a 
sale,  as  all  is  given  gratuitously. 

The  third  great  scientific  benefaction  of  the  Prince  has  no 
relation  to  oceanography,  but  may  be  mentioned  briefly  in 
order  to  complete  the  record.  It  is  the  "  Institut  de 
Paleontologie  Humaine "  at  Paris,  where  again,  as  at 
Monaco,  there  is  a  museum  and  a  laboratory  with  a  staff  of 
professors  devoted  entirely  to  the  investigation  of  one 
subject^the  early  history  of  man.  The  Prince's  personal 
interest  in  prehistoric  archaeology  has  been  shown  for  many 
years  by  the  explorations  he  has  conducted  or  promoted  at 
the  Grimaldi  caves  near  Monaco,  and  at  other  caverns  and  im- 
portant sites  in  France  and  Spain,  along  with  Professor  Boule, 
the  Abbe  Breuil  and  others,  and  the  results,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  oceanography  investigations,  have  been  published  at  his 
expense  in  princely  style.  It  has  been  reported  in  the  daily 
press  since  his  death  that  he  has  bequeathed  a  million  francs 
as  further  endowment  to  each  of  these  research  institutions. 

Of  recent  years,  since  the  war,  he  has  played  a  prominent 
and  most  helpful  part  in  promoting  international  co-opera- 
tion for  oceanographic  work.  He  formed  a  natural  centre 
in  organization  and  leader  in  work,  and  was  appointed 
president  at  various  international  conferences,  such  as  that 
held  recently  at  Rome.  In  his  irMependent  position  he  stood 
apart  from  all  international  rivalries  and  showed  only  a 
single-minded  devotion  to  the  pursuit  of  truth.  His  death 
in  Paris  in  June,  1922,  is  a  great  loss  to  the  cause  he  did  so 
much  to  promote — the  advancement  of  the  science  of  the  sea. 

No  one  who  has  worked  with  him  at  a  conference  or  been 
his  guest  at  Monaco  will  be  likely  to  forget  his  constant 
courteous  hospitality,  his  evident  interest  in  all  the  scientific 
questions  raised  and  his  desire  to  secure  co-operation  between 
the  different  nations  in  the  further  exploration  of  the  oceans. 
And  he  did  it  all  because  he  loved  it,  and  modestly  disclaimed 
praise — "  Je  n'y  ai  aucun  merite.  Je  n'aurais  pas  et6 
heureux  sans  cela,"  he  said. 


CHAPTER  VII 
MARINE  BIOLOGICAL  STATIONS  FOR  RESEARCH 

In  addition  to  actual  expeditions  at  sea,  the  science  of 
oceanography  has  gained  much  during  the  last  haK-century 
from  observations  made  on  shore  by  many  biologists  of  all 
kinds  working  at  what  have  come  to  be  called  "  Biological 
Stations."  In  order  to  give  some  account  of  the  scale  on 
which  the  best  of  such  institutions  have  been  organized  and 
equipped,  and  of  the  facilities  that  are  offered  for  investiga- 
tions, I  have  rewritten  with  some  necessary  alterations  and 
additions  an  article  founded  on  notes  taken  during  a  visit 
of  some  weeks  to  the  celebrated  zoological  station  at  Naples 
and  printed  in  the  Popular  Science  Monthly  for  September, 
1901.^  I  have  added  at  the  end  a  short  account  of  the 
founder.  Dr.  Anton  Dohrn,  from  personal  recollections  of 
that  remarkable  man. 

It  is  interesting  to  remember  that  the  movement  to  estab- 
lish institutions  for  the  investigation  of  marine  problems  on 
shore,  in  which  Anton  Dohrn  was  a  pioneer,  took  definite 
shape  just  at  the  time  (1872)  when  the  **  Challenger  "  was 
starting  on  her  memorable  voyage  round  the  world. 

Biological,  zoological,  marine  stations  are  all  of  them 
merely  the  seaside  workshops  of  the  modern  naturalist ' '  writ 
large."  But  they  offer  wonderful  facilities  for  the  most 
advanced  and  best  kinds  of  biological  work,  and  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  overestimate  the  influence  they  have  had  in 
the  advancement  of  our  knowledge  of  living  nature.  The 
field-naturalist  of  old,  before  the  days  of  university  labora- 
tories, studied  his  animals  and  plants  aUve  in  the  open,  or 

^  Made  use  of  with  the  courteous  permission  of  the  Editor. 

134 


MARINE  BIOLOGICAL  STATIONS  135 

collected  and  arranged  them  in  his  cabinets  and  museums. 
The  work  was  interesting  and  necessary,  but  to  some  extent 
superficial.  We  see  its  importance  enhanced  in  these  later 
days  in  the  light  of  Darwinism.  It  was  an  enormous  gain  to 
science  when  zoological  and  botanical  laboratories  were 
equipped  in  the  universities,  and  when  every  student  came 
to  examine  everything  for  himself  and  to  probe  as  deeply  as 
possible  into  structure  and  function.  It  is  no  wonder  if  for 
a  time,  in  some  quarters,  in  the  fascinations  of  microscopic 
dissection  and  section-cutting  and  mounting,  there  was  per- 
haps a  tendency  to  lose  sight  of  living  nature,  and  to  convert 
refinement  of  method  and  beauty  of  preparation  into  the  end, 
in  place  of  being  only  the  means  of  the  investigation. 

The  biological  station  came  to  put  all  that  right.  It  pre- 
sented a  happy  union  of  the  observational  work  of  the  field- 
naturaHst  with  the  minute  investigations  of  the  laboratory 
student.  It  brought  the  laboratory  to  the  seashore,  and  the 
sea,  in  the  form  of  well-equipped  healthy  tanks,  within  the 
walls  of  the  laboratory.  It  enabled  the  living  organisms  to 
be  studied  almost  in  their  native  haunts  by  the  most  refined 
laboratory  methods. 

Fifty  years  ago  the  biological  station  was  almost  unknown  ; 
now  there  are,  I  suppose,  about  fifty  or  possibly  more,  large 
and  small,  scattered  along  the  shores  of  the  civilized  world 
from  the  Arctic  Circle  to  the  tropics  and  AustraHa,  from 
western  California  to  far  Japan  in  the  East — and  of  these  the 
parent  institution,  and  by  far  the  finest  and  most  important, 
is  the  world-renowned  "  Stazione  Zoologica  "  at  Naples. 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  think  of  the  Naples  station  apart 
from  Anton  Dohrn.  He  was  the  founder,  benefactor,  director, 
the  centre  of  all  its  activities,  the  source  of  its  inspiration. 
He  established  the  first  building  in  1872,  and,  although  he  has 
had  support  from  the  German  and  Italian  Governments  and 
from  scientific  institutions  all  over  the  world,  still  I  beheve  it 
is  no  secret  that  his  own  private  fortune,  used  unsparingly, 
has  contributed  much  to  the  permanence  and  success  of  the 


136     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

undertaking.  He  fostered  and  directed  it  continuously  for 
over  thirty  years  :  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  the 
foundation  was  celebrated  on  April  14,  1897,  by  a  remark- 
able memorial  in  which  all  the  leading  biologists  of  the 
world  were  united. 

The  international  character  of  the  institution  is  a  most 
interesting  and  important  feature.  Situated  in  the  south  of 
Italy,  founded  and  directed  by  a  German,  subsidized  (in  an 
excellent  manner  described  below)  by  most  European  govern- 
ments, including  even  those  of  Switzerland,  Hungary,  Hol- 
land, Belgium  and  Spain,  the  members  of  the  staff  and  the 
naturalists  at  work  in  the  institution  may  be  of  any  nation 
and  usually  are  of  many  ;  and  at  any  hour  of  the  day  at  least 
the  four  languages,  French,  German,  English  and  Italian, 
may  be  heard  among  the  busy  groups  in  the  laboratory  and 
the  library.  I  am  describing  it  as  it  was  before  the  war. 
It  is  now,  no  doubt,  changed  to  some  extent.  On  the  out- 
break of  war  it  was  taken  over  by  the  ItaHan  Government 
and  put  in  the  control  of  a  Commission  of  three  Italian 
professors.     Its  future  is  still  somewhat  uncertain. 

But  the  Naples  Zoological  Station  is  not  wholly  for  the 
scientific  man — in  fact,  many  sight-seeing  visitors  to  Naples 
do  not  know  that  science  has  anything  to  do  with  it.  The 
more  public  department  of  the  institution,  the  celebrated 
"  Acquario,"  is  one  of  the  sights  of  Naples,  and  is  well  known 
to  and  highly  appreciated  by  the  more  intelligent  of  the  tour- 
ists you  meet  at  the  hotels.  The  whole  institution  is  usually 
known  to  the  English-speaking  tourist  as  "  The  Aquarium," 
and  few,  even  of  those  who  visit  and  enjoy  it,  seem  to  know 
or  wonder  anjrthing  about  the  remainder  of  the  great  white 
edifice  into  the  ground  floor  alone  of  which  they  are  allowed 
to  penetrate. 

The  zoological  station  of  Naples  in  its  present  condition 
(it  was  once  smaller,  and  wiU  probably  some  day  be  larger) 
consists  of  three  great  white  flat-topped  buildings  of  impos- 
ing appearance,  connected  by  a  central  yard  and  large  iron 


MARINE  BIOLOGICAL  STATIONS  137 

galleries,  placed  in  the  Villa  Nazionale,  the  beautiful  public 
garden  which  occupies  that  part  of  the  shore  of  the  wonderful 
Bay  of  Naples.  Surrounded  by  palms,  cacti,  aloes,  with 
groups  of  statuary,  fountains  and  minor  temples,  looking  out 
upon  the  incomparable  panorama  from  Vesuvius  by  Sorrento 
and  Capri  to  Procida  and  Ischia,  there  is  probably  no  finer 
situation  in  the  world  than  that  occupied  by  what  is  unques- 
tionably one  of  the  most  important  of  zoological  institutions. 

As  to  this  importance,  no  university  laboratory  approaches 
it.  There  is  no  other  laboratory  where  the  work-places  are 
occupied  by  some  forty  or  fifty  doctors  of  science  and  pro- 
fessors and  investigators  of  established  reputation  from  all 
parts  of  Europe  and  America,  who  have  come  there  to  do 
original  work,  attracted  by  the  fame  of  the  institution  and 
its  director  ;  no  laboratory  where  forty  such  workers  can 
be  kept  supplied  with  abundance  of  fresh  material  for  their 
researches  (of  the  most  diverse  description)  brought  from  the 
sea  at  least  twice  a  day  ;  no  laboratory  where  there  are  such 
excellent  facilities  for  work  and  such  charming  opportunities 
for  scientific  intercourse. 

The  staff  of  the  institution  a  few  years  before  the  war, 
when  I  last  visited  it,  consisted  of : 

(1)  Professor  Dr.  Anton  Dohrn,  the  founder  and  director. 

(2)  Seven  Scientific  Assistants  or  heads  of  departments, 
one  of  the  most  interesting  of  whom  was  the  late  Dr.  Lo 
Bianco,  the  administrator  of  the  fisheries  and  preparateur. 

(3)  In  addition  to  these  scientific  heads  of  departments 
there  were  : — the  business  secretary,  two  painters,  and  the 
chief  engineer  ;  and,  finally,  about  thirty  attendants,  collec- 
tors and  others  employed  in  the  laboratories,  in  the  collecting 
and  preserving  departments,  in  the  aquarium  and  elsewhere. 

This  may  seem  at  the  first  thought  a  very  large  staff,  but 
the  activities  of  the  institution  are  most  varied  and  far- 
reaching,  and  everything  that  is  undertaken  is  carried  to  a 
high  standard  of  perfection.  Whether  it  be  in  the  exposition 
of  living  animals  to  the  public  in  the  wonderful  tanks  of  the 


138     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

*'  Acquario,"  in  the  collection  and  preparation  of  choice 
specimens  for  museums,  in  the  supply  of  laboratory  material 
and  mounted  microscopic  objects  to  universities,  in  the 
facilities  afforded  for  research,  or  in  the  educational  influence 
and  inspiration  which  all  young  workers  in  the  laboratory 
feel — in  each  and  all  of  these  directions  the  Naples  station 
has  a  world-wide  renown.  And  the  best  proof  of  this 
reputation  for  excellence  is  seen  in  the  long  list  of  biologists 
from  all  civilized  countries  who  year  after  year  obtain 
material  from  the  station  or  enroll  as  workers  in  the  labor- 
atory. Close  on  1,500  naturalists  have  now,  since  the  open- 
ing of  the  zoological  station  in  1873,  occupied  work-tables, 
and,  as  these  men  have  come  from  and  gone  back  to  practi- 
cally all  the  important  laboratories  of  the  world,  Naples  may 
fairly  claim  to  have  been  for  the  last  haH-century  a  great 
international  meeting-ground  of  biologists,  and  so  to  have 
exercised  a  stimulating  and  co-ordinating  influence  upon 
marine  biological  and  oceanographical  research  which  it 
would  be  difficult  to  overestimate. 

The  success  of  the  institution  has  caused  constant  additions 
and  has  stimulated  the  staff  to  fresh  undertakings.  To  the 
original  aquarium  and  zoological  laboratories  a  second  build- 
ing mainly  for  botany  and  physiology  and  the  preparation  of 
specimens  was  soon  added  ;  and  a  third  has  since  been  com- 
pleted. Additional  accommodation  has  also  been  obtained  by 
a  rearrangement  of  the  roof  of  the  main  building.  This  gives 
space  for  a  second  large  zoological  laboratory,  a  supplement- 
ary library  and  various  smaller  rooms,  used  as  chemical  and 
physiological  laboratories,  for  photography  and  for  bacteri- 
ology. A  good  deal  of  the  research  in  recent  years,  both  on 
the  part  of  those  occupying  work-tables  and  of  the  permanent 
staff,  has  been  in  the  direction  of  comparative  physiology, 
experimental  embryology  and  the  bacteriology  of  sea- water, 
and  all  necessary  faciUties  for  such  work  are  now  provided. 

The  laboratories  contain  accommodation  for  over  fifty 
scientific  men  to  work,  and  each  such  work-place,  known 


PLATE  X. 


Dr.  Anton  Dohrn. 


Zoological  Station  at  Naples. 


MARINE  BIOLOGICAL  STATIONS  139 

technically  as  a  *'  table,"  consists  either  of  a  small  room  or 
of  an  alcove  or  a  portion  screened  off  from  a  larger  room. 
Such  tables  are  rented  at  £100  a  year,  not  to  individuals,  but 
to  states  or  universities  or  committees,  and  of  the  fifty-five 
tables  available  before  the  war,  about  thirty-four  were  per- 
manently engaged — thus  bringing  in  a  considerable  annual 
subsidy  to  the  administration.  Germany  used  to  take  some 
ten  of  these  tables,  and  Italy  seven.  There  are,  I  beUeve, 
three  American  tables — one  belonging  to  the  Women's 
Association — and  there  are  three  English  (rented  by  the 
Universities  of  Cambridge  and  Oxford  and  the  British  Associa- 
tion respectively),  consequently  there  are  generally  about 
half  a  dozen  English  and  American  biologists  at  work  in  the 
station  ;  but  the  director  always  interpreted  in  a  most 
liberal  spirit  the  rules  as  to  the  occupancy  of  a  table,  and,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  during  a  visit  I  made  in  1901  there  were, 
for  a  short  time,  no  less  than  three  of  us  on  the  books  as 
occupying  simultaneously  the  British  Association  table,  but 
in  reahty  all  provided  with  separate  rooms. 

A  work-table  is  then  really  a  small  laboratory  fitted  up 
with  all  that  is  necessary  for  ordinary  biological  research, 
and  additional  apparatus  and  reagents  can  be  obtained  as 
required.  The  investigator  is  supposed  to  bring  his  own 
microscope  and  dissecting  instruments,  but  is  supplied  with 
alcohols,  acids,  stains  and  other  chemicals,  glass  dishes  and 
bottles  of  various  kinds  and  sizes,  drawing  materials  and 
mounting  reagents.  Requisition  forms  are  placed  beside  the 
worker  on  which  to  notify  his  wishes  in  regard  to  material 
and  reagents  ;  he  is  visited  at  frequent  intervals  by  members 
of  the  scientific  staff  ;  he  has  an  attendant  to  look  after  his 
room  and  help  in  other  ways,  and  in  fact  all  his  reasonable 
wants  are  suppHed  in  the  most  perfect  manner.  A  scientific 
man,  or  woman,  then,  wishing  to  do  a  special  research  at  the 
Naples  station  must  be  appointed  to  a  particular  table  for  a 
definite  time  by  his  government,  university,  or  the  controlling 
committee  of  that  "  table,"  and  this  is  the  system  which  has 


140     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

worked  so  well  for  nearly  fifty  years  and  which  has  given 
a  certain  stamp  and  tradition  to  some  at  least  of  the  tables. 

The  opportunities  for  taking  part  in  collecting  expeditions 
at  sea  are  most  valuable  to  the  young  naturalist,  and  especi- 
ally to  such  as  have  not  had  previous  experience  of  the  rich 
Mediterranean  fauna.  Dredging,  "  plankton  "  collection  and 
fishing  are  carried  on  daily  in  the  Bay  of  Naples  by  means  of 
the  two  little  steamers  (the  "  Johannes  Miiller  "  and  the 
"  Francis  BaKour  " — both  classic  names  in  biology)  belong- 
ing to  the  station,  and  by  a  flotilla  of  fishing  and  other  smaller 
boats  which  start  for  work  in  the  very  early  morning  and 
return  laden  with  treasure  in  time  to  supply  the  workers  in 
the  laboratory  for  the  day.  Many  of  the  Neapolitan  fisher- 
men are  more  or  less  in  the  employ  of  the  station  and  bring  to 
the  laboratory  such  rare  specimens  as  they  may  chance  to 
find  in  their  day's  work. 

The  late  Dr.  S.  Lo  Bianco,  for  many  years  the  genial  chief 
of  the  collecting  and  preserving  department,  had  a  pheno- 
menal knowledge  of  the  marine  fauna,  and  of  where,  when 
and  how  to  catch  any  particular  thing — and,  moreover,  of 
how  best  to  preserve  it  when  caught.  Each  afternoon  he 
visited  the  laboratories  and  ascertained  the  wants  of  the 
workers,  each  night  he  gave  his  orders  to  his  crews  of  fisher- 
men, with  various  hints  as  to  likely  haunts  and  the  best 
tactics  to  pursue  ;  and  the  following  morning  sees  a  proces- 
sion of  tubs  and  baskets  filled  with  glass  jars,  containing  the 
specimens  rich  and  rare,  being  conveyed  from  the  little  dock 
to  the  laboratory — generally  balanced  in  wonderful  piles  on 
the  heads  of  the  stalwart  and  picturesque  boatmen.  Dredg- 
ing expeditions  during  the  day  along  the  shores  or  to  the 
neighbouring  bay  of  Pozzuoli  take  place  in  the  steam  launch, 
and  workers  who  wish  to  search  for  some  special  animal  or 
who  are  studying  the  fauna  can  join  such  trips.  Then  about 
once  a  fortnight  or  so  a  longer  excursion  is  organized,  say  to 
Ischia  or  to  Capri,  occupying  the  whole  day,  and  to  this  all 
in  the  laboratory  who  care  for  it  are  invited.     It  was  on  these 


MARINE  BIOLOGICAL  STATIONS  141 

occasions  that  Lo  Bianco  was  seen  in  his  glory  ;  directing 
all  proceedings,  the  centre  of  all  activities,  full  of  geniality 
and  information,  he  was  the  life  and  soul  of  the  party. 
Speaking  to  us  in  any  language,  and  knowing  everything  we 
catch  on  land  or  sea,  patting  the  fishermen  on  the  back,  talk- 
ing seriously  with  the  strictly  scientific,  joking  with  the  more 
versatile,  sympathizing  if  necessary  with  the  seasick  and 
helping  every  one  to  enjoy  the  day  and  profit  by  the  exper- 
ience, he  was  an  ideal  leader  of  the  marine  biological  picnic. 

The  finest  specimens  caught  or  those  not  required  for 
immediate  investigation  are  either  most  skilfully  preserved 
for  museums  or  pass  into  the  tanks  of  the  aquarium.  And  it 
is  possible,  without  ever  going  to  sea,  to  gain  a  very  fair  idea 
of  the  local  Mediterranean  fauna  from  that  last-named  part 
of  the  institution.  The  beauty  and  interest  of  the  aquarium 
are  due,  of  course,  in  great  measure  to  the  brilliancy  and 
abundance  of  the  rich  fauna  in  the  neighbouring  waters,  but 
also  in  part  to  scientific  knowledge  and  skiU.  The  tanks  are 
most  carefully  watched  and  governed,  and  their  exact  condi- 
tion is  always  known — the  temperature,  specific  gravity, 
number  of  bacteria  present,  and  other  particulars  of  the 
water,  are  constantly  tested  and  considered.  The  pubHc 
admiring  the  tanks  on  the  ground  floor  little  know  of  the 
"  council  of  war  "  occasionally  summoned  in  the  laboratory 
upstairs  consisting  of  experts  in  the  subjects  concerned, 
chemistry,  biology,  bacteriology,  to  examine  some  unusual 
sample  or  settle  some  delicate  question.  And  so,  by  much 
care  and  thought,  results  and  effects  are  produced  which  we 
admire  greatly  in  the  aquarium  and  which,  although  no  doubt 
in  part  due  to  the  latitude,  are  also  dependent  upon  the 
scientific  knowledge  and  manipulative  skill  behind  the  scenes. 

Amongst  the  fishes,  we  see  in  one  tank  fine  specimens  of 
the  Muraena — the  real  old  Roman  eel — coiling  their  snake- 
like bodies  through  the  necks  of  broken  jars  just  as  their 
ancestors  no  doubt  did  two  thousand  years  ago  with  the 
same  pots  and  jars — for  those  in  the  tanks  are  antiques — in 


142     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

the  neighbouring  Bay  of  Baiae.  We  can  see  the  Torpedo  or 
electric  ray  in  an  open  shallow  tank,  and  by  putting  the 
thumb  above  and  the  fingers  under  the  animal's  flat  shoulders, 
whilst  we  pull  or  squeeze  the  tail  with  the  other  hand,  an 
electric  shock  can  be  obtained.  Octopus,  squids  and  other 
cuttle-fish  are  present  in  abundance  ;  crabs  that  mimic  their 
surroundings,  those  with  anemones  and  with  sponges  on 
their  backs,  animals  that  look  like  plants,  corals  and  sea-fans 
of  many  kinds,  worms  that  live  in  leathery  tubes  a  foot  long 
and  expand  out  of  the  top,  like  gorgeous  flowers  six  inches 
across  with  innumerable  spirally-arranged  petals — these 
seem  to  be  the  favourites  with  visitors.  But  probably  the 
most  interesting  tanks  to  the  scientific  man  are  those  con- 
taining the  recently  caught  "  plankton,"  the  Medusae  and 
other  delicate  and  gelatinous  surface  organisms.  There  is  one 
marvellous  creature  that  can  be  seen  almost  nowhere  else,  the 
Gestus  veneris,  "Venus's  girdle,'*  which  is  like  an  undulating, 
pulsating  band  of  light,  in  some  positions  absolutely  trans- 
parent, in  others  flashing  iridescent  fire  like  a  diamond  from 
its  sides.  So  much  for  the  public  aquarium,  which,  at  an 
admission  fee  of  two  francs,  brings  in  to  the  institution  a 
revenue  of  about  £1,000  a  year.  Now  a  word  as  to  the 
publications  of  the  station  before  the  war. 

Workers  at  Naples  are  free  to  publish  the  results  of  their 
investigations  where  they  like,  and  records  of  the  good  work 
in  all  departments  of  biology  which  has  been  done  at  this 
station  are  to  be  found  in  all  civilized  countries  in  the  form  of 
memoirs  and  articles  contributed  to  the  scientific  periodicals 
of  the  world.  But  still  a  considerable  amount  of  the  whole, 
including  a  number  of  the  more  extended,  more  solid  and 
more  noteworthy  contributions,  has  been  published  at  Naples 
as  a  noble  series  of  monographs  on  the  Fauna  and  Flora  of  the 
Gulf  of  Naples — each  monograph  being  one  or  more  quarto 
volumes,  richly  illustrated,  and  dealing  with  one  particular 
group  of  animals  or  a  section  thereof.  This  great  series,  of 
which  over  thirty  monographs  have  now  appeared,  is  amongst 


MARINE   BIOLOGICAL  STATIONS  143 

the  most  cherished  possessions  of  every  zoological  library. 
Besides  these  monographs  many  volumes  of  a  smaller  annual 
octavo  journal  have  been  published  containing  shorter  but 
still  important  papers,  and  one  of  the  staff  also  edited  a 
yearly  summary  or  record  of  the  advances  made  in  all  depart- 
ments of  zoology  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 

But  although  the  work  of  the  Naples  Zoological  Station  is 
thus  many-sided,  the  leading  idea  is  certainly  original 
research.  An  investigator  usually  goes  to  Naples  to  make 
some  particular  discovery,  and  he  goes  there  because  he  knows 
he  will  find  material,  facilities  and  environment  such  as  exist 
nowhere  else  in  the  same  favourable  combination.  As  a 
result  of  the  splendid  pioneer  work  which  the  "  Stazione 
Zoologica  "  has  done  at  Naples,  every  civiUzed  country  has 
now  established  its  own  biological  stations,  some  larger,  some 
smaller  ;  but  although  these  are  of  prime  importance  amongst 
scientific  institutions  in  their  own  countries,  as  enabUng  the 
young  investigator  to  commence  research  in  living  material 
without  leaving  home,  it  must  not  be  thought  that  they 
detract  from  the  advantages  of  a  visit  to  the  Naples  station, 
or  affect  the  commanding  position  of  that  unique  University 
of  Natural  History.  Notwithstanding  Woods  Hole,  in  the 
United  States,  Roscoff  in  France,  Plymouth  and  others  at 
home — aye,  and  the  many  others  that  are  likely  to  follow — 
Naples  is  still,  or  was  before  the  war,  the  Mecca  of  the  young 
biologist,  and  will  probably  long  remain  the  greatest  biological 
station  in  the  world. 

Anton  Dohrn,  who  was  born  in  1840  and  died  in  1909, 
used  to  tell  that  his  early  studies  in  marine  biology  at  Messina 
in  the  sixties  first  inspired  him  with  the  idea  of  a  great 
international  zoological  station  at  some  favoured  spot  on 
the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean — and  he  wisely  chose  Naples. 
There  were  many  difficulties  to  be  overcome.  He  received 
support  in  some  quarters,  opposition  from  others,  and 
amongst  his  friends  who  gave  encouragement  it  is  pleasant 


144     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

to  think  there  were  two  young  Englishmen — Francis  Maitland 
BaKour,  the  great  Cambridge  embryologist,  and  the  gifted 
Charles  Grant,  the  author  oi  Stories  of  Naples  and  the  Camorra. 

Dohrn  was  a  man  of  great  determination  and  self-reliance, 
and  when  finally  the  official  support  he  had  expected  to 
receive  from  Germany  failed  him  he  had  the  courage  of  his 
convictions  and  showed  his  faith  in  the  project  by  devoting 
his  personal  fortune  to  the  estabhshment  of  the  Stazione 
Zoologica — the  first  part  of  which  was  opened  in  1873,  to  be 
followed  by  a  second  building  in  1890,  and  a  third  devoted  to 
physiology  in  1907.  The  upper  figure  on  Plate  X  gives  a 
characteristic  representation  of  Dohrn  in  later  life. 

In  addition  to  being  a  man  of  ideas  and  initiative  and  a 
great  organizer  and  administrator,  he  was  an  eminent 
zoologist  and  produced  a  large  amount  of  first-rate  original 
research.  The  great  work  of  his  life  was  to  prove  that 
Vertebrates  were  derived  from  Chsetopod  worms,  and  that 
their  characteristic  features  were  not  newly  acquired  but  were 
modifications  of  other  organs  which  had  in  the  ancestral 
worms  some  different  function  to  perform.  He  regarded 
Amphioxus  and  the  Tunicata  as  degenerate  back-sliders 
which  threw  no  light  on  the  problem  of  early  ancestry. 

I  have  a  vivid  recollection  of  an  occurrence  during  my 
first  meeting  with  Dohrn  which  emphasizes  the  point.  It  was 
about  1880,  when  he  visited  Edinburgh  to  see  the  "  Chal- 
lenger "  collections,  and,  being  at  that  time  Demonstrator  of 
Zoology  in  the  university,  I  was  deputed  by  my  chief,  Sir 
Wyville  Thomson,  who  was  then  in  poor  health,  to  take  his 
distinguished  visitor  round  the  department  and  especially 
to  see  the  large  lecture  theatre  in  the  museum.  Dohrn,  who 
had  been  told  by  Thomson  that  I  was  working  at  the  "  Chal- 
lenger "  Tunicata,  said  he  would  like  to  try  his  voice  from 
the  platform,  and  sending  me  up  to  the  back  benches  of  the 
theatre,  improved  the  occasion  by  hurling  at  me  in  stentorian 
tones  a  few  emphatic  sentences  on  the  degeneracy  of  Tuni- 
cates,  ending  up  with  :  *'  And  so  your  Ascidia  is  a  humbug  !  '* 


CHAPTER  VIII 

HYDROGRAPHY 

We  pass  now  to  a  consideration  of  the  chief  physical 
characteristics  of  the  oceans — the  Earth  is  supposed  to  be 
the  only  planet  in  our  solar  system  which  has  oceans.  These 
physical  characteristics  may  all  be  grouped  under  the  general 
term  Hydrography,  and  the  following  may  serve  as  a  con- 
venient list  of  the  more  important  subdivisions : — Size, 
Depth,  Temperature,  Salinity,  Density,  Pressure,  Colour, 
Penetration  of  Light,  Viscosity,  and  Alkalinity.  There 
are  a  few  other  physical  phenomena  of  the  ocean  which  for 
various  reasons  are  omitted  from  this  brief  summary  of 
the  subject. 

Size  of  the  Ocean. 

First,  as  to  the  extent  of  the  oceans  relatively  to  the  land, 
it  is  known  that  water  covers  more  than  two-thirds  of  the 
surface  of  the  globe,  and  it  has  been  calculated  that  the 
volume  of  the  dry  land  above  sea-level  is  23  millions  of  cubic 
miles,  while  the  volume  of  the  ocean  is  many  times  more, 
about  300  to  320  miUions  of  cubic  miles  according  to  different 
estimates.  The  mean  height  of  the  land  is  2,300  feet  and 
the  average  depth  of  the  sea  ll,500  feet ;  but  the  greatest 
height  of  the  land  (Mount  Everest,  29,002  feet)  and  the 
greatest  known  depth  of  the  sea  (5,348  fathoms  =  32,089  feet) 
are  nearly  the  same,  the  mountain  being  over  5J  and  the 
sounding  a  little  over  6  miles.  The  disproportion  between 
land  and  sea  is  constantly  increasing  in  consequence  of  the 
wearing  down  of  the  land.  It  is  supposed  that  the  material 
carried  from  the  land  to  the  oceans  is  about  3-7  cubic  miles 

145  L 


146      FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

per  annum,  and  Sir  John  Murray  has  calculated  that  at  this 
rate  the  whole  of  the  land  would  be  transferred  to  the  sea 
in  6,340,000  years,  and  the  "  hydrosphere  "  would  then  com- 
pletely cover  the  "  lithosphere  "  to  a  depth  of  about  1,450 
fathoms.  The  whole  area  of  the  sea  bottom  is  estimated  at 
nearly  140  million  square  miles. 

Depths  of  the  Oceans. 

Our  knowledge  of  the  main  outlines  of  the  contours  of 
the  ocean  floor  was  gained  by  the  "  Challenger  "  expedition 
half  a  century  ago  ;  and  the  many  expeditions  since,  although 
they  have  taken  thousands  of  soundings  and  have  filled  in 
many  blanks  and  made  known  a  few  deeper  holes,  have 
left  the  picture  very  much  as  it  was  drawn  by  Sir  Wyville 
Thomson  and  his  colleagues  in  1876.  The  deepest  sounding 
then  was  4,475  fathoms ;  the  deepest  known  now  is  5,348 
fathoms,  over  six  English  statute  miles. 

If  the  floor  of  the  ocean  be  divided  into  1,000-fathom  zones 
of  depth  (0-1,000;  1,000-2,000;  etc.),  by  far  the  largest  area 
is  that  which  lies  at  depths  of  from  2,000  to  3,000  fathoms. 
The  smallest  area  (only  about  6  per  cent,  of  the  whole)  is  that 
at  depths  over  3,000  fathoms.  These  "  Deeps,"  as  they  are 
called,  of  over  3,000  fathoms,  are  relatively  small  depressions 
scattered  over  various  parts  of  the  oceans, and  it  is  appro- 
priate that  we  should  owe  most  of  the  numerical  statements 
and  maps  dealing  with  such  matters  to  one  of  the  "  Chal- 
lenger "  naturalists,  Sir  John  Murray,  who  continued  his 
oceanographic  investigations  almost  to  the  present  day — his 
last  cruise  was  in  the  summer  of  1910  and  his  last  publication 
appeared  in  1913.     He  died  early  in  1914. 

Murray  has  defined  and  named  57  "  Deeps,"  the  greater 
number  (32)  of  which  are  in  the  Pacific,  the  deepest 
of  the  oceans  ;  and  the  largest  and  one  of  the  deepest 
of  them  is  the  "  Tuscarora  Deep,"  a  depression  running 
nearly  north  and  south  in  the  North  Pacific  to  the  east 
of  Japan.     The  '' Aldrich  Deep"  in  the  South  Pacific  con- 


HYDROGRAPHY 


147 


tains  several  of  the  deepest  soundings  of  over  5,000  fathoms. 
With  the  exception  of  these  abyssal  "  Deeps,"  the  floor 
of  the  oceans  far  from  land  is  a  flat  or  very  slightly  undulating 
plain,  the  contours  being  distant  and  the  gradients  so  slight 
as  to  be  scarcely  noticeable,  like  those  on  most  good  railway 
tracks  on  land.  On  approaching  the  continents,  however, 
the  slope  usually  becomes  steeper  to  form  what  Murray  called 
the  "  Continental  Slope."  (Fig.  4).  Working  out  from  the 
land,  the  shore  of  the  continent  extends  as  a  shallow  "  Con- 
tinental Shelf  "  to  about  the  100-fathom  line,  where,  at  this 
"  Continental  Edge,"  the  steeper  gradient  (the  "  Continental 


Fig.  4. — Diagrammatic  Section  of  the  Sea-bottom. 


Slope")  begins  and  descends,  almost  abruptly  in  places,  to 
the  great  abyssal  undulating  plain — the  floor  of  the  ocean. 

In  taking  a  series  of  oceanographical  observations  at  sea, 
the  first  requisite  is  to  determine  the  locality  and  the  depth — 
where  you  are,  and  exactly  how  much  water  is  below  you. 
If  you  know  the  exact  locality,  the  depth  may  perhaps  be 
obtained  approximately  from  the  chart,  but  it  is  well  to 
verify  it  by  direct  observation  with  a  sounding  apparatus, 
such  as  the  "  lead,"  the  Lucas  seK-recording  machine,  or 
the  Kelvin  sounder,  which  indicates  the  distance  up  a  tube 
that  the  water  is  forced  by  the  pressure  at  that  depth. 

There  have  been  many  types  of  sounding  machines  used 


148     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

in  the  history  of  oceanography — some  have  a  detachable 
weight  which  is  left  at  the  sea  bottom  to  avoid  delay  in 
winding  in  the  wire;  in  some  the  wire  runs  out  over  a 
measuring  wheel  connected  with  a  dial  from  which  the  depth 
(said  to  be  correct  to  1  fathom  in  great  depths)  can  be  read 
off  as  the  weight  touches  bottom. 

In  some  cases  the  sounding  machine  brings  up  in  a  tube  or 
other  receptacle  a  small  sample  of  the  bottom  deposit,  which 
may  be  sufficient  to  show  the  nature  of  the  bottom  for  chart- 
ing. The  distribution  of  the  submarine  deposits  on  the 
floor  of  the  ocean  in  relation  to  depth  will  be  considered 
further  on  (Chapter  X). 

The  floor  of  the  deep  sea  is  icy-cold,  receives  no  light  from 
the  sun,  and  is  under  a  pressure  of  several  tons  to  the  square 
inch — over  a  ton  for  each  thousand  fathoms  of  depth. 

Temperature. 

Quite  apart  from  seasonal  variations  in  temperature 
(which  are  only  of  large  amount  in  the  temperate  zones), 
some  parts  of  the  ocean  are  naturally  much  warmer  than 
others.  The  surface  of  the  sea  in  the  tropics  may  be  over 
80°  F.  (the  highest  record  is  96°  F.  in  the  Persian  Gulf),  and 
in  the  polar  regions  is  at  or  below  freezing-point  (the  lowest 
known  being  26°  F. — making  the  extreme  recorded  range 
70°  F.).     The  freezing-point  of  sea-water  is  28°  F.  (-2-22°  C). 

The  range  of  seasonal  variation  in  the  year  in  the  surface 
temperature  of  the  sea  is  least  in  Arctic  and  Antarctic  waters 
and  in  the  tropics,  where  it  (the  range)  is  less  than  10°  F. 
In  the  southern  temperate  zone  the  range  is  from  10°  to  30°F., 
and  in  the  northern  temperate  zone  from  10°  to  50°  F.  The 
range  is  seen  at  its  greatest  about  latitude  40°  in  both  north 
and  south  hemispheres. 

These  surface  temperatures  are  determined  primarily  by 
the  latitude,  and  secondarily  modified  by  cold  and  warm 
currents  and  other  influences.  The  surface  isotherms,  then, 
are  rarely  found  running  with  much  regularity  east  and 


HYDROGRAPHY  149 

west,  as  would  be  the  case  if  the  temperatures  depended 
solely  on  the  latitude,  but  are  frequently  diverted  somewhat 
to  the  north  or  south  by  the  influence  of  currents,  distribu- 
tion of  land  and  water,  and  prevaiHng  winds.  For  example, 
in  the  North  Atlantic  the  corresponding  isotherms  are  much 
lower  on  the  American  than  on  the  European  coast,  as  a 
result  of  the  influence  of  the  Labrador  cold  current  flowing 
south  from  Davis  Strait  and  the  warm  Gulf  Stream  flowing 
north  and  east  towards  Europe. 

Throughout  the  oceans  the  surface  water  is  generally 
warmer  than  that  below,  and,  as  a  rule,  deep  water  is  cold 
water.  In  the  tropics  the  temperature  may  be  over  80°  F. 
at  the  surface,  and  at  or  about  freezing-point  (28°  F.)  at  the 
bottom.  As  a  general  rule,  the  temperature  decreases  con- 
tinuously as  the  depth  increases,  as  is  shown  in  the  follow- 
ing series,  extracted  from  Murray's  table  of  the  ''  Challenger  " 
results,  of  mean  temperatures  for  the  whole  ocean  : — 


100  fathoms  =  60-7°  F. 
200  „       =50-1'' F. 

500  „       =401°F. 


1,000  fathoms  =  36-5°  F. 
1,500  „      =35-3°F. 

2,200  „      =35-2°F. 


There  may,  however,  be  variations  from  this  rule  due  to 
layers  of  warmer  water  between  colder,  or  the  reverse. 

In  some  cases  the  temperature  of  the  deeper  water  does 
not  bear  the  same  relation  to  that  of  the  surface  at  all  times 
of  year.  For  example,  off  the  Norwegian  coast  the  surface 
of  the  sea  is  coldest  in  February  and  warmest  in  August, 
while  at  a  depth  of  200  fathoms  in  the  same  locality  the  water 
is  at  its  lowest  temperature  in  August  and  at  its  highest  in 
February  ;  and  Murray  (in  1888)  found  the  same  seasonal 
reversal  of  conditions  in  Upper  Loch  Fyne  on  the  west 
coast  of  Scotland. 

The  bottom  temperatures  are  below  30°  F.  in  the  polar  seas; 
they  are  between  30°  and  35°  F.  over  much  of  the  Antarctic 
and  the  Southern  Ocean,  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  parts  of  the 
Atlantic  and  Pacific  ;  between  35°  and  40°  F.  in  the  North 
Atlantic  and  parts  of  the  Pacific.     In  the  open  oceans  there 


150 


FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 


is,  then,  very  cold  water  in  the  deep  sea  all  over  the  bottom, 
and  this  cold  water  is  derived  from  the  polar  regions,  more 
especially  from  the  Antarctic  by  a  slow  circulation  of  that 
cold  bottom  water  along  the  floor  of  the  oceans  towards  the 
equatorial  regions. 

There  are,  however,  certain  exceptional  areas  with  higher 
temperatures  in  deep  water.  The  Sargasso  Sea  and  between 
the  Azores  and  Madeira  and  the  Canary  Isles  have  a  higher 
mean  temperature  down  to  1,000  fathoms  than  any  other 
part  of  the  ocean  at  corresponding  depths.  Where  a  barrier 
to  free  circulation  exists,  such  as  a  submarine  ridge  cutting  off 


an  enclosed  area  from  the  ocean  outside,  the  temperature  of 
the  deeper  water  inside  the  barrier  may  be  much  higher 
than  that  at  a  corresponding  depth  outside.  For  example, 
the  Red  Sea  is  cut  off  from  the  Indian  Ocean  by  a  barrier  at 
about  200  fathoms.  Down  to  that  level  it  shows  the  same 
temperatures  as  those  of  the  ocean,  80°  F.  at  100  fathoms 
and  70°  F.  at  200  fathoms,  but  at  greater  depths  the  Red 
Sea  maintains  that  temperature  down  to  the  bottom  at  1,000 
fathoms,  while  outside  the  barrier  in  the  open  ocean  the  tem- 
perature decreases  with  the  depths  to  40°  F.  at  700  fathoms 
and  about  35°  F.  at  1,000  fathoms.  The  same  conditions  are 
found  in  more  or  less  enclosed  areas  in  various  parts  of  the 
oceans,  such  as  the  Sulu  Sea,  at  Celebes,  the  Azores,  and 


HYDROGRAPHY 


151 


the  Faroe  Channel,  where  the  "  Wyville  Thomson  "  ridge 
prevents  the  cold  Arctic  water  from  invading  the  warm  area 
to  the  south  of  the  barrier  (see  Fig.  6). 

Quite  apart  from  the  effect  of  such  barriers,  there  are  other 
variations  in  the  distribution  of  temperatures  according  to 
depth,  due  to  the  circulation  of  special  currents  of  different 
temperature  which  mix  very  slowly  with  the  surrounding 
water.  Some  temperature  sections  through  the  ocean  are 
very  regular  in  arrangement,  the  isotherms  being  horizontal 
and  arranged  in  order,  the  temperature  decreasing  wdth  the 
depth — a  section  through  the  Atlantic  for  some  distance  west 


fOO 


200 

CO 
^300 

f^400- 

600 


600' 


N 


O^er  50"* 


Warm 
Area 


Fia.  6. — Diagram  showing  Wyville  Thomson  Ridge. 

of  the  Canaries  shows  that  normal  condition  ;  while  other 
sections  are  very  irregular,  the  isothermal  lines  being  far 
from  horizontal  and  curving  up  and  down  according  as  masses 
of  warmer  or  colder  water  are  encountered.  Examples  of 
such  very  irregular  temperature  sections  are  seen  in  various 
parts  of  the  North  Atlantic.  In  a  section  from  the  Sargasso 
Sea  northwards  towards  the  banks  of  Newfoundland  the 
isotherms,  at  first  quite  regular,  rise  rapidly  towards  the 
surface  as  colder  water  is  reached,  and  then  spread  rapidly 
downwards  in  the  warm  Gulf  Stream,  to  rise  once  more  in 
the  colder  coastal  waters.  A  little  way  off  the  Newfoundland 
Bank  the  isotherms,  which  are  practically  horizontal  over  the 


152     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

Bank,  turn  steeply  downwards  to  form  a  cold  wall  against 
which  the  warmer  waters  of  the  Gulf  Stream  run  eastwards. 

Layers  of  water— both  surface  and  deeper — of  different 
temperatures,  and  having  also  other  distinguishing  charac- 
teristics, can  be  traced  for  considerable  distances  in  the 
ocean,  by  means  of  hydrographic  observations,  and  their 
source  determined  and  ultimate  destiny  predicted  ;  and  in 
that  way  the  distribution  of  various  pelagic  animals  which 
are  affected  by  the  temperature  and  other  characteristics  of 
the  water  can  be  explained.  Murray  and  Hjort  have  in  this 
way  shown  how  the  spread  of  the  Pteropod  Clione  limacina 
from  the  sea  about  Newfoundland  towards  the  west  coast  of 
Ireland  depends  upon  the  temperature  of  the  water  met 
with. 

If  we  take  the  temperatures  in  another  direction  through 
the  North  Atlantic  from  the  work  of  the  "  Michael  Sars," 
we  find  in  a  section  from  the  Sargasso  Sea  to  the  Norwegian 
coast  at  Lofoten  that  the  isotherm  of,  say,  50°  F.  can  be 
traced  rising  from  a  depth  of  about  400  fathoms  to  the 
surface,  showing  the  gradual  cooling  of  the  upper  waters  in 
going  north.  A  more  complicated  case,  where  waters  from 
three  different  sources,  each  having  characteristics  which  are 
recognizable,  occur  in  the  same  section,  is  seen  to  the  west  of 
Norway.  Proceeding  towards  Jan  Mayen,  after  passing 
through  a  belt  of  coastal  water,  there  is  an  area  of  warmer 
and  Salter  Atlantic  water  at  a  temperature  of  about  7°  C. 
overlying  the  mass  of  cold  Arctic  water  which  occupies  the 
greater  part  of  the  deep  channel  and  has  a  temperature  of 
3°  C.  in  its  upper  part,  0°  C.  in  the  intermediate  depths,  and 
—  1°  C.  at  the  bottom.  This  is  an  example  of  cold  polar 
water  creeping  along  the  sea  bottom  towards  the  equator  ; 
and,  as  a  rule,  in  the  open  sea,  the  bottom  isotherms  are  quite 
independent  of  those  on  the  surface.  The  surface  isotherms 
run  generally  in  an  easterly  and  westerly  direction  roughly 
parallel  to  the  equator  (though  they  may  be  diverted  from 
this  course),  while  the  bottom  isotherms  run  more  or  less 


HYDROGRAPHY  153 

north  and  south,  following  the  contours  of  the  continents  and 
of  the  floor  of  the  ocean. 

These  are  some  of  the  more  important  results  in  regard 
to  the  distribution  of  temperature  in  the  sea  discovered  by 
the  "  Challenger  "  expedition  and  by  other  oceanographers 
since  ;  but  it  must  be  pointed  out  that  there  are  also  excep- 
tional cases,  or  variations  from  the  normal  arrangement, 
due  to  unusual  causes,  probably  in  some  cases  of  periodic 
occurrence.  These  give  rise  to  occasional  increase  or  diminu- 
tion of  known  oceanic  currents,  and  the  consequent  inflow  of 
water  of  unusual  character  into  an  area — and  this  is  generally 
first  recognized  from  the  strange  organisms  accompanying 
the  water. 

As  an  example  of  another  occasional  influence  affecting  the 
temperature  of  the  water,  there  is  the  effect  of  wind.  Sir 
John  Murray,  and  others  since,  have  shown  the  well-marked 
effect  of  prevalent  winds  upon  the  distribution  of  tempera- 
tures in  the  Scottish  lochs  or  in  narrow  fjord-like  arms  of 
the  sea.  Murray,  for  example,  showed  that  in  Loch  Lochy, 
in  April,  1887,  after  a  south-west  gale,  the  warmer  surface 
water  was  driven  away  from  the  south  end  of  the  loch  and 
was  piled  up  at  the  north  end,  displacing  colder  water  down 
to  a  depth  of  10  fathoms.  Water  of  intermediate  tempera- 
ture was  also  carried  away  from  the  south  end  and  accumu- 
lated farther  north  down  to  a  depth  of  25  fathoms,  so  as  to 
allow  colder  bottom  water  to  come  to  the  surface  at  the  south 
end  of  the  loch.  In  Loch  Ness,  on  the  same  occasion,  he 
found  even  a  more  extreme  condition,  where  the  bodies  of 
water  of  three  temperatures  formed  almost  vertical  columns, 
the  warmer  at  the  leeward  (north)  end,  the  colder  at  the 
windward  (south),  and  the  water  of  intermediate  temperature 
in  the  middle  of  the  loch  (see  Fig.  7). 

A  similar  effect  may  be  produced  on  the  sea  coast  where  a 
strong  off-shore  wind  will  carry  out  the  surface  water,  with 
its  contained  organisms,  and  so  allow  deeper  water  to  well  up 
close  inshore  (Fig.  8) .     Even  in  the  open  ocean,  in  places  and 


154 


FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 


under  special  conditions,  vertical  currents  may  be  formed, 
causing  deeper  layers  of  colder  water,  with  their  contained 
organisms,  to  rise  to  the  surface. 


Fig.  7. — Diagram  showing  effect  of  Wind  on  distribution  of 
Temperatures  in  Loch  Ness.  {After  Murray.) 

Salinity. 
As  all  the  water  running  off  the  land  into  the  sea  dissolves 
and  carries  with  it  materials  from  the  rocks  and  the  soil,  it 
is  probable  that  the  ocean  contains  samples,  even  if  only 
minute  traces,  of  every  mineral  substance  found  on  earth. 
Over  thirty  of  the  known  elements  have  been  found  in  sea- 
water,  and  more  than  a  dozen  of  these  are  in  such  quantity 


mnd 


Fig.  8. — Diagram  showing  effect  of  Off-'and  On-shore  Winds  at  Sea. 

as  to  be  of  real  importance.  These  contained  "  salts  "  of 
sea-water  amount  on  the  average  to  thirty-five  parts  in 
a  thousand  parts  of  water,  and  are  chiefly  chlorides  and 
sulphates  of  sodium,  magnesium,  potassium  and  calcium. 
Chloride  of  sodium  (common  salt)  makes  up  more  than  three- 


HYDROGRAPHY 


155 


fourths  of  the  whole,  whereas  in  the  water  of  rivers  bearing 
material  from  the  land  to  the  sea  it  only  amounts  on  the 
average  to  about  2  per  cent,  of  the  dissolved  salts.  On  the 
other  hand,  carbonates,  of  which  only  minute  quantities  are 
present  in  the  sea,  make  up  over  half  the  total  in  the  case 
of  river-water.  It  is  these  and  other  differences  that  have 
given  rise  to  the  view  that  the  saltness  of  the  sea  is  not  due 
merely  to  the  dissolved  salts  now  being  conveyed  from  the 
land  to  the  sea,  and  accumulated  there  throughout  the  ages 
as  the  result  of  the  constant  evaporation  of  pure  fresh  water 
from  the  surface,  but  may  be  due  also  in  part  to  salts  present 
in  the  primeval  ocean  when  condensation  first  took  place 
on  the  globe.  We  know  little  or  nothing,  however,  of  the 
proportions  in  which  such  salts  may  have  been  present  in 
the  earliest  oceans,  and  as  little  of  the  chemical  changes 
which  may  have  taken  place  in  the  dissolved  salts  accumu- 
lating in  the  sea  during  geological  ages. 

The  volume  of  the  total  salts  in  the  sea  has  been  calculated 
to  be  4,800,000  cubic  miles  ;  and  one  of  the  most  recent 
estimates  of  the  age  of  oceans  on  the  earth  (not  necessarily 
the  present  ones)  is  nearly  a  hundred  million  years. 

The  principal  salts  present  in  average  sea-water  are  usually 
stated  (from  Dittmar's  "  Challenger "  results)  to  be  as 
follows  : — • 

Sodium  chloride  . 
Magnesium  chloride 
Magnesium  sulphate 
Calcium  sulphate 
Potassium  sulphate 
Calcium  carbonate 
Magnesium  bromide 

35  000 


27-213  parts  per  1,000 

.       3-807 

.       1-658 

1-260 

0-863 

0123 

.       0076 

It  is,  however,  probable  that  by  far  the  greater  part  of 
these  materials  are  not  present  in  the  above  form  combined 
as  salts,  but  are  dissociated  as  "  ions,"  and  therefore  a  more 
correct  statement  of  the  constitution  of  the  thirty-five  parts 


156 


FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 


contained  in  the  thousand  of  sea-water  is  the  following  list 
given  by  Murray  and  others  : — 


Na 

Mg 

Ca 

K 

CI 

SO4 

CO  3 

Br 


10-722  parts  in  1,000  of  sea-water. 

1-316 

0420 

0-382 
19-324 

2-696 

0-074 

0066 


35000 


In  addition  to  these  principal  constituents  of  sea-salt, 
there  are  a  few  other  elements  (such  as  silicon  and  phos- 
phorus) present  in  smaller  quantity,  but  still  of  great  import- 
ance in  connection  with  living  organisms  and  the  general 
metabolism  of  the  ocean.  It  is  obvious,  when  we  consider 
the  life  of  animals  and  plants  in  the  sea,  that  some  of  these 
salts  are  constantly  being  withdrawn  from  the  water  to  form 
shells  and  skeletons  and  other  hard  parts,  and  are  again  later 
on  being  returned  to  the  sea  by  solution.  There  is  thus  a 
perpetual  interchange  or  circulation  of  such  materials  as 
calcium  and  silica,  and  there  may  also  be  vast  accumulations 
formed  of,  for  example,  carbonate  of  lime  in  the  deposits 
forming  on  the  floor  of  the  ocean.  These  are  by  no  means 
the  only  materials  withdrawn  from  the  water  by  the  action  of 
living  organisms  and  by  chemical  reactions  at  the  sea  bottom. 

Three  gases  dissolved  in  sea-water — oxygen,  nitrogen,  and 
carbon  dioxide — are  of  primary  importance  in  connection 
with  living  organisms.  The  sea  absorbs  air  from  the  atmo- 
sphere, but  dissolves  a  larger  proportion  (about  34  per  cent.) 
of  oxygen  than  of  nitrogen.  Moreover,  as  water  at  a  lower 
temperature  absorbs  more  gas,  the  cold  polar  waters  may 
contain  nearly  twice  as  much  of  the  dissolved  gases  as  the 
warm  tropical  water.  As  oxygen  is  constantly  being  used 
up  by  animals,  it  must  constantly  be  renewed,  and  as  it  is 
present  in  the  water  at  all  depths  (except  in  the  case  of 


HYDROGRAPHY  157 

enclosed  deep  basins  like  the  Black  Sea  where  in  the  bottom 
waters  there  is  a  marked  deficiency  of  oxygen  and  a  large 
production  of  sulphuretted  hydrogen),  there  must  be  suffic- 
ient circulation  of  the  bottom  waters  to  convey  the  oxygen 
into  the  abysses. 

In  addition  to  what  is  present  in  combination,  carbon 
dioxide  is  found  free  in  small  and  variable  quantities  in  sea- 
water.  There  is  a  free  interchange  of  carbon  dioxide  between 
the  surface  of  the  sea  and  the  atmosphere,  and  this  tends 
to  regulate  the  amount  in  the  water,  which,  however,  varies 
considerably  from  time  to  time,  as  there  are  great  differences 
in  the  amounts  used  and  produced  by  plants  and  animals 
respectively  in  different  parts  of  the  sea  and  at  different  times 
of  year. 

Various  methods  have  been  employed  to  determine  the 
salinity  of  sea-water,  such  as  evaporating,  drying,  and 
weighing  the  salts  ;  ascertaining  the  specific  gravity  or  weight 
relatively  to  fresh  water,  at  a  definite  temperature,  such  as 
60°  F.  ;  or  estimating  the  amount  of  chlorine  by  titration 
and  calculating  from  that  the  total  salts  present,  as  the  ratio 
of  the  salts  to  each  other  is  practically  constant  although  the 
total  quantity  may  vary  from  as  much  as  39  parts  in  1,000 
down  to  31 — or  any  amount  less  close  to  land  or  in  estuaries. 
Even  in  the  North  Atlantic  (an  ocean  of  relatively  high 
salinity)  regions  differ  greatly.  For  example,  in  the  Sargasso 
Sea  the  salinity  may  be  from  37  to  38  parts  per  thousand,  at 
the  Azores  36,  off  the  west  of  Ireland  35,  and  from  34  down 
to  31  close  to  Newfoundland.  The  highest  records  known 
(over  39  %o)  are  in  the  Eastern  Mediterranean  and  the 
Northern  Red  Sea,  where  the  evaporation  is  great  and  the 
rainfall  small  in  amount. 

In  the  open  sea,  as  a  general  rule,  the  saHnity  diminishes 
from  the  surface  downwards  to  about  1,000  fathoms,  but  in 
still  greater  depths  there  is  generally  salter  water  at  the 
bottom.  Near  land,  however,  there  may  in  places  be  a  layer 
of  fresh,  or  almost  fresh,  water  on  the  surface.     This  is  well 


158     FOUNDERS  OP  OCEANOGRAPHY 

marked  at  the  upper  ends  of  fjords  in  Norway  and  in  some 
of  the  Scottish  sea-lochs,  where  the  water  from  a  stream  may 
lie  on  the  surface  of  the  salter  sea-water,  without  mixing,  to 
such  an  extent  that  it  is  drinkable  as  fresh  water. 

Currents  may  be  traced  in  the  sea  for  considerable  dis- 
tances by  their  salinity.  At  the  Strait  of  Gibraltar  a  strong 
surface  current  of  colder  and  less  saline  water  flows  in  from 
the  Atlantic  to  make  up  for  the  large  amount  of  evaporation 
in  the  Mediterranean,  and  a  return  current  of  warmer  and 
Salter  water  flows  out  along  the  bottom,  over  the  barrier  at 
a  depth  of  about  100  fathoms,  into  the  Atlantic,  where  it 
can  be  traced  for  some  distance.  Similar  interchanges  are 
known  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  and  the  presence  of  these 
currents  of  different  temperatures  and  salinity  has  a  pro- 
found effect  upon  the  distribution  of  many  pelagic  animals. 

In  brief,  it  may  be  stated  that  the  distribution  of  marine 
organisms  depends  mainly  upon  the  temperature  of  the  water, 
the  temperature  in  any  region  depends  largely  upon  the 
existence  of  currents  of  different  salinities  and  temperatures, 
these  currents  are  caused  mainly  by  prevalent  winds,  the 
winds  are  due  to  differences  of  barometric  pressure,  and  these 
pressures  depend  finally  upon  the  action  of  the  sun's  rays. 

The  origin,  course,  and  effect  of  a  typical  warm  current 
of  high  salinity  (the  Gulf  Stream)  will  be  dealt  with  in  more 
detail  in  the  next  chapter. 

Density. 

A  salinity  of  35  parts  per  thousand  corresponds  to  a  density 

or  specific  gravity  of  1-026  (fresh  water  being  taken  as  1),  and 

the  increase  in  density  (and  reduction  in  temperature)  with 

increasing  depth  in  the  ocean  is  seen  in  the  following  series  : — 

Surface  density  =  1025. 

100  fathoms  „        =  1026  (temp.  =  60-7°  F.). 

300         „  „         =  1027(      „       =  44-7°  F.). 

2,000         „  „        ==  1-028  (     „       =35-2°F.). 

A  familiar  effect  of  difference  in  specific  gravity  is  seen  in 

the  increased  buoyancy  of  a  loaded  vessel  on  entering  the 


HYDROGEAPHY  159 

sea  from  a  river.  A  submarine  is  less  buoyant,  when  passing 
from  the  sea  at  a  density  of  1-026  into  fresh  water,  by  26  tons 
in  a  ^thousand,  and  vice  versa.  So  that  when  a  submarine 
of  1,000  tons  leaves  a  river  for  the  sea,  she  must  take  in  an 
extra  26  tons  of  ballast  to  keep  her  down,  and  when  she 
returns  she  must  get  rid  of  26  tons,  or  she  will  sink  deeper  in 
the  fresh  water. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  by  Buchanan  that  coastal  waters 
are  areas  of  minimum  density,  while  the  areas  of  maximum 
surface  density  are  in  the  centres  of  the  five  tropical  oceans, 
North  and  South  Atlantic,  North  and  South  Pacific,  and 
Indian  Ocean.  From  these  areas  the  denser  surface  water 
flows  outwards  in  all  directions. 

Where  layers  of  water  of  different  densities  and  tempera- 
tures lie  one  upon  another,  the  "  discontinuity  "  line  is  often 
the  boundary  between  two  very  different  assemblages  of 
organisms.  It  may  also  be  the  layer  along  which  submarine 
waves  are  formed,  as  has  been  shown  by  Dr.  Otto  Pettersson 
on  the  west  coast  of  Sweden,  where  these  submarine  waves 
of  inflowing  Salter  "  Bank  "  water  from  the  North  Sea, 
underneath  the  surface  fresher  coastal  water,  bring  shoals  of 
herrings  to  constitute  the  important  winter  fisheries  of  the 
Skagerak. 

Pressure. 

We  exist  at  the  sea-level  under  the  pressure  of  one  atmo- 
sphere, which  amounts  to  nearly  15  lb.  on  the  square 
inch.  At  any  depth  in  the  sea  there  is  the  added  weight  of 
the  water  above,  so  the  pressure  increases  greatly  with  the 
depth.  A  cubic  foot  of  sea- water  weighs  64  lb.,  and  the 
pressure  increases  by  one  additional  atmosphere  for  each 
10  metres  (or  33  feet)  in  depth — at  1,000  metres  the  pressure 
is  that  of  100  atmospheres.  A  diver  at  a  depth  of  30  fathoms 
sustains  a  pressure  of  80  lb.  per  square  inch,  and  at  the 
greatest  depths  of  over  six  miles  the  pressure  is  about 
6J  tons  on  every  square  inch. 


160     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

Water  is  almost  incompressible — under  one  additional 
atmosphere  it  is  compressed  to  the  extent  of  only  one-twenty- 
thousandth  of  its  bulk,  and  this  very  slight  compressibility 
decreases  with  increase  of  pressure.  At  4,000  metres  (2,187 
fathoms)  water  becomes  only  1-75  per  cent,  heavier,  and  a 
solid  mass  of  iron  of  1,000  grams  shows  at  4,000  metres  only 
the  insignificant  difference  of  0-3  per  cent,  in  weight.  Sub- 
stances are  thus  seen  to  be  practically  as  heavy  in  deep 
water  as  in  shallow,  and  will  sink  as  rapidly.  A  brass 
weight  "  messenger  "  sent  down  a  line  to  close  some  apparatus 
takes  just  four  times  as  long  to  reach  its  objective  at  2,000 
metres  as  it  does  to  arrive  at  500  metres.  Any  object  that 
sinks  in  a  foot  of  water  will  go  to  the  bottom  whatever  the 
depth  is  ;  and  the  floor  of  the  ocean  at  great  depths  is 
covered  with  delicate  shells,  which  are  very  light  and  yet 
have  sunk  from  the  surface  to  the  bottom.  Solid  objects, 
or  those  that  are  freely  permeable  to  the  water,  so  that  the 
pressure  can  be  equalised  throughout,  such  as  the  body  of 
an  animal,  remain  practically  unchanged  ;  but  substances 
with  internal  cavities  containing  air  are  strongly  compressed 
and  distorted  under  the  enormous  pressure  of  tons  on  the 
square  inch  at  great  depths,  and  may  collapse  into  fragments. 
For  example,  the  beam  of  the  "  Challenger  "  trawl  came  up 
from  its  first  deep-sea  trip  with  the  wood  so  much  com- 
pressed that  the  denser  knots  stood  out  from  the  surface, 
and  Mr.  Buchanan  tells  how  a  hollow  brass  cylinder  with 
closed  ends  had  been  squeezed  flat,  and  thermometers  and 
closed  glass  tubes,  wrapped  up  in  cloth  and  protected  by  a 
copper  case,  came  up  crushed  to  powder,  from  a  depth  of 
3,000  fathoms.  Sir  Wyville  Thomson  called  this  collapse 
under  pressure  an  "  implosion." 

These  facts  completely  dispose  of  the  popular  delusion 
that,  on  account  of  the  great  and  increasing  pressure,  water 
in  the  sea  becomes  denser  and  denser  with  increase  of  depth, 
and  that  all  objects  which  sink  at  the  surface — ships  and  men, 
iron,  lead,  and  gold  ~"  find  their  level  "  and  there  remain 


HYDROGRAPHY  161 

suspended  at  the  various  depths.     Su?  John  Murray,  writing 
in  1913  {The  Ocean,  p.  96)  in  regard  to  this  mj^h,  said  : — 

"  Within  the  past  year  the  writer  has  often  been  asked  if 
the  '  Titanic  '  really  reached  the  bottom  in  a  depth  of  three 
miles.  During  the  '  Challenger  '  expedition,  after  a  fuaeral 
at  sea,  the  bluejackets  sent  a  deputation  aft  to  ask  if  '  Bill  * 
would  go  right  to  the  bottom  when  committed  to  the  deep 
with  a  shot  attached  to  his  feet,  or  would  he  '  find  his  level ' 
and  there  float  about  for  evermore  ?  Another  question  was, 
if  '  Bill '  really  did  go  to  the  bottom,  what  would  he  be  like 
on  reaching  bottom  at  four  or  five  miles  ? 

"  A  living  rabbit  was  on  one  occasion  sent  down  to  over 
500  fathoms  on  a  line.  The  body  came  up  very  little  altered 
to  all  appearance,  the  bones  were  all  intact,  and  the  lungs 
were  the  only  viscera  that  seemed  to  be  affected  by  the 
pressure.  Even  at  3,000  fathoms  a  human  body  would  be 
little  altered  in  outward  appearance. 

"  The  '  Titanic  '  is  probably  now  lying  on  the  bottom  in 
a  very  Httle  altered  condition  :  only  those  parts  of  the  struc- 
ture would  be  burst  inwards  ('  imploded  ')  into  which  water 
could  not  enter  rapidly  enough  to  equalize  the  pressure  on 
the  two  sides,  say,  of  an  iron  plate.  As  the  vessel  sank 
deeper  and  deeper,  the  corks  in  all  the  wine  and  beer  bottles 
would  be  driven  in  if  not  quite  full,  and  ultimately  every 
hermetically  closed  chamber  or  recess  would  be  im- 
ploded." 

One  interesting  effect  of  the  pressure  is  that  if  deep-sea 
animals  are  brought  up  too  rapidly  to  the  surface,  they  are 
killed  by  the  disorganization  of  their  tissues,  due  to  the  release 
from  pressure,  and  if  deep-sea  fishes  accidentally  get  out  of 
their  accustomed  depth,  and  pressure,  the  expansion  of  the 
air  in  their  swim -bladders  renders  them  so  buoyant  that  they 
continue  to  tumble  upwards  to  the  surface,  helpless,  and 
eventually  kiUed  by  the  distension  of  their  bodies  and  the 
disorganization  of  their  tissues,  due  to  the  diminished  pressure. 
They  die  a  violent  death  from  falling  upwards. 

M 


162  FOUNDERS  0¥  OCEANOGRAPHY 

Colour  and  Light  in  the  Sea. 

Some  of  the  varied  colours  of  the  sea  can  be  explained,  but 
we  probably  do  not  yet  fully  understand  them  all.  Pure 
water  has  in  bulk  a  clear  blue  colour,  which  is  an  optical 
effect  due  to  the  blue  rays  of  the  sun's  light  being  less 
absorbed  than  the  red  rays,  and  therefore  the  characteristic 
colour  of  the  open  ocean,  where  there  is  no  disturbing  influ- 
ence, is  blue.  Variations  in  the  tint  of  blue  and  the  occurrence 
of  other  colours,  such  as  green,  yellow,  and  grey,  are  due  to 
impurities  in  the  water  or  minute  organisms  present  in  great 
quantity.  Green  and  yellow  tints  of  different  intensities 
occur  near  land,  the  olive-green  of  the  Antarctic  is  caused 
by  enormous  quantities  of  Diatoms  suspended  in  the  water, 
and  the  deep  blue  round  coral  reefs  is  said  to  be  due  to  car- 
bonate of  lime  in  solution.  Other  local  or  temporary  con- 
ditions may  affect  the  colour  profoundly — for  example,  a 
plague  of  minute  Dinoflagellates  (Gonyaulax^  etc.)  may  dis- 
colour the  sea  red  for  miles. 

The  light  rays  from  the  sun  penetrate  the  sea  to  varying 
depths,  according  to  their  nature  and  the  clearness  of  the 
water,  the  red  rays  being  absorbed  first  and  the  blue  pene- 
trating more  deeply.  The  effects  of  the  light  upon  a  photo- 
graphic plate  have  been  traced  down  to  300  fathoms  off 
Capri,  in  the  Mediterranean ;  and,  in  the  Atlantic,  Helland- 
Hansen's  light-recording  apparatus  showed  light-rays 
affecting  the  plate  on  an  exposure  of  eighty  minutes  at 
1,000  metres  (547  fms.),  but  at  1,700  metres  the  plates  were 
not  affected  after  an  exposure  of  two  hours.  Sir  John 
Murray  therefore  considers  the  "  photic  zone  "  to  be  in 
general  the  upper  500  fathoms  in  the  open  sea.  Near  land 
and  in  oceanic  water  containing  impurities  or  many  minute 
organisms  the  light  penetrates  to  lesser  depths. 

The  degree  of  penetration  of  the  light -rays  has  a  profound 
effect  upon  the  plants  and  animals  of  the  sea.  Green  Algae, 
which  are  only  found  near  the  surface,  assimilate  their  neces- 


HYDROGRAPHY  163 

sary  food  matters  only  in  yellow  light,  which  does  not  pene- 
trate far,  while  Red  Algae,  which  live  in  deeper  water, 
assimilate  better  in  the  blue  Hght,  which  reaches  lower 
depths. 

The  colours  of  some  animals  seem  to  be  related  to  the 
amount  of  light  at  the  depths  in  which  they  live.  On  Sir 
John  Murray's  cruise  in  the  "  Michael  Sars,"  in  1910, 
Dr.  Hjort  made  a  detailed  investigation  of  the  colours  of  the 
Atlantic  pelagic  fishes  in  relation  to  their  distribution  in 
depth,  and  his  results  show  that  the  surface  fishes  down  to 
about  150  metres  are  colourless  ;  from  300  to  500  metres  the 
fishes  are  silvery  or  grey  ;  and  at  depths  of  1,000  to  2,000 
metres  they  are  black  or  dark-coloured,  and  are  associated 
with  red-coloured  Crustaceans,  which  at  that  depth  would 
lose  their  colour  and  appear  black.  These  prawn-like 
Crustacea,  found  in  various  parts  of  the  oceans  at  depths  of 
300  fathoms  and  more,  only  look  red  when  red  light-rays  fall 
upon  them,  and  as  no  red  rays  penetrate  so  far  through  the 
water,  these  and  other  brightly  coloured  deep-sea  animals 
in  their  natural  habitat  must  appear  dark,  and  probably 
quite  inconspicuous,  and  only  show  up  in  their  bright  colours 
when  brought  to  the  surface. 

Many  of  the  surface  animals,  apart  from  fishes,  are  blue  or 
violet,  and  tone  in  with  the  sea  around  them,  while  others 
down  to  50  fathoms  or  so  are  gelatinous  and  quite  transparent. 
Some  of  the  surface  animals — fish,  crabs,  and  others — of  the 
Sargasso  Sea  are  coloured,  and  even  shaped,  so  as  to  resemble 
parts  of  the  "  Gulf -weed  "  on  which  they  Hve,  and  so  become 
inconspicuous  in  their  natural  surroundings. 

Many  pelagic  animals  respond  to  different  degrees  of  inten- 
sity of  sunlight.  Some  Radiolaria  in  tropical  seas  flourish 
on  the  surface,  others  at  varying  depths  below  in  what  may 
be  regarded  as  a  subdued  twihght,  and  one  section  of  the 
group,  the  Phaeodaria  (Challengerida)  live  only  at  a  consider- 
able depth,  over  400  fathoms,  probably  for  the  most  part 
below  the  photic  zone.     Other  members  of  the  plankton 


164     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

with  some  power  of  locomotion  (such  as  Sagitta)  descend  to 
a  moderate  depth,  under  twilight  conditions,  during  bright 
dayHght,  and  come  to  the  surface  at  night.  Michael,  and  also 
Esterley  and  others  working  on  the  Californian  coast,  have 
demonstrated  this  diurnal  migration  in  relation  to  light  for 
many  of  the  larger  and  more  active  members  of  the  plankton, 
and  the  general  principle  of  avoiding  bright  sunlight  prob- 
ably holds  true  for  most,  if  not  all,  of  the  zoo-plankton.  The 
largest  catches  of  plankton  are  obtained,  in  most  seas,  not 
on  the  surface,  but  at  a  depth  of  5  to  10  fathoms.  Moreover, 
some  of  the  bottom-living  animals,  such  as  Amphipods, 
Cumacea,  and  other  higher  Crustacea,  are  known  to  come  to 
the  surface  at  night. 

Many  of  the  "  bathypelagic  "  animals  which  remain  below 
the  photic  zone  show  peculiar  adaptations  to  the  absence  of 
sunlight,  such  as  the  characteristic  red  colour,  modification 
or  loss  of  eyes,  presence  of  special  light -producing  organs,  and 
the  development  of  tactile  appendages. 

Viscosity. 

The  viscosity  of  sea-water — the  resistance  it  offers  to  a 
body  falling  through  it — varies  greatly  with  the  temperature, 
and  is  much  greater  in  cold  than  in  warm  water.  Conse- 
quently, in  polar  seas,  where  the  viscosity  is  great,  there  is 
little  or  no  change  in  the  amount  in  passing  from  the  surface 
to  the  bottom,  while  in  the  tropics  the  small  degree  of  vis- 
cosity in  the  warm  surface  water  rapidly  increases  in  passing 
to  deeper  and  colder  layers — as  the  temperature  falls  the 
viscosity  increases. 

Taking  the  value  of  the  viscosity  of  pure  water  at  freezing- 
point  as  being  100,  then  in  sea- water  having  a  salinity  of 
35%o  (per'mille)  the  viscosity  at  a  few  temperatures  such  as 
would  be  met  with  in  the  tropics  between  surface  water  of 
over  80°  F.  and  the  cold  bottom  water  would  increase,  as 
shown  in  this  table  (adapted  from  Murray) : — 


HYDROGRAPHY 


165 


Temp. 
C. 

Viscosity 
at  35%o  sal. 

Specific  gravity 
at  35®/oo  sal. 

30° 

47 

21-76 

20° 

59 

24-79 

10° 

76 

26-98 

0° 

103 

2813 

In  falling  a  little  over  20  centigrade  degrees  the  viscosity  is 
nearly  doubled.  At,  say,  500  fathoms  (the  lower  limit  of 
the  photic  zone)  in  the  tropics,  where  the  temperature  is,  say, 
40°  F.,  the  viscosity  is  twice  as  great  as  at  the  surface,  where 
the  temperature  is,  say,  80°  F.  Therefore  planktonic  organ- 
isms would  sink  twice  as  fast  at  the  surface  as  at  500  fathoms, 
and  consequently,  to  meet  this  difficulty,  some  of  them  have 
developed  devices  to  increase  their  surface  resistance,  or 
others  to  diminish  their  specific  gravity,  such  as  oil  globules 
and  gas  bubbles,  and  increase  of  branched  or  flattened 
appendages,  along  with  a  general  reduction  in  size  and  weight. 
Polar  animals  obviously  do  not  require  these  adaptations  to 
rapid  variations  in  viscosity  so  much  as  those  inhabiting  the 
warmer  seas,  and  consequently  "  suspension  organs  "  are 
more  characteristic  of  the  latter. 

It  wiU  be  noticed  from  the  table  above  that  the  specific 
gravity  of  the  water  also  increases  somewhat  with  the  decrease 
of  temperature  in  deeper  water.  This,  along  with  the 
increase  of  viscosity  may  be  a  help  to  a  slowly  sinking 
organism  in  delaying  its  progress  downwards. 


Alkalinity. 

The  general  alkaHnity  of  sea -water  is  due  to  the  presence  of 
the  hydroxides  of  magnesium  and  calcium,  but  the  degree  of 
alkaUnity  varies  greatly  from  time  to  time  and  from  place 
to  place,  and  depends  to  some  extent  at  least  upon  the 
amount  of  free  carbon  dioxide  present  in  the  water.     Our 


166     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

knowledge  of  the  variations  in  alkalinity  throughout  the  year 
has  been  increased  greatly  of  late  years  by  the  work  of  the 
Scandinavians,  Palitzsch,  Witting,  and  Sorensen,  of  the  late 
A.  G.  Mayer  at  the  Carnegie  Institute  in  the  United  States, 
and  of  the  late  Benjamin  Moore  and  others  working  in  the 
Irish  Sea.  The  sea  around  the  Isle  of  Man  was  noticed  more 
than  ten  years  ago  (in  the  course  of  our  plankton  work  at 
Port  Erin)  to  be  a  good  deal  more  alkaline  in  spring  (say 
April)  than  it  is  in  summer  (say  July)  ;  and  consequently, 
during  the  years  1912  to  1914,  Professor  B.  Moore  and  his 
assistants  undertook  a  detailed  investigation  at  the  Port  Erin 
Biological  Station,  and  by  examining  samples  of  the  sea- 
water  periodically,  were  able  to  show  that  there  were  marked 
variations  in  the  hydrogen-ion  concentration,  as  indicated 
by  the  relative  degree  of  alkalinity,  which  gets  low  in  summer 
increases  somewhat  in  autumn,  and  then  decreases  rapidly  to 
disappear  practically  during  the  winter  ;  and  then,  after 
several  months  of  a  minimum,  begins  to  come  into  evidence 
again  in  March,  and  rapidly  rises  to  its  maximum  in  April  or 
May.  This  periodic  change  in  alkalinity  is  seen  to  correspond 
roughly  with  the  changes  in  the  living  microscopic  contents 
of  the  sea  represented  by  the  phyto -plankton  annual  curve, 
and  the  connection  between  the  two  phenomena  is  seen 
when  we  realize  that  these  changes  in  the  alkalinity  of  the 
water  are  due  to  the  relative  absence  of  carbon  dioxide.  In 
early  spring  the  rapidly  developing  myriads  of  Diatoms  in 
their  metabolic  processes  use  up  the  store  of  carbon  dioxide 
accumulated  during  the  winter,  or  derived  from  the  bi- 
carbonates  of  calcium  and  magnesium,  and  so  increase  the 
alkalinity  of  the  water,  until  the  maximum  of  alkalinity, 
due  to  the  fixation  of  the  carbon  and  the  reduction  in  the 
amount  of  carbon  dioxide  present,  corresponds  with  the  crest 
of  the  phyto -plankton  curve  in,  say,  April  or  May. 

Testing  the  alkalinity  of  the  sea- water  may  therefore  be 
said  to  be  merely  ascertaining  and  measuring  the  results  of 
the  photosynthetic  activity  of  the  great  phyto -plankton  rise 
in  spring  due  probably  to  the  daily  increase  of  sunlight. 


HYDROGRAPHY  167 

The  marine  biologists  of  the  Carnegie  Institute  at  Washing- 
ton have  made  some  recent  contributions  to  the  subject  by 
taking  observations  on  the  alkalinity  of  the  open  sea  (deter- 
mined by  hydrogen -ion  concentration),  during  which  they 
found  in  tropical  mid-Pacific  a  sudden  change  to  acidity  in 
a  current  running  eastwards.  Now  in  the  Atlantic,  the  Gulf 
Stream  and  tropical  Atlantic  waters  generally  are  much 
more  alkaline  than  the  colder  coastal  water  running  south 
from  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence.  That  is,  the  colder  Arctic 
water  has  more  carbon  dioxide.  This  suggests  that  the 
Pacific  easterly  set  may  be  due  to  deeper  water  containing 
more  carbon  dioxide  (=  acidity),  coming  to  the  surface  at 
that  point.  The  alkalinity  of  the  sea-water  can  be  deter- 
mined rapidly  by  mixing  the  sample  with  a  few  drops  of  an 
indicator  and  observing  the  change  of  colour  ;  and  this 
method  of  detecting  ocean  currents  by  observing  the 
hydrogen-ion  concentration  of  the  water  might  be  useful 
to  navigators  as  showing  the  time  of  entrance  to  a  known 
current. 

Other  Physical  Characters. 

The  phenomena  of  tides,  due  primarily  to  astronomical 
causes,  the  formation  of  waves,  the  presence  and  movements 
of  seiches  (tidal,  temperature,  etc.),  and  the  circulation  of 
the  atmosphere  and  other  meteorological  changes,  although 
all  of  some  oceanographic  importance,  need  not  be  dealt 
with  in  this  outline  of  hydrography.  To  discuss  all  these 
subjects  adequately  would  require  far  more  space  than  is 
available  in  the  present  book. 

Some  Effects  upon  Life  in  the  Sea. 

I  may  conclude  this  chapter  with  a  brief  statement  as 
to  the  bearing  of  some  of  these  physical  characters  of  the  sea 
upon  the  distribution  and  habits  of  some  living  organisms. 

1.  Depth  is  a  prime  factor  in  the  distribution  of  marine 
plants  and  animals.    There  are  httoral,  shallow- water,  and 


168     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

deep-sea  forms,  and  comparatively  few  species  have  a  wide 
bathymetrical  range. 

2.  Temperature  has  a  profound  effect  upon  the  distribution 
of  most  marine  organisms.  As  notable  examples  on  a  large 
scale  may  be  given  the  distribution  of  coral  reefs,  which  are 
only  found  in  tropical  seas,  where  the  temperature  through- 
out the  year  is  not  lower  than  68°  F.  ;  and  the  case  of  sea- 
fisheries,  many  of  which  are  determined  by  the  temperature 
of  the  water  in  which  the  fishes  live.  Rise  of  temperature 
increases  the  rate  of  metabolism  in  an  organism,  and  this 
probably  has  far-reaching  effects  in  the  sea.  Then,  again, 
the  secretion  of  carbonate  of  lime  by  marine  animals  is  greatly 
increased  by  a  rise  of  temperature. 

3.  Salinity,  etc.  Some  animals  can  only  exist  in  water  of 
a  certain  density,  some  only  deposit  their  eggs  under  certain 
conditions  of  salinity,  and  the  flotation  and  further  develop- 
ment of  the  eggs  and  later  stages  of  many  of  our  food-fishes 
depends  upon  the  specific  gravity  of  the  water.  Moore, 
Roaf,  and  others,  in  their  work  at  the  Port  Erin  Biological 
Station,  have  shown  that  the  chemical  characteristics  (hydro- 
gen-ion concentration  or  alkahnity)  of  the  sea  have  a  pro- 
found effect  upon  the  development  of  embryos  and  larvae. 
The  shoaling  movements  of  the  herring,  which  give  rise  to 
important  fisheries,  take  place  successively  farther  and 
farther  south  on  the  east  coast  of  Britain  during  summer 
and  autumn,  and  this  is  associated  with  the  saHnity  of  the 
sea,  as  Atlantic  water  of  35^/oo  and  temperature  13°  to  15°  C. 
moves  south  from  the  Shetlands  towards  the  EngHsh 
Channel.  The  winter  herring  of  the  Skager-Rack  do  not 
frequent  Atlantic  water,  but  are  found  in  the  "  Bank  "  water 
of  32<^/oo  to  33^/oo.  Consequently,  when  there  is  too  much 
Atlantic  water  entering  the  Skager-Rack,  no  winter  herring 
fishery  takes  place. 

4.  Pressure  is  obviously  an  important  factor  in  the  life  of 
deep-sea  animals,  and  probably  in  varying  degree  determines 
the  distribution  of  many  others  at  lesser  depths. 


HYDROGRAPHY  169 

6.  Sunlight  is  all-important  in  connection  with  photo- 
synthesis by  Diatoms  and  other  plants  in  the  sea.  Its  effect 
is  also  evident  in  the  heliotropic  movements  of  Copepoda 
and  many  other  free-swimming  animals,  and  in  the  vertical 
rise  and  fall  of  plankton.  All  the  energy  made  use  of  by- 
organisms  is  ultimately  derived  from  the  energy  of  solar 
radiation.  There  appears  to  be  some  connection  between 
the  periodic  changes  in  solar  energy  indicated  by ''  sunspots  " 
and  variations  in  the  strength  of  oceanic  currents,  and  these 
in  their  turn  affect  some  of  the  periodic  fisheries,  such  as  the 
great  Norwegian  cod  fisheries  at  Lofoten. 

6.  In  addition  to  these  large  and  obvious  factors  affecting 
the  distribution  of  marine  organisms,  it  seems  probable  that 
some  very  slight  modifications  in  the  physical  condition  of 
sea-water  may  have  a  curious  effect  upon  their  life  and 
prosperity.  Some  animals  will  live  healthily  in  one  tank  in 
a  biological  station  and  not  in  another;  the  proximity  of 
other  animals  may  in  some  cases  be  an  advantage  and  in 
others  the  reverse ;  it  is  even  possible  that  meteorological 
conditions  may  exercise  some  subtle  influence  upon  animals 
on  the  sea  bottom  through  several  fathoms  of  water,  as  in 
the  following  case,  which  seems  well  established  : — Crabs  and 
lobsters  at  Port  Erin  are  never  caught  in  quantity  during 
northerly  to  easterly  winds  and  in  cold  dry  weather,  but  if 
the  wind  goes  round  to  the  south-west  and  it  becomes  warmer 
and  damper,  the  crabs  "  travel,"  as  the  fishermen  say,  and 
are  then  caught  in  the  creels  in  abundance. 


CHAPTER  IX 

OCEAN  CURRENTS— THE  GULF  STREAM 

There  are  several  distinct  types  of  movement  of  the 
water  in  the  oceans  : — 

1.  The  Tidal  Wave  (caused  by  the  attraction  of  the  sun 
and  moon),  which  rises  and  falls  every  12  J  hours,  and  is  only 
seen  in  its  unmodified  form  in  the  great  Southern  Ocean, 
where  it  has  a  free  and  uninterrupted  course  around  the 
globe.  This  gives  rise  to  branch  waves  that  extend  up  the 
oceans  between  the  continents,  and  may  become  very  much 
compUcated  where  they  meet  with  obstruction.  The  rise 
and  fall  of  the  tidal  wave  gives  origin  to  tidal  currents  in 
shallow  water  near  land,  or  over  oceanic  shoals.  Such  tidal 
currents  have  been  detected  down  to  the  considerable  depth 
of  400  fathoms  in  the  open  ocean.  Higher  tides  ("  spring 
tides  ")  occur  at  the  time  of  full  moon  and  new  moon,  and 
less  high  ("  neap  tides  ")  at  the  time  of  the  first  and  third 
quarters  of  the  moon.  Further  details  are  more  a  matter 
for  the  astronomer  than  the  oceanographer. 

2.  Waves   and   Storms  and    drift  of   surface   water   are 

caused  by  the  wind.      As  proof  of  the  existence  of  surface 

drifts  for  great  distances,  we  have  the  evidence  of  golf -balls 

from  Scotland  found  at  the  Lofoten  islands  in  the  north  of 

Norway,  and  Siberian  drift-wood  carried  into  the  Norwegian 

seas.     The  waves  of  the  open  sea  may  give  rise  to  a  current 

on  approaching  a  shore.     As  a  general  rule,  what  Murray 

has  called  the  "  mud-line,"  at  a  depth  of  about  100  fathoms 

on  the  coast  of  a  continent  facing  the  open  sea,  is  the 

region  where  the  finest  particles  are  undisturbed  by  wave 

action,  but  it  is  said  that  there  is  evidence  of  waves  affecting 

170 


OCEAN  CURRENTS  171 

the  bottom  deposit  down  to  a  depth  of  about  200  fathoms. 

3.  Seiches  are  oscillations  in  a  body  of  water  in  an  enclosed 
basin  or  bay,  or  even  in  the  open  ocean,  where  the  water  is 
caused  to  swing  to  and  fro  round  one  or  more  pivots  or 
"  nodes."  Temperature  seiches  and  density  seiches  may 
also  occur  beneath  the  surface  in  a  body  of  water  where 
there  is  a  "  discontinuity  layer  "  causing  an  abrupt  change 
in  temperature  or  density  of  the  water  above  and  below. 
The  lower  layer  may  then  swing  backwards  and  forwards 
without  causing  movements  at  the  surface. 

4.  Currents.  True  ocean  currents  are  bodies  of  water 
of  definite  constitution,  often  differing  markedly  from  the 
surrounding  water,  through  which  they  flow  like  a  river 
without  much  mixing  and  retaining  a  clearly  defined  border 
(as  in  the  case  of  the  Gulf  Stream).  Ocean  currents  are  all 
in  the  long  run  due  to  the  energy  derived  from  the  sun,  but 
the  more  immediate  causes  may  be  stated  as — 

(1)  The  sun's  heat  causing  differences  of  temperature, 

(2)  Differences  in  amount  of  evaporation  and  of  rainfall, 
and  hence  of  density  of  the  water. 

(3)  Prevalent  winds.  The  direct  frictional  action  of  the 
wind  is  a  prime  factor  in  oceanic  circulation. 

As  these  causes  have  much  the  same  action  in  each  of 
the  three  great  oceanic  areas  —the  Atlantic,  the  Pacific,  and 
the  Indian  Ocean — they  give  rise  to  comparable  systems  of 
currents,  modified  in  each  case  by  local  factors,  such  as  the 
shape  of  the  land.  In  the  Atlantic,  for  example,  the  chief 
oceanic  currents  describe  a  figure  of  eight  (8)  moving,  as  a 
result  of  the  rotation  of  the  earth,  clockwise  to  the  north — • 
east — south  in  the  North  Atlantic,  and  counter-clockwise  to 
the  south — east — north  in  the  ^outh  Atlantic,  the  central 
crossing  being  in  the  interval  between  the  great  North  and 
South  Equatorial  currents  which  flow  westwards  before  the 
trade- winds.  In  this  interval  lies  the  Counter-Equatorial 
current  flowing  eastwards  to  the  African  coast,  where  it 
becomes  the  Guinea  current.     (See  Fig.  9.) 


172 


FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 


The  Gulf  Stream,  which  has  its  origin  in  these  great 
equatorial  currents,  may  be  taken  for  more  detailed  descrip- 
tion, as  it  is  certainly  the  most  celebrated  and  best  known 
of  all  oceanic  currents.  The  trade- winds  blowing  across  the 
North  Atlantic  from  the  west  coast  of  Africa  carry  the 
North  Equatorial  current  from  about  Cape  Verde  towards 


Fig.  9. — Simplified  Map  of  Currents  of  the  North  Atlantic. — A.D. 
Atlantic  Drift,  C.C.  Counter  Equatorial  Current,  G.S.  Gulf  Stream,  L.C. 
Labrador  Current,  N.E.C.  North  Equatorial  Current,  S.E.C.  South 
Equatorial  Current,  S.S.  Sargasso  Sea. 

the  West  Indies  and  the  Caribbean  Sea,  where  it  is  reinforced 
by  a  branch  from  the  South  Equatorial  current.  This 
equatorial  water,  heated  by  the  tropical  sun  and  rendered 
Salter  by  evaporation,  becomes  heaped  up  against  the  Central 
American  coast.  The  levels  of  the  Caribbean  Sea  and  the 
GuH  of  Mexico  are  thus  raised,  and  this  hot,  salt  water 


OCEAN  CURRENTS  173 

pouring  in  from  the  south-east  escapes  through  the  Strait 
of  Florida  as  a  river  50  miles  wide,  350  fathoms  deep, 
flowing  at  five  miles  an  hour.  This  is  the  celebrated  ''  Gulf 
Stream,"  to  which,  directly  or  indirectly,  we  owe  the  genial 
climate  of  North-west  Europe  as  compared  with  correspond- 
ing latitudes  in  North  America.  In  latitude  58°  N.  off  the 
Hebrides,  in  July  the  temperature  of  the  sea  is  13°  C. 
(55-4°  F.),  while  at  the  same  latitude  off  the  coast  of  Labrador, 
in  the  same  month,  the  temperature  is  4-5°  C.  (40-1°  F.). 
Since  the  advantages  in  cUmate  enjoyed  by  the  eastern 
borders  of  the  North  Atlantic  are  due,  even  if  indirectly, 
to  the  Gulf  Stream,  the  origin,  extent,  and  distribution  of 
that  great  current  must  be  matters  not  only  of  scientific  but 
of  surpassing  popular  interest. 

The  Gulf  Stream  has  been  recognized  by  navigators  since 
very  early  times.  It  is  indicated  on  a  seventeenth-century 
map,  and  Benjamin  Franklin,  in  1770,  pubHshed  a  well- 
known  representation  of  it,  which  has  been  reproduced  in 
many  books.  '*  There  is  a  river  in  the  ocean  "  are  the  words 
with  which  Captain  M.  F.  Maury  commenced  the  chapter  on 
the  Gulf  Stream  in  his  Bhysical  Geography  of  the  Sea  (1860), 
and  he  goes  on  to  tell  us  that  its  banks  and  its  bottom  are 
of  cold  water,  while  its  current  is  warm,  and  it  is  more  rapid 
than  the  Mississippi  or  the  Amazon,  and  its  volume  more  than 
a  thousand  times  greater.  Its  waters  are  not  only  warmer 
but  are  Salter  and  of  a  bluer  colour  than  those  of  the  sea 
through  which  they  flow.  It  arises,  as  a  "  gulf  stream," 
in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  flows  out  to  the  Atlantic  by  the  Florida 
Pass,  and  runs  in  a  northerly  course  past  Cape  Hatteras 
towards  the  Banks  of  Newfoundland,  where  it  turns  more 
to  the  east,  gradually  widening  and  losing  speed  and  heat 
as  it  goes.  It  is  32  miles  wide  where  it  emerges  from 
the  Narrows  of  Bemini,  between  Florida  and  the  Bahamas, 
and  flows  with  a  velocity  of  4  knots  ;  off  Cape  Hatteras 
it  has  widened  to  75  miles  and  slackened  to  3  knots, 
while   to   the   south   of   the   Great    Bank   of    Newfound- 


174     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

land  its  rate  is  only  IJ  miles  an  hour.  Though  thus 
changing  in  cross-section  and  speed,  it  is  said  to  preserve 
its  individuality  and  distinctive  character  for  over  3,000 
miles.  Off  the  coast  of  North  Carolina  the  edge  of  the  stream 
is  still  sharply  marked,  the  clear  indigo  blue  of  the  warmer 
water  abutting  against  the  dull  green  of  the  coastal  water 
of  the  United  States  and  forming  a  line  that  is  visible  to 
the  eye  of  the  passing  sailor.  Even  as  far  north  as  the  Banks 
of  Newfoundland  the  temperature  of  the  Gulf  Stream  water  is 
from  20°  to  30°  F.  higher  than  that  of  the  surrounding  sea. 

The  Gulf  Stream,  however,  is  not  constant  in  volume 
and  in  position.  It  shows  seasonal  and  even  annual  varia- 
tions. Petermann  (1870)  insisted  on  the  seasonal  variations 
in  the  strength  of  the  Gulf  Stream,  and  this  has  been  fully 
established  since  by  H.  N.  Dickson.  The  limit  of  its 
northern  edge  off  Cape  Race,  Newfoundland,  is  in  March 
about  latitude  40°  to  41°,  and  in  September  about  latitude 
45°  to  46°.  It  is  pushed  down  to  the  south  by  the  colder 
water  in  winter,  and  then  expands  to  the  north  in  summer. 
Its  drift  eastward  across  the  Atlantic  towards  Europe  is 
strongest  in  summer.  It  shows,  moreover,  pulsations 
extending  over  periods  of  years,  the  effects  of  which 
in  the  north  of  Europe  can  be  traced,  according  to  the 
Scandinavian  investigators,  in  their  weather,  their  harvests 
and  their  sea-fisheries. 

Benjamin  Franklin  attributed  the  Gulf  Stream  to  the 
action  of  the  trade -winds,  and  this  was  the  prevalent  view 
amongst  seafaring  men  until  Captain  Maury  in  1860  put 
forward  the  view  that  the  winds  were  insufficient  to  produce 
the  effect,  and  that  the  true  cause  of  the  strong  current  of 
tropical  water  of  high  salinity  was  to  be  found  in  the  difference 
of  specific  gravity  and  of  temperature  between  the  water 
in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  in  the  Atlantic  outside.  But  the 
high  salinity  would  render  the  Gulf  water  heavier  and  the 
high  temperature  causes  it  to  be  lighter,  so  these  two 
characteristics  would  tend  to  counteract,  and  the  resulting 


OCEAN  CURRENTS  175 

effect  could  only  be  due  to  whatever  difference  remained. 

James  CroU  (1870),  the  Scottish  geologist,  was  the  first 
to  criticize  Maiu^y's  theory  and  to  show  that  his  causes 
were  inadequate  and  contradictory.  W.  B.  Carpenter  in 
1870  advanced  the  view  that  the  Gulf  Stream  was  only  a 
special  case  of  the  general  oceanic  circulation  due  to  cooling 
and  sinking  at  the  poles  and  heating  at  the  tropics.  Wyville 
Thomson,  in  the  Depths  of  the  Sea  (1872),  disputes  this,  and 
reverts  to  Sir  John  Herschel's  opinion  (1846)  that  the  heat- 
distribution  of  the  North  Atlantic  is  due  to  the  Gulf  Stream, 
and  that  that  current  is  mainly  caused  by  the  trade  and 
anti-trade  winds. 

It  is  now  known,  however,  that  the  Gulf  Stream  is  not 
an  independent  phenomenon,  but  is  a  part  of  the  general 
system  of  surface  circulation  of  the  ocean,  a  system  in  which 
the  currents  (diverted  to  the  east,  as  a  result  of  the  rotation 
of  the  earth,  in  their  course  northwards  from  the  equator) 
flow  clockwise  in  the  North  Atlantic  around  a  central 
relatively  calm  area,  the  Sargasso  Sea,  in  which  sea-weeds 
and  other  floating  objects  accumulate. 

We  have  seen  that  the  cause  of  the  Gulf  Stream  can  be 
traced  back  to  the  great  north  equatorial  current  which 
flows  from  east  to  west  and  forms  the  southern  boundary  of 
the  Sargasso  Sea.  This  magnificent  equatorial  stream, 
driven  across  the  Atlantic  by  the  trade-winds,  conveys  such 
an  enormous  body  of  warm  and  relatively  salt  water  into 
the  Caribbean  Sea  and  the  GuK  of  Mexico  as  to  raise  the 
level  of  these  seas  by  several  inches  above  that  of  the 
Atlantic,  before  emerging  as  the  GuK  Stream  through  the 
narrow  Strait  of  Florida  at  a  temperature  of  86°  F. 

The  officers  of  the  United  States  Coast  Survey  have  made 
many  hydrographic  sections  across  the  Gulf  Stream  area 
from  Havana,  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  to  Cape  Cod,  Massa- 
chusetts, and  we  owe  the  most  detailed  modern  information  to 
their  work.  When  followed  on  its  easterly  course  it  is  found 
that  the  GuK  Stream  as  a  definite  current  or  "  river  in  the 


176     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

ocean  "  gradually  dies  away  and  is  finally  lost  about  latitude 
45°  opposite  the  Newfoundland  banks,  and  it  is  generally 
considered  that  the  surface  drift  which  continues  its  influence 
farther  to  the  north  and  east  is  due  to  the  anti-trade  south- 
west winds. 

The  Labrador  cold  current  passes  down  south  inside  the 
Gulf  Stream  along  the  New  England  coasts  to  CaroHna, 
forming  a  "  cold  wall  "  which  dips  under  the  Gulf  Stream  as 
it  issues  from  the  Strait  of  Florida.  This  "  cold  wall " 
of  the  oceanographers,  as  seen,  for  example,  near  the  New- 
foundland banks,  is  a  remarkable  phenomenon.  The  bottom 
water  over  the  banks  at  the  latitude  of  Paris  is  as  cold  as 
in  polar  seas  (say,  — 1*5°  C),  while  outside  the  banks  the 
warm  salt  Gulf  Stream  water  has  a  temperature  of  over 
16°  C.  Where  the  waters  adjoin  the  curves  of  temperature 
and  salinity  are  closely  placed  and  run  at  a  high  angle. 

What  is  left  of  the  Gulf  Stream  when  it  reaches  mid- 
Atlantic  is  no  longer  a  continuous  body  of  water,  but  is 
composed  of  separate  bands  and  swirls,  expanding  fan-like 
and  changing  from  time  to  time.  Nansen  and  Helland- 
Hansen  found  great  variations  from  year  to  year  in  the 
temperature  of  what  they  recognize  as  Gulf  Stream  water 
in  the  Norwegian  Sea,  and  these  cause  variations  in  the 
temperature  of  the  air,  in  the  year's  harvest,  in  the  growth 
of  trees,  and  in  the  presence  of  shoals  of  fishes  on  the 
Norwegian  coast.  There  is  even  said  to  be  a  correspondence 
from  year  to  year  between  the  temperature  of  the  sea  in 
February  and  the  flowering  of  the  Coltsfoot  {Tussilago 
farfara)  in  April. 

Some  hydrographers  state  that  no  GuK  Stream  water 
reaches  Europe ;  that  in  March  it  attains  the  Azores  at 
farthest,  and  in  November  nearly  to  Spain,  but  always 
curves  round  to  the  south  to  surround  the  Sargasso  Sea; 
and  that  north  of  the  true  GuK  Stream  the  "  Atlantic 
Drift  "  arises,  due  in  part  no  doubt  to  prevalent  south-west 
winds,  and  so  brings  warmer  and  denser  water  to  our  seas 


OCEAN  CURRENTS  177 

from  the  sub -tropical  Atlantic  ;  while  Le  Danois,  in  France, 
has  recently  stated  that  the  Gulf  Stream  does  not  extend 
beyond  the  Sargasso  Sea,  and  that  beyond  that  there  is 
merely  a  permeation  of  the  North  Atlantic  by  salter  and 
warmer  water  expanded  as  the  effect  of  the  tropical  sun  on 
the  equatorial  waters — but  the  effect  upon  European  seas 
is  the  same  whichever  view  we  adopt,  and  it  matters  little 
whether  we  call  the  water  that  reaches  our  western  shores 
"Gulf  Stream"  or  "Atlantic  Drift."  We  are  indebted 
directly  or  indirectly  for  the  amenities  we  enjoy  on  the 
eastern  shores  of  the  Atlantic  to  that  mighty  river  which 
issues  from  the  Guff  of  Mexico  and  spreads  its  beneficent 
influence  over  the  North  Atlantic,  and  is  certainly  one  of 
the  greatest  of  oceanographic  phenomena. 

We  have  seen  that  the  Guff  Stream  does  not  reach  mid- 
Atlantic  as  a  continuous  body  of  water.  It  is  when  off 
the  Banks  of  Newfoundland  that  it  first  appears  to  break 
up  and  form  several  main  divisions  :  a  northern  branch 
which  runs  towards  Davis  Strait,  partly  as  an  under-current ; 
an  eastern  branch  running  towards  the  Azores  and,  spreading 
out  like  a  fan,  merges  finally  into  the  Canary  Stream  and 
the  great  whirlpool  of  the  Sargasso  Sea  ;  and  a  third  or 
North  European  branch  which  runs  towards  the  British 
Isles  and  is  then  continued  up  the  Norwegian  coast  and  also 
into  the  North  Sea. 

Dr.  Otto  Petterssen,  writing  of  its  general  influence,  says 
that  this  flow  of  warm  surface  water  from  tropical  and  sub- 
tropical regions  continues  Hke  a  wave  through  the  North 
Atlantic  Ocean,  and  is  felt  in  the  most  distant  parts  of  the 
Atlantic -stream  system — as  a  rise  in  ocean  level,  highest  in 
October  to  December  and  lowest  in  March,  and  a  quickening 
of  the  warm  under-currents  ;  and  these  fluctuations  of  the 
Guff  Stream  correspond  with  other  phenomena,  atmospheric, 
planktonic  and  in  the  migration  of  fishes.  It  is  estimated 
that  the  Guff  Stream  in  the  Atlantic  gives  off  enough  heat 
to  warm  the  air  aU  over  North  Europe,  and  oceanographic 

N 


178     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

researches  give  hope  that  we  may  be  able  to  predict  winter 
temperatures  in  advance  from  observations  on  the  tempera- 
tures of  the  sea.  A  fuller  knowledge  of  the  ocean  currents 
ought  to  enable  us  to  predict  not  merely  the  weather  in 
general,  but  such  details  as  the  distribution  of  ice  in  the 
North  Atlantic  and  the  prospects  of  sea-fisheries  for  perhaps 
a  year  in  advance. 

The  oceans  of  the  globe  perform  a  great  equalizing  function. 
All  the  movements  of  the  sea  are  ultimately  due  to  solar 
energy.  The  sea  distributes  the  heat  of  the  sun,  conveying 
about  haK  of  that  received  in  the  tropics  to  higher  latitudes, 
and  it  also  tempers  tropical  climates  by  means  of  cold 
currents  from  the  polar  regions.  By  interchange  of  carbon 
dioxide  with  the  overlying  air  it  helps  to  maintain  a  uniform 
composition  in  the  atmosphere,  and  by  its  slow  changes  of 
temperature  it  to  some  extent  regulates  climates.  It 
supplies  water -vapour  to  the  atmosphere  and  rain  for  the 
land.  It  receives  and  redistributes  materials  from  the 
land  and  maintains  a  huge  population  of  organisms  which 
form  an  all-important  part  of  the  cycle  of  organic  and 
inorganic  nature. 

The  Tile -Fish 

A  very  striking  case  of  the  possible  influence  of  the 
occasional  shifting  of  warm  and  cold  currents  upon  the 
population  of  a  portion  of  the  sea  is  seen  in  the  discovery 
and  subsequent  disappearance  of  the  tile-fish  in  the  North 
American  Gulf  Stream  area. 

A  new  and  valuable  food-fish  was  found  off  the  coast  of 
New  England,  between  Cape  Hatteras  and  Nantucket,  in 
1879,  and  was  described  under  the  name  of  *'  Tile-fish  '* 
(Lopholatilus  chamceleonticeps).  (See  Plate  XVIII,  Fig.  1.) 
It  is  about  the  size  of  a  cod,  weighing  up  to  about  60 
lb.,  and  occurred  in  great  abundance  at  depths  of  from 
50  to  100  fathoms,  at  80  to  100  miles  from  the  coast. 
For  a  couple  of  years  it  was  fished    by  the   cod-fishery 


OCEAN  CURRENTS  179 

schooners  from  Gloucester  and  other  New  England  ports. 
It  belongs  to  a  group  of  fishes  that  inhabit  warmer  seas, 
and  this  tile-fish  apparently  frequents  the  western  edge  of 
the  Gulf  Stream  in  moderately  deep  water  at  a  temperature 
of  about  50°  F.  Specimens  caught  and  examined  were 
found  to  be  gorged  with  a  large  species  of  Amphipod 
(Themisto  hispinosus). 

In  the  spring  of  1882  incoming  vessels  reported  that 
tile-fish  were  seen  in  countless  millions  floating  upon  the 
surface  of  the  ocean,  in  a  dead  or  dying  condition,  and 
covering  thousands  of  square  miles.  A  full  account  of 
the  matter,  as  then  known,  was  given  in  a  report  by  Captain 
J.  W.  CoUins,  published  by  the  United  States  Commission  of 
Fish  and  Fisheries  for  1882. 

The  dead  fish  were  found  over  an  area  measuring  170 
miles  in  a  north-easterly  and  south-westerly  direction, 
with  an  average  width  of  at  least  25  miles.  Captain 
Collins  estimated  the  area  occupied  at  from  5,000  to  7,000 
square  miles,  and  that  the  number  of  dead  fish  must  have 
exceeded  a  billion.  The  fishing  schooner  "  Navarino,"  in 
March,  1882,  reported  having  sailed  through  the  sea,  thickly 
scattered  over  with  the  dead  fish  as  far  as  the  eye  could 
reach,  for  two  days  and  a  night,  for  a  distance  of  at  least 
150  miles.  Thousands  of  the  fish  were  seen  close  together 
near  to  the  vessel,  and  these  were  from  2  to  4  feet  in 
length.  The  general  opinion  among  the  fishermen  and 
others  at  the  time  seemed  to  be  that  the  fish  were  killed 
by  some  submarine  volcanic  eruption  or  other  great  con- 
vulsion of  nature.  Captain  Collins  estimated  from  reports 
of  the  various  fishing  boats  that  there  must  have  been 
about  256,000  dead  fish  in  the  square  mile,  and  that  at  a 
low  estimate  about  a  thousand  milHon  pounds  weight  of 
edible  fish  were  destroyed  on  that  occasion. 

The  opinion  is  expressed  in  this  official  report  that  the 
tile-fish  encountered  a  layer  of  unusually  cold  water,  which 
paralysed  and  rendered  them  helpless  to  such  an  extent 


180     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

that  they  floated  to  the  surface  dead  or  in  a  dying  condition. 
It  is  known  that  in  that  spring  there  were  furious  northerly 
gales,  and  an  unusual  quantity  of  ice  off  the  coast  of  New- 
foundland, and  the  cold  Arctic  current  flowing  south-west 
inside  the  GuK  Stream  is  said  to  have  been  unusually  strong. 
Professor  Verrill  had  made  known,  from  his  extensive 
dredgings  on  the  New  England  coast,  that  there  is,  on  the 
continental  shelf  south  of  Cape  Cod,  a  broad  belt  (which  he 
called  the  Gulf  Stream  Slope)  along  the  inner  border  of  the 
Gulf  Stream  at  from  about  65  to  150   fathoms,  where  the 
temperature  of  the  bottom  water  is  decidedly  higher  than  it  is 
either  inside  or  farther  out,  and  on  this  broad  belt  he  had 
found  many  animals  which  were  only  previously  known  from 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  or  off  the  coast  of  Florida.  There  is,  in  fact, 
a  continuation  upwards  of  the  West  Indian  guLf-stream  fauna, 
and  probably  the  tile-fish  is  a  member  of  that  community. 
In  a  dredging  expedition  after  the  destruction  of  the 
tile-fish  Professor  Verrill    reported  the  scarcity  or  total 
absence  of  many  of  these  sub -tropical  species  which  had 
been  taken  in  abundance  in  the  two  previous  seasons  at 
the  same  localities  and  depths.     He  found  that  the  inver- 
tebrate bottom  fauna  of  southern  origin  was  practically 
obliterated  on  his  Gulf  Stream  Slope. 

The  Fish  Commission  also  sent  a  fishing  vessel  to  go  over 
the  ground  and  fish  systematically  for  the  tile -fish  in  their 
former  haunts.  That  boat  worked  for  three  days  at  the 
localities  where  they  had  been  so  abundant  in  the  previous 
two  years,  but  did  not  catch  a  single  tile-fish. 

From  all  the  evidence  there  seems  to  have  been  a  whole- 
sale destruction  of  life  at  the  bottom  on  this  Gulf  Stream 
Slope,  caused  by  a  lateral  shifting  of  currents  so  as  to  bring 
colder  water  into  the  area  where  the  tile-fish  and  the  other 
sub -tropical  animals  had  been  formerly  found  in  abundance. 
It  was  estimated  by  the  Fish  Commission  investigators 
that  the  bottom  of  the  ocean  in  this  region  must  at 
the  time  have  been  covered  to  the  depth  of  about  6  feet 


OCEAN  CURRENTS  181 

with  the  dead  bodies  of  the  tile-fish  and  other  organisms. 
The  original  presence  and  the  subsequent  destruction  of 
the  tile-fish  may  alike  have  been  due  to  changes  in  the 
volume  and  consequent  lateral  shifting  of  the  Gulf  Stream 
and  the  Labrador  current.  That  there  are  seasonal  and 
other  variations  in  the  volume  and  temperature  of  the  GuK 
Stream  waters  in  the  North  Atlantic  was  established  and 
discussed  in  some  detail  by  H.  N.  Dickson  in  1901.^ 

I  am  indebted  to  Dr.  C.  H.  Townsend,  Director  of  the 
New  York  Aquarium,  for  some  later  information  in  regard 
to  the  reappearance  in  quantity  of  this  valuable  fish  upon 
the  old  fishing-grounds  off  Nantucket  and  Long  Island,  at 
about  100  miles  from  the  coast  to  the  east  and  south-east 
of  New  York.  It  is  believed  that  the  tile-fish  is  now 
abundant  enough  in  these  waters  to  maintain  an  important 
fishery,  which  will  add  an  excellent  food-fish  to  the  markets 
of  the  United  States.  It  is  easily  caught  with  lines  at  all 
seasons  of  the  year,  and  reaches  a  length  of  over  3  feet 
and  a  weight  of  40  to  50  lb.  During  July,  1916,  the  product 
of  the  fishery  was  about  two  and  a  haK  million  pounds 
weight,  valued  at  $55,000,  and  in  the  first  few  months 
of  1917  the  catch  was  four  and  a  half  million  pounds,  for 
which  the  fishermen  received  $247,000.  Dr.  Townsend, 
writing  in  March,  1920,  says  :  "  Since  then  (1915)  we  have 
had  a  regular  fishery  for  tile-fish,  the  New  York  catch  being 
made  on  tile-fish  grounds  about  100  miles  south-east  of 
New  York.  The  Boston  catch  is  taken  a  little  farther  to  the 
eastward.  Tile-fish  are  to  be  found  in  the  New  York  markets 
plentifully  enough  in  the  summer,  although  fishing  was 
much  interrupted  during  the  war." 

It  is  no  smaU  matter  to  have  introduced  a  new  and 
important  food-fish  to  the  markets  of  the  world,  and  the 
U.S.  Fisheries  Biu-eau  deserve  great  credit  for  their  success 
in  investigating  the  fish,  establishing  the  fishery  and  intro- 
ducing this  new  food  to  the  people. 

1  Phil.  Trans.  Royal  Soc,  A.,  vol.   196,  p.   61. 


CHAPTER  X 
SUBMARINE  DEPOSITS 

The  deposits  which  are  forming  on  the  floor  of  the  ocean 
are  derived  partly  from  the  wearing  down  of  the  land  and 
partly  from  accumulations  of  the  harder  parts  of  the  animals 
and  plants  that  live  in  the  water.  The  material  from  the 
land,  forming  "  terrigenous  "  deposits,  is  partly  carried  to 
the  sea  by  rain  and  rivers,  and  partly  washed  or  worn  off 
the  coast  by  waves  and  currents.  All  such  materials  from 
the  land  may  be  either  carried  off  in  suspension  or  dissolved 
in  the  water.  The  greater  part  of  this  work  which  leads 
to  the  formation  of  terrigenous  deposits  is  performed  by 
rivers  :  they  carry  down  thirty-three  times  as  much  sediment 
as  is  worn  off  the  coasts  by  wave  action.  These  sediments 
from  the  land  are  deposited  in  shallow  water  along  the  coasts 
of  the  continents  as  gravels,  sands  and  muds  of  various 
grades  and  kinds,  which  farther  from  land  become  mixed 
with  the  remains  of  organisms  either  living  on  the  bottom 
("  neritic  ")  or  floating  on  the  surface  ("  pelagic  ").  Some 
continental  shores  have  a  much  greater  quantity  of  terri- 
genous deposits  than  others,  on  account  of  the  larger  amount 
of  sediment  brought  to  them  by  rain  and  rivers.  For  ex- 
ample, about  half  of  the  world  is  drained  into  the  Atlantic 
Ocean,  and  most  of  this  into  the  North  Atlantic.  More  than 
half  the  total  rainfall  is  on  the  Atlantic  drainage  area  ;  and 
in  consequence,  the  deposits  of  the  Atlantic  are  more  terri- 
genous than  those  of  other  oceans. 

Marine  plants  and  animals  take  up  mineral  substances 
in  solution  from  the  sea  and  build  up  their  shells,  skeletons 

182 


SUBMARINE  DEPOSITS  183 

and  other  hard  parts,  and  these  after  death  add  to  the 
deposits  at  the  bottom.  This  takes  place  in  shallow  water 
as  well  as  in  the  open  ocean,  but  where  there  is  much  sedi- 
ment from  the  land  these  organic  deposits  may  be  swamped 
and  masked  by  the  terrigenous  gravels,  sands  and  muds. 

Chemical  action  may  also  take  place  in  the  sea-water, 
and  so  produce  changes  in  the  deposits  in  some  locahties 
or  under  some  conditions,  giving  rise,  for  example,  to  glau- 
conite,  phosphatic  concretions  and  manganese  nodules. 

Finally,  there  are  contributions  to  the  deposits  made  by 
submarine  volcanic  action,  by  the  disintegration  and 
decomposition  of  floating  pumice  into  clay,  by  volcanic 
dust  carried  by  the  wind  from  the  land,  and  by  meteoric 
particles  falhng  from  space  upon  the  oceans. 

The  leading  authority  on  submarine  deposits,  and  es- 
pecially upon  those  of  the  deep  sea,  is  the  late  Sir  John 
Murray,  who  commenced  the  detailed  study  of  the  subject 
during  the  "  Challenger  "  expedition,  and  continued  it  to 
the  end  of  his  life.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  he  has  examined, 
classified  and  described  more  deep-sea  deposits  than  any 
other  man.  The  most  comprehensive  and  authoritative 
work  on  the  subject  is  the  "  Challenger  "  report  by  Murray 
and  Renard  on  the  deep-sea  deposits  of  the  Expedition, 
published  in  1891. 

Sir  John  Murray's  primary  classification  of  all  deposits 
is  into  (1)  Terrigenous,  the  gravels,  sands  and  muds  derived 
from  adjacent  land  ;  and  (2)  Pelagic,  the  deep-sea  ''  oozes  " 
far  removed  from  land  and  largely  made  up  of  the  cal- 
careous and  siliceous  remains  of  organisms  which  once  lived 
in  the  surface  waters  of  the  open  ocean,  and  after  death 
sank  to  the  bottom.  It  is  convenient,  however,  to  recognize 
and  add  a  third  category,  which  has  been  named  Neritic, 
for  those  deposits,  mainly  calcareous,  which  are  found  in 
many  shallow  waters  amongst  terrigenous  sands  and  muds, 
but  are  not  themselves  terrigenous  in  origin,  being  formed 
of  the  shells  and  other  remains  of  Molluscs,  Echinoderms, 


184     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

Crustaceans,  Polyzoa,  Sponges,  Tunicata,  and  other  bottom- 
living  animals,  and  a  few  plants  such  as  the  calcareous 
Nullipores.  I  shall,  therefore,  classify  the  submarine  deposits 
under  these  three  primary  divisions,  which  may  be  defined 
as  follows  : — 

Terrigenous  (Murray's  term  restricted),  where  the  deposit 
is  formed  chiefly — say  at  least  two-thirds,  66  per  cent. — of 
mineral  particles,  characteristically  quartz,  derived  from 
the  waste  of  the  land. 

Neritic  (Herdman,  1895),  where  the  deposit  is  largely  of 
organic  origin,  its  calcareous  matter  being  derived  from  the 
shells  and  other  hard  parts  of  the  animals  and  plants  living 
on  the  bottom  (benthonic  organisms). 

Pelagic  (Murray's  term  unaltered) — or  better,  planktonic 
— where  the  greater  part  of  the  deposit  (except  in  the  case 
of  "  Red  Clay  ")  is  formed  of  the  remains  of  free-floating 
animals  and  plants  which  lived  in  the  sea  over  the  deposit. 
These  pelagic  deposits  are  produced  by  planktonic  organ- 
isms, and  are  characteristic  of  the  deep  sea,  where  terri- 
genous materials  do  not  penetrate,  and  where  benthonic 
organisms  are  not  present  in  sufficient  quantity  to  cause 
neritic  deposits. 

The  statement  in  brief  form  is  : — 

Terrigenous,  derived  from  the  land  ; 
Neritic,  derived  from  benthonic  organisms  ; 
Pelagic,  derived  from  planktonic  organisms. 

There  are,  however,  transitional  forms  of  deposit  from  the 
one  group  to  another. 

I.  Terrigenous.  Deposits  of  varied  mineral  materials 
and  many  textures,  but  all  derived  from  the  waste  of  the 
land,  and  containing  on  the  average  about  68  per  cent,  of 
silica.  The  nature  of  the  deposit  depends  chiefly  upon  the 
geological  structure  of  the  adjacent  land  and  the  agents 
of  denudation  and  disintegration.  There  may  be  large 
boulders  strewn  upon  the  beach  or  in  shallow  water  de- 
tached from    a  cliff  or  washed  out  of  the  Boulder  Clay. 


SUBMARINE   DEPOSITS  185 

There  may  be  aU  sizes  of  smaller  stones  forming  various 
kinds  and  sizes  of  gravel,  and  grading  down  to  coarse  sand 
and  then  to  fine  sand,  and  finally  mud.  The  nature  of 
the  sand  and  mud  will  depend  upon  the  kind  of  rocks  from 
which  it  is  derived  or  the  sediments  brought  down  by  the 
rivers  ;  and  as  a  rule  in  most  places  the  terrigenous  deposits 
become  finer  and  finer  the  farther  they  are  from  the  coast, 
until  the  mud-line  is  reached,  where  the  finest  particles 
suspended  in  the  water  are  deposited.  This  is  usually  at 
a  depth  of  about  100  fathoms  on  continental  shores  facing 
the  open  ocean. 

In  addition  to  these  shallow-water  sands  and  muds, 
obviously  derived  from  the  adjacent  land,  and  usually 
characterized  by  quartz  grains,  Murray  classifies  under 
terrigenous  certain  deeper  muds  coloiu'ed  blue  or  red  by 
hydrated  oxides  of  iron,  or  green  by  glauconite,  and  found 
around  continental  lands,  farther  out  and  deeper  than  the 
mud-line. 

There  are  also  volcanic  muds  round  oceanic  islands  of 
volcanic  origin  and  formed  from  the  particles  of  volcanic 
rocks. 

Around  coral  reefs  and  islands  there  may  be  coral-sands 
and  coral-muds,  calcareous  deposits  formed  of  the  frag- 
ments of  coral  broken  up  and  sometimes  ground  down  to  a 
very  fine  powder.  It  is  possible  that  some  of  these  coral 
muds  are  formed  not  mechanically  but  by  bacterial  action. 
The  late  G.  Harold  Drew,  working  at  Tortugas,  Florida, 
on  the  effect  of  Bacillus  calcis  in  shallow  tropical  seas,  found 
that  this  organism  caused  the  precipitation  of  soluble 
calcium  salts  in  the  form  of  calcium  carbonate  ("  drewite  ") 
on  a  large  scale.  He  believed  that  his  observations  showed 
that  the  great  calcareous  deposits  of  Florida  and  the 
Bahamas,  previously  known  as  coral  muds,  are  not,  as  was 
supposed  by  Murray  and  others,  derived  from  broken-up 
corals,  shells,  nuUipores,  etc.,  but  are  minute  particles  of 
carbonate  of    lime  which  have  been  precipitated  by  the 


186     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

action  of  these  bacteria.  More  recently,  however,  C.  B. 
Lipman  has  repeated  the  observations  both  at  Samoa  and 
at  Tortugas,  and  finds  that  Drew  was  mistaken  in  supposing 
that  this  precipitation  was  wholly  due  to  the  action  of  the 
organism  (now  known  as  Pseudomonas  calcis).  Further 
investigations  on  this  matter  are  still  (1923)  in  progress  ; 
but  I  have  mentioned  it  as  an  example  of  the  complications 
that  may  be  present  in  the  actions  and  interactions,  mechan- 
ical, chemical  and  organic,  in  connection  with  such  an 
apparently  simple  process  as  the  grinding  of  coral  fragments 
into  coral  mud.  The  bearing  of  these  observations  upon 
the  formation  of  oolitic  limestones  and  fine-grained  un- 
fossiliferous  limestones  must  be  of  peculiar  interest  to 
geologists,  and  forms  a  notable  instance  of  the  annectent 
character  of  oceanography,  bringing  the  metaboHsm  of 
living  organisms  in  the  modern  sea  into  relation  with 
mesozoic  and  even  palaeozoic  rocks. 

The  seaward  limit  of  the  terrigenous  deposits  is  on  the 
average  about  200  miles  from  land,  and  these  deposits  cover 
in  aU  about  one-fifth  of  the  area  of  the  ocean. 

II.  Neritic. — Amongst  the  shallow-water  deposits  there 
are  some  which  are  by  no  means  "  terrigenous,"  as  they  are 
not  formed  of  particles  derived  from  the  land,  but  are 
constituted  either  wholly  or  in  large  part  of  the  hard  parts 
of  the  bottom  ("  benthonic  ")  animals  and  plants  living  on 
the  spot  or  close  to.  The  shells  of  Molluscs,  the  exo- 
skeletons  of  Crustaceans,  the  tubes  of  some  worms,  the  spines 
and  plates  of  Echinoderms,  the  spicules  of  sponges,  Alcyon- 
arians  and  Tunicates,  and  also  some  calcareous  algae,  such 
as  corallines  and  nullipores,  form  such  neritic  deposits  of 
organic  origin,  but  not  pelagic  Hke  the  deep-sea  oozes. 
These  neritic  deposits  are  very  largely  calcareous  (up  to 
80  per  cent,  of  carbonate  of  lime),  and  would  form  a  highly 
fossiliferous  limestone  if  consolidated. 

In   some   places   near    land,    at    depths    of    10    to    20 
fathoms,    the    bottom    may    be    covered    with    growing 


PLATE  XI. 


Fig.  1. — Plant  Neritic  deposit  from  the  Irish  Sea,  composed  of  the  NulHpore 
Lithothamnion  polymorphum ;  natural  size. 


[Photographs  by  A.  Fleming. 
Fig.  2. — Animal  Neritic  deposit  from  the  Irish  Sea,  composed  of  remains  of 
Molluscs,  Echinoderms,  Polyzoa,  etc. ;  natural  size. 


SUBMARINE  DEPOSITS  187 

lumps  and  broken  fragments,  and  water-worn  particles 
of  the  branched  nullipore  Lithoihamnion  polymorphum 
(Plate  XI,  Fig.  1)  ;  in  others  there  may  be  deposits 
almost  wholly  composed  of  the  dead  and  broken  shells 
of  lameUibranchiate  mollusca,  such  as  mussels,  cockles, 
and  their  aUies  ;  and  on  a  bank  off  the  south  end  of  the 
Isle  of  Man,  at  a  depth  of  20  fathoms,  there  is  a  white  shell- 
sand  (Plate  XI,  Fig.  2)  composed  of  broken  fragments  of  the 
mollusca  Pec^en,  Anomia,  Pectunculus,  Mactray  Venus,  Mytilus, 
Cyprcea,  Buccinum,  Emarginula,  Purpura,  and  Trochus,  of 
various  calcareous  Polyzoa,  such  as  Cellaria  fistulosa, 
Cellepora  pumicosa,  and  many  Lepralids,  of  plates  of 
Balanus  and  tubes  of  Serpula,  and  of  plates  and  spines  of 
several  Echinoderms.  Such  a  neritic  deposit  as  this  would 
form  a  rock  almost  wholly  made  up  of  fossils,  and  might  be 
compared  with  some  Tertiary  deposits,  such  as  the  Coralline 
and  Red  Crag  formations  of  Suffolk.  In  one  of  the  neritic 
deposits  south  of  the  Isle  of  Man,  close  on  sixty  species  of 
Polyzoa  were  recorded  from  one  haul  of  the  dredge.^ 

Although  the  neritic  deposits  are  chiefly  found  on  the 
continental  shelf  near  land,  they  may  also  occur  in  shallow 
water  on  a  submarine  bank  in  the  open  ocean,  surrounded 
by  deep  waters  with  their  characteristic  pelagic  oozes.  It 
may  be  argued  that  coral  sands  and  muds  are  also  neritic 
deposits,  as  they  are  formed  of  the  remains  of  the  hard 
parts  of  shallow- water  organisms  more  or  less  in  situ.  But 
if  the  coral  reef  (which  may  be  a  large,  inhabited  island) 
be  regarded  as  land,  then  the  deposit  derived  from  it  may 
be  called  "  terrigenous."  As  Murray  has  pointed  out,  hard- 
and-fast  lines  cannot  always  be  drawn  between  some  of  the 
categories  of  deposits  ;  they  merge  one  into  another  by 
insensible  gradations,  as  is  only  to  be  expected  when  we 
consider  their  mode  of  occurrence  and  origin. 

III.  Pelagic  (or  Planktonic). — With  the  exception  of  the 

1  See  Herdman  and  Dawson,  Fishes  and  Fisheries  of  the  Irish 
Sea.     London,  G.  Philip  &  Son,  1902. 


188     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

Red  Clay,  all  these  deep-sea  oozes  are  formed  mainly  of  the 
remains  of  planktonic  animals  (such  as  Foraminifera  and 
Radiolaria)  and  plants  (such  as  Diatoms  and  Coccolitho- 
phorida)  which  lived  in  the  surface  waters  over  the  deposit. 
The  following  five  distinct  kinds  of  deposit  were  made  known 
by  Murray  from  the  "  Challenger  "  results  :  Pteropod  ooze, 
Globigerina  ooze,  Red  Clay,  Radiolarian  ooze,  and  Diatom 
ooze,  and  although  typical  representatives  of  each  have 
very  distinctive  characters  and  locaUties,  they  may  graduate 
one  into  another  on  their  borders.  Just  as  shallow-water 
coastal  terrigenous  deposits  of  gravel  and  sand  may  pass 
into  neritic  calcareous  accumulations  of  shells  or  nuUipores, 
so  in  deeper  water  in  oceanic  areas  neritic  assemblages  of 
bottom  organisms  may  be  gradually  replaced  by  the  remains 
of  pelagic  molluscs  to  form  a  Pteropod  ooze,  and  that  in 
turn  at  a  greater  depth  of,  say,  1,000  fathoms  by  the  dis- 
appearance of  the  delicate  Pteropod  shells  becomes  a 
Globigerina  ooze,  which  at  depths  over  2,500  fathoms  is 
gradually  replaced  by  Red  Clay,  and  that  finally  in  certain 
abyssal  areas  acquires  the  characters  of  Radiolarian  ooze. 

The  following  short  descriptions,  summarized  in  the  main 
from  Murray's  various  writings  on  the  subject,  hold  good, 
in  general  for  these  oceanic  deposits,  but  do  not  indicate 
hard-and-fast  boundaries  : — 

1.  Pteropod  Ooze. — A  calcareous  deposit  occupying  only 
about  haK  a  million  of  square  miles  and  confined  to  the 
tropics,  generally  on  submarine  ridges,  at  depths  of  less 
than  1,000  fathoms.  Its  basis  is  a  Globigerina  ooze  largely 
mixed  with  and  masked  by  the  large  delicate  shells  of  the 
pelagic  mollusca,  the  Pteropods,  and,  to  a  less  extent,  Hetero- 
pods.  As  these  thin  Pteropod  shells  expose  a  large  surface 
to  the  water  as  they  sink  through  it,  they  become  dissolved 
before  reaching  the  bottom  at  greater  depths.  The  rapidity 
of  solution  of  the  Pteropod  shells  is  probably  aided  also 
by  the  carbonate  of  lime  being  in  the  form  of  aragonite, 
while  the  Globigerina  shells  are  calcite.    In  the  "  Challenger  " 


PLATE  XII, 


Fig.   1. — Globigerina  ooze,  from  the  floor  of  the  Atlantic.        X  25. 


Fig.  2. — Section  of  consoHdated  Globigerina  ooze  from  N.  Atlantic, 

1,675  fathoms.  X   25. 

[Photo-micrographs  by  E.  Neaverson. 


SUBMARINE   DEPOSITS  189 

section  through  the  Atlantic  from  Tristan  d'Acunha  to 
Ascension  Island,  wherever  the  depth  is  less  than  1,000 
fathoms  Pteropod  ooze  is  found  capping  the  elevations, 
while  the  depressions  between  are  occupied  by  Globigerina 
ooze.  It  occurs  in  similar  manner  on  several  isolated  spots 
in  the  Pacific  and  Indian  Oceans. 

2.  Globigerina  Ooze, — A  calcareous  deposit  covering  nearly 
50  millions  of  square  miles  on  the  floor  of  the  ocean  in  deep 
water,  but  not  in  the  greatest  depths.  It  is  not  found  in 
cold  seas,  but  elsewhere  is  widely  distributed  in  depths  of 
1,000  to  about  2,500  fathoms,  and  is  especially  character- 
istic of  the  North  Atlantic,  where  it  occupies  9  million  square 
miles,  nearly  40  per  cent,  of  the  area.  It  was  first  made 
known  from  the  soundings  of  cable -laying  steamers  in  the 
North  Atlantic,  described  by  Ehrenberg  and  Bailey  (1853), 
and  later  by  Wallich,  Wyville  Thomson,  Carpenter,  and 
others  ;  and  is  carried  far  north  into  the  Norwegian  Sea 
by  the  effect  of  the  Gulf  Stream  on  the  surface  organisms.  It 
is  also  found  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  the  South  Pacific,  and 
the  Southern  Ocean,  but  is  almost  absent  from  the  North 
Pacific. 

This  deposit  is  formed  mainly  of  the  shells  of  Foraminifera 
which  live  in  the  surface  waters,  and  of  these  the  most 
abundant  and  characteristic  is  G^Zo6?^en7io^  hulloides  (Fig.  10), 
although  other  allied  species  and  genera  are  also  commonly 
present,  along  with  the  calcareous  Coccoliths  and  Rhabdoliths 
derived  from  minute  surface  algae.  Many  other  organisms 
are  represented,  but  the  relatively  large  and  strong  Globi- 
gerina shells  mask  the  others  and  appropriately  give  their 
name  to  the  deposit  (see  Plate  XII,  Fig.  1).  Some  idea  of 
the  kind  of  rock  that  might  be  formed  from  Globigerina  ooze 
may  be  obtained  by  consolidating  and  sectioning  a  sample 
of  the  deposit  (see  Plate  XII,  Fig.  2). 

The  proportion  of  lime  varies  in  samples  of  Globigerina 
ooze  at  different  depths,  from  30  to  90  per  cent.,  the  average 
being  about  65.     The  deposit  is  in  its  most  characteristic 


190 


FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 


condition  at  depths  of  1,200  to  2,200  fathoms.  At  lesser 
depths  it  may  graduate  into  Pteropod  ooze  or  coral  deposits, 
and  at  greater  depths  it  gradually  loses  the  calcareous  shells 
and  passes  into  Red  Clay  at  about  2,500  to  3,000  fathoms. 
During  the  "  Challenger  "  expedition,  Murray  calculated, 


Fig.  10. — Sketch  of  living  Globigerina  from  the  surface  of  the  Atlantic 
as  seen  under  the  microscope  in  plankton  fresh  from  the  tow-net.  The 
opaque  protoplasm  inside  the  shell  is  of  a  brick-red  colour.  The  wisps  of 
spines  are  not  seen  on  the  shells  in  the  ooze. 

from  his  tow-net  observations,  that  one  square  mile  of 
tropical  water  100  fathoms  deep  contained  about  16  tons 
of  carbonate  of  lime  in  the  shells  of  Globigerina  and  allied 
organisms.  These  reach  the  bottom  in  a  more  or  less  perfect 
condition,  according  to  the  depth  of  water  through  which 
they  have  to  fall.  Once  on  the  bottom  and  covered  by 
others,  they  are  safe  from  further  solution,  and  typical 
Globigerina  ooze  is  supposed  (from  the  observations  obtained 


SUBMARINE  DEPOSITS  191 

by  cable-laying  ships  in  the  North  Atlantic)  to  accumulate 
at  the  rate  of  about  one  inch  in  ten  years. 

3.  Red  Clay. — This  deposit  is  characteristic  of  the  abysses, 
the  deeper  parts  of  the  floor  of  the  ocean,  and  covers  at 
least  60  millions  of  square  miles  at  depths  of  2,500  to  over  5,000 
fathoms.     It  forms  the  floor  of  more  than  half  the  Pacific. 

It  is  a  clayey  deposit  composed  mainly  of  hydrated  sili- 
cate of  alumina  and  iron,  derived  from  the  decomposition 
of  pumice  and  other  volcanic  particles  and  interstellar  dust 
along  with  the  residue  of  the  dissolved  Globigerina  shells 
and  other  organisms.  Quartz  particles  are  rare  or  absent ; 
but  there  are  in  places,  especially  in  the  Pacific,  many 
manganese  nodules  of  all  sizes  and  layers  of  manganese  on 
pumice,  sharks'  teeth,  whales'  ear-bones,  etc.  The  red 
colour  of  the  clay  is  due  to  ferric  oxide  and  peroxide  of 
manganese,  derived  from  the  decomposition  of  volcanic 
rocks.  Typical  Red  Clay  is,  then,  a  non-calcareous  deposit, 
although  it  passes  gradually  into  the  calcareous  Globigerina 
ooze  of  less  deep  water.  It  also  passes  insensibly  into 
Radiolarian  ooze  in  some  localities  where  these  siHceous 
organisms  are  present  in  quantity  on  the  surface  of  the 
sea.  It  is  the  most  widely  distributed  of  aU  the  pelagic 
deposits,  and  the  floor  in  the  deepest  parts  of  every  ocean, 
beyond  the  range  of  Globigerina  ooze,  is  covered  by  this 
stifiE  reddish-brown  clay.  It  is  as  characteristic  of  the 
deeper  Pacific  as  Globigerina  ooze  is  of  the  rather  shallower 
Atlantic.  The  Red  Clay  of  deep  water  in  the  South  Pacific 
is  probably  accumulating  at  a  very  slow  rate.  According 
to  Murray,  at  "  possibly  not  more  than  a  foot  since  Tertiary 
times." 

It  is  usually  considered  that  there  is  no  rock  in  the  geo- 
logical series  which  would  correspond  to  consoHdated  Red 
Clay,  and  this  is  one  of  the  arguments  that  has  been  used 
in  support  of  the  view  that  at  least  the  deeper  parts  of  the 
great  ocean  basins  have  been  permanent  for  long  periods 
of  time. 


192     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

4.  Radiolarian  Ooze, — This  deposit  covers  about  two 
millions  of  square  miles  at  the  greatest  depths  in  a  few 
isolated  areas  in  the  tropical  Pacific  and  Indian  Ocean. 
It  does  not  occur  in  the  Atlantic,  nor  in  the  great  Southern 
Ocean.  Its  range  is  from  about  2,500  to  5,000  fathoms, 
but  is  determined  apparently  not  so  much  by  the  depth 
as  by  the  presence  of  enormous  quantities  of  Radiolaria 
(with  siliceous  shells)  in  the  surface  waters  of  these  localities. 

The  foundation  of  the  deposit  is  Red  Clay,  of  which  it 
may  be  considered  to  be  a  variety  in  which  the  siUceous 
shells  of  Radiolaria  are  so  abundant  as  to  give  a  character- 
istic appearance  under  the  microscope,  and  on  analysis. 
The  other  mineral  constituents,  apart  from  the  silica,  which 
forms  about  25  per  cent,  of  the  ooze,  are  those  found  in 
Red  Clay.  Radiolaria  shells  are  found  in  smaller  quantities 
in  Globigerina  ooze  and  in  Red  Clay  and  other  deposits,  in 
fact,  wherever  there  are  Radiolaria  living  in  the  surface 
waters  above,  but  in  these  cases  the  minute  and  delicate 
siliceous  shells  are  masked  by  the  greater  quantity  and 
larger  size  and  opacity  of  the  Foraminifera  and  other 
organisms.  It  is  only  when,  at  depths  over  2,500  fathoms, 
the  calcareous  shells  have  been  dissolved  away  by  the  car- 
bonic acid  in  the  sea-water  that  the  delicate  Radiolaria 
shells,  and  some  Diatom  frustules,  become  conspicuous. 
Even  siliceous  shells,  however,  have  been  shown  by  Murray 
and  Irvine  to  be  dissolved  to  some  extent  in  sea-water,  and 
therefore  it  is  only  when  the  Radiolaria  are  present  in  great 
abundance  on  the  surface,  as  in  the  tropical  Pacific  and 
Indian  Oceans,  that  what  is  left  of  their  remains  are  sufiicient 
to  form  a  Radiolarian  ooze  at  the  bottom. 

5.  Diatom  Ooze. — This  is  also,  like  Radiolarian  ooze,  a 
siliceous  deposit,  and  is  formed  of  the  frustules  or  valves 
of  Diatoms  where  these  microscopic  plants  are  present  in 
enormous  abundance  in  cold  surface  circumpolar  waters. 
It  occupies  about  10  millions  of  square  miles  at  depths  of 
600  to  2,000  fathoms,  and  is  characteristic  of  the  Antarctic 


SUBMARINE  DEPOSITS  193 

seas  and  the  great  Southern  Ocean,  where  it  forms  a  belt 
round  the  globe  extending,  on  the  average,  from  about 
60°  to  65°  S.  latitude.  There  is  also  a  broad  belt  extending 
across  the  North  Pacific  from  the  north  of  Japan  to  the 
terrigenous  deposits  of  North  America  south  of  Alaska  and 
the  Aleutian  Isles.  At  its  edges  in  both  north  and  south 
circumpolar  areas  it  becomes  mixed  with  and  passes  into 
terrigenous  deposits,  and  is  really  present  irrespective  of 
depths  being  dependent  more  upon  the  absence  of  other 
deposits  and  the  presence  of  enormous  quantities  of  Diatoms 
in  the  water  above,  the  frustules  of  which  make  up  from 
50  to^80  per  cent,  of  the  material.  This  is  the  only  pelagic 
deposit  which  is  formed  of  the  remains  of  plants  (with  the 
exception  of  the  minute  CoccoHths  in  Globigerina  ooze), 
and  many  of  the  animals  in  Antarctic  seas  are  found  to 
have  their  stomachs  filled  with  it.  But  all  submarine 
deposits  contain  organic  matter,  and  many  of  the  deep- 
sea  animals  graze  upon  the  bottom  and  nourish  themselves 
by  passing  the  ooze  through  their  alimentary  canal. 

Looking  at  the  submarine  deposits  as  a  whole,  the  terri- 
genous form  a  broad  belt  along  the  shores  of  continental 
land  and  around  islands,  Red  Clay  occupies  the  greater 
part  of  the  deep  Pacific  and  lesser  areas  in  the  Atlantic 
and  Indian  Ocean,  Globigerina  ooze  is  characteristic  of  the 
Atlantic  and  parts  of  the  Indian  Ocean  and  South  Pacific, 
the  deep-water  siliceous  Radiolarian  ooze  and  the  shallow- 
water  calcareous  Pteropod  ooze  occupy  restricted  areas  in 
tropical  waters,  and  the  siHceous  Diatom  ooze  forms  circum- 
polar belts  in  the  cold  waters  of  the  Southern  Ocean  and  the 
North  Pacific. 

I  may  conclude  this  subject  with  the  following  summary, 
adapted  from  the  writings  of  Sir  John  Murray,  on  the  distri- 
bution of  carbonate  of  Hme  over  the  floor  of  the  ocean  : — 

By  far  the  larger  part  of  the  carbonate  of  lime  which 
is  found  in  the  marine  deposits  now  covering  the  floor  of 
the  ocean  has  been  derived  from  sea-water  by  the  action 

o 


194     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

of  living  organisms.  It  is  made  up  of  fragments  of  fish- 
bones, mollusc  sheUs,  corals,  spicules  of  sponges,  alcyonaria 
and  tunicates,  shells  of  foraminifera,  remains  of  calcareous 
algse,  and  indeed  of  all  the  calcareous  structures  secreted 
by  marine  organisms. 

These  calcareous  remains  may  be  divided  into  two 
classes,  viz.,  (1)  Those  that  have  been  secreted  by  organisms 
which  live  habitually  in  the  surface  waters  of  the  ocean, 
such  as  Pteropods  and  Heteropods,  pelagic  Foraminifera, 
such  as  Glohigerina,  Pulvinulina,  Orhulina,  and  other  alUed 
genera,  and  calcareous  algae,  such  as  the  Coccospheres  and 
Rhabdospheres.  The  remains  of  all  these  pelagic  (plank- 
tonic)  organisms  are  especially  abundant  in  the  deposits 
far  from  land.  Near  the  land  their  presence  is  masked 
by  terrigenous  detrital  matters.  In  great  depths  they 
disappear,  being  dissolved  by  the  action  of  sea-water  either 
while  faUing  through  it  or  soon  after  they  reach  the  bottom. 
In  depths  of  1,000  fathoms,  far  from  land,  they  may  make 
up  fully  95  per  cent,  of  the  deposit.  (2)  Those  organisms 
(the  Benthos)  that  live  on  the  bottom  of  the  ocean,  viz., 
corals,  moUuscs,  Foraminifera  (very  different  species  from 
those  of  pelagic  habit)  and  calcareous  algse,  are  poorly  repre- 
sented in  the  great  depths,  but  in  shallow  water  their 
remains  may  make  up  nearly  the  whole  of  the  deposits 
(Neritic)  now  in  process  of  formation.  This  is  especially 
the  case  around  coral  islands. 

It  is  well  known  that  carbonate  of  Hme  is  very  sparingly 
secreted  in  the  cold  water  either  of  the  polar  regions  or  of 
the  deep  sea,  while  it  is  very  abundantly  secreted  in  warm 
seas  where  there  is  a  nearly  uniform  temperature  throughout 
the  year.  In  warmer  water  the  lime  is,  in  some  cases, 
secreted  in  the  form  of  aragonite  (though  calcite  is  also 
present),  while  in  the  colder  water  it  appears  more  frequently 
in  the  form  of  calcite.  In  this  connection  it  may  be  pointed 
out  that  in  the  deposits  now  forming  on  the  floor  of  the 
ocean,  the  remains  of  organisms  may  be  found  which  during 


SUBMARINE   DEPOSITS  195 

their  lives  were  always  in  a  temperature  of  35°  F.,  mixed 
up  with  the  remains  of  organisms  which  always  Hved  in  a 
temperature  of  about  80°  F.  This  shows  how  difficult  it 
may  be  to  unravel  the  geological  records  of  the  past,  for 
the  remains  of  organisms  which  lived  under  wholly  different 
conditions  may  be  mixed  together  as  fossils  in  the  same 
geological  stratum. 

If  we  attempt  to  compare  the  submarine  deposits  forming 
at  the  present  time  with  those  of  past  ages,  now  represented 
by  the  sedimentary  rocks  of  the  geological  series,  it  wiU  be 
found  that  while  some  show  a  close  correspondence,  others 
— the  deep-sea  oozes — are  not  so  obviously  related  to  any 
known  rocks  of  the  visible  crust  of  the  earth. 

The  terrigenous  deposits  formed  in  shallow  water  round 
continents  and  containing  mineral  particles  such  as  quartz 
grains  derived  from  the  adjacent  land  correspond  with 
familiar  sedimentary  rocks  of  various  geological  horizons. 
Sandstone  is  consolidated  sand;  gravel  of  various  kinds 
may  be  cemented  together  to  form  conglomerates  and 
pebble-beds ;  deposits  of  mud  may  be  compressed  into  shales 
and  impure  Hmestones. 

Similarly,  the  neritic  deposits  can  be  correlated  with 
various  highly  fossiliferous  limestones,  chalks  and  related 
rocks  in  many  parts  of  the  geological  series. 

The  question  then  naturally  arises — do  the  deep-sea 
deposits,  formed  from  the  remains  of  pelagic  organisms, 
likewise  become  converted  into  any  known  rocks  ?  There 
is  no  doubt  that  they  might  do  so.  The  "  Challenger  " 
dredged  fragments  of  rock  from  the  deep  sea  which  were 
found,  on  examination  with  the  microscope,  to  be  composed 
of  hardened  and  consolidated  pelagic  deposits  ;  and  it  is 
possible  to  convert  Globigerina  ooze,  or  any  other  pelagic 
deposit,  in  the  laboratory  into  a  lump  of  stone  which  can  be 
sHced  like  any  other  rock  and  examined  in  thin  sections  under 
the  microscope  (see  Plate  XII,  Fig.  2) .  But  there  is  no  reason 
to   beheve   that    any  rocks   formed  by  the    consolidation 


196     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

of  deep-sea  deposits  are  present  in  that  part  of  the  crust 
of  the  earth  which  we  can  examine — with  the  possible 
exception  of  the  Polycystina  earth  of  Miocene  age  at 
Barbados,  which  may  be  a  fossil  Radiolarian  ooze. 

Analogues  of  terrigenous  deposits  are  to  be  found  in 
all  geological  ages,  and  many  calcareous  rocks  are  formed 
of  neritic  shallow-water  deposits,  but  we  know  of  no  un- 
doubted analogue  of  the  true  deep-water  pelagic  deposits. 
Various  rocks  have  from  time  to  time  been  supposed  to 
correspond  to  the  oozes  of  the  deep  sea,  since  Huxley, 
in  1858,  claimed  Globigerina  ooze  as  a  modern  chalk,  but 
further  investigation  and  consideration  of  the  case  has 
always  led  to  the  conclusion  that  such  claims  must  be 
rejected  as  very  doubtful.  It  must  not  be  supposed, 
because  Radiolarian  ooze  is  an  abyssal  deposit,  that 
ancient  highly  siliceous  sandstones  and  cherts  or  shales 
containing  fossil  Radiolaria  were  necessarily  formed  as 
deep-sea  deposits.  Radiolaria  can  live  in  comparatively 
shallow  water,  or  their  dead  shells  may  be  carried  by  currents 
into  shallower  water,  and  some  of  the  sandstones  and  shales 
in  question  show  evidence  (such  as  contained  plant  remains) 
of  having  been  formed  as  shallow-water  deposits  near  land. 

It  was  generally  held  at  the  time  of  the  "  Challenger  " 
expedition,  and  even  by  some  geologists  since,  that  the 
Cretaceous  formation,  or  at  any  rate  the  Upper  Chalk, 
was  formed  as  a  deep-sea  deposit,  and  that,  to  put  it  another 
way,  the  chalk  formation  is  still  being  deposited  at  the  bottom 
of  the  Atlantic.  Hence  arose  the  doctrine  of  what  was 
called  "  the  continuity  of  the  chalk."  But  the  view  is 
now  generally  held  that  in  upper  Cretaceous  times  the  chalk 
of  England  was  deposited  in  warm  shallow  water  containing 
very  little  terrigenous  material ;  and  that  therefore  the 
Globigerina  ooze  of  the  abyssal  Atlantic  cannot  be  regarded 
as  its  lineal  descendant.  It  may  be  regarded  as  established 
that  at  any  rate  the  great  mass  of  the  stratified  rocks  which 
compose  the  continents  as  we  see  them  must  have  been 


SUBMARINE  DEPOSITS  197 

formed  of  such  terrigenous  and  neritic  deposits  as  are  now 
being  laid  down  within  200  or  300  miles  of  land,  on  the 
continental  shelf  and  the  upper  part  of  the  continental  slope, 
and  do  not  include  to  any  marked  extent  deposits  which 
closely  resemble  those  now  accumulating  in  the  abysses  of 
the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific  oceans. 

This  conclusion  has  an  important  bearing  on  the  contro- 
versial subject  known  as  the  permanence  of  the  continental 
ridges  and  the  ocean  basins.  As  most  of  the  sedimentary 
rocks  of  past  geological  times  were  of  marine  origin,  there 
is  no  doubt  that  the  greater  part  of  the  continental  land 
of  the  globe  has  been  at  one  time  or  other,  or  even  at  various 
times,  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  and  no  doubt  considerable 
areas  that  were  once  land  are  now  submerged.  Land  and 
sea  have  been  occasionally  changing  places  throughout  the 
ages.  But  that  fact  does  not  necessarily  imply  that  contin- 
ental land  ever  occupied  the  great  ocean  basins,  or  that 
deep-seas  once  rolled  over  what  are  now  continents.  The 
study  of  the  ocean  depths  and  of  the  deposits  from  abyssal 
regions  does  not  (in  Sir  John  Murray's  opinion,  with  which 
most  oceanographers  would  agree)  give  any  support  to  the 
view  that  vast  continents  have  disappeared  in  what  are  now 
oceanic  areas. 

The  contrary  view — that  continents  and  ocean  basins 
have  changed  places  in  the  past,  and  have  even  followed  one 
another  like  successive  waves  round  the  globe — has  been  held 
from  time  to  time.  The  myth  of  a  "  lost  Atlantis  "  dates 
back  at  least  to  the  time  of  Plato,  and  has  been  revived 
many  times  since  ;  while  a  sunken  continent,  "  Gondwana- 
land,"  has  been  supposed  to  occupy  the  Indian  and  Southern 
oceans  in  order  to  account  for  the  distribution  of  geological 
formations  and  living  organisms. 

The  stories  of  sunken  lands  and  the  legends  of  spectral 
or  floating  islands  in  the  west  are  probably  based  partly 
on  the  evidence  of  submergence  seen  on  the  western  coasts 
of  Europe.     The  old  river-beds  of  the  Shannon  and  other 


198     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

streams  can  be  traced  far  out  to  sea ;  the  Porcupine  Bank 
and  the  Rockall  Bank  are  parts  of  the  continent  of  Europe 
which  have  sunk,  there  are  submerged  forests  with  peat 
and  tree  trunks  and  remains  of  land  animals  in  many  places, 
and  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa  the  bed  of  the  Congo  has 
been  traced  as  a  submarine  canon  as  far  out  to  sea  as  the 
1,000-fathom  line.  But  these  are  only  local  oscillations  of 
the  continental  margins.  In  addition,  lost  continents  have 
been  supposed  to  exist  in  mid-Atlantic  and  the  Indian  Ocean, 
and  if  every  atoll  indicates  the  position  of  a  sunken  peak,  a 
vast  area  of  the  Pacific  must,  according  to  some  views,  have 
been  occupied  by  mountain  ranges. 

It  is  not  only  geologists  and  oceanographers  who  have 
imagined  the  existence  of  former  continents  where  we  now 
have  deep  sea,  but  zoologists  and  botanists  also  have  postu- 
lated extensive  former  land  connections  in  order  to  account 
for  the  present  distribution  of  land  animals  and  plants — and 
some  of  these  connections  did  undoubtedly  exist,  while 
others  are  still  matters  of  controversy.  Britain  was  certainly 
connected  with  the  continent  of  Europe  both  to  the  south 
and  the  north  in  Tertiary  times,  and  Europe  was  once 
connected  with  North  America  by  way  of  Iceland  and 
Greenland.  The  Antarctic  continent  was  probably  much 
larger  in  former  times,  and  may  possibly  have  joined  New 
Zealand  and  Australia  and  connected  the  southern  extremi- 
ties of  America  and  even  Africa.  The  ancient  granitoid  rocks 
of  the  Seychelles  probably  indicate  a  former  land  connection 
(part  of  "  Gondwanaland ")  from  South  Africa  through 
Madagascar  to  Ceylon  and  India,  dividing  the  Indian  Ocean 
into  two  seas  ;  and  the  present  floor  of  the  Indian  Ocean  is 
supposed  to  have  been  formed  by  sinking  in  upper  Cretaceous 
times.  There  may  also  have  been  a  land  extension  in 
Cretaceous  times  between  Brazil  and  the  west  coast  of  Africa. 
But  there  was  probably  always  an  open  Pacific  Ocean  and 
some  kind  of  a  North  Atlantic,  although  the  eminent 
Austrian  geologist  Suess  supposed  that  the  North  Atlantic 


SUBMARINE  DEPOSITS  199 

Ocean  was  formed  during  Tertiary  times  by  successive 
sinkings  of  large  areas  of  a  pre-existing  land  surface.  The 
present  isthmus  of  Panama  was  formerly  a  waterway 
between  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific,  and  a  great  sea  once 
extended  through  an  enlarged  Mediterranean  across  what  is 
now  the  south  of  Asia  and  northwards  along  the  line  of  the 
Caspian  Sea  through  Russia  to  join  the  Arctic  Ocean.  The 
mountains  of  Tjrrol,  now  10,000  feet  above  the  sea,  once  lay 
submerged  beneath  it  bearing  coral  reefs  and  shallow  lagoons  ; 
and  many  other  extensions  of  the  sea  into  what  are  now 
continental  areas  have  come  and  gone. 

Restorations  of  the  distribution  of  land  and  sea,  more 
or  less  well  established,  have  been  made  by  geologists  for 
each  great  geological  period,  and  they  show  that  portions  of 
the  continents  have  one  after  another  sunk  beneath  the  waves 
and  then  reappeared  as  dry  land.  This  has  happened  time 
after  time,  and  so  although  sizes  and  shapes  and  land 
connections  have  varied  through  the  ages,  the  main  contin- 
ental masses  have  persisted  in  parts  and  in  some  form. 
Similarly,  notwithstanding  repeated  oscillations,  extensions 
and  restrictions,  some  parts  of  the  great  ocean  basins 
have  probably  remained  as  permanent  depressions  on  the 
earth's  surface  since  very  early  times,  and  may  possibly  be 
relics  of  the  original  wrinkles  on  the  cooling  and  contracting 
skin  of  the  molten  globe. 

The  most  recent  speculation  bearing  on  the  possible  past 
history  of  the  oceans  is  Wegener's  hypothesis  of  the  wander- 
ing or  drifting  apart  of  the  present  continents  from  an 
original  continuous  land  mass  which  covered  about  half  the 
globe  in  Carboniferous  times.  Suess  had  previously  shown 
that  there  was  reason  to  believe  that  the  crust  of  the  earth 
may  be  divided  into  a  more  superficial  and  lighter  but  more 
rigid  layer  (the  "Sal"),  which  forms  the  continental  areas, 
and  a  deeper  and  denser  but  more  plastic  mass  (the  "  Sima  ") 
which  underlies  the  continents  and  comes  close  to  the  surface 
on  the  fioors  of  the  oceans.     Wegener  supposes  the  present 


200     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

continents,  after  separation  from  one  another,  to  be  floating 
as  lighter  but  more  rigid  bodies  on  the  surface  of  the  plastic 
but  heavier  material  which  forms  the  bed  of  the  oceans, 
and  to  have  slowly  drifted  apart  into  their  present  positions. 
He  points  out  the  similarity  in  shape  between  the  east  coast 
of  North  and  South  America  and  the  western  coasts  of 
Europe  and  Africa  ;  and,  in  short,  appeals  to  many  similar- 
ities in  shape,  geological  structure  and  other  particulars 
which  enable  him  to  fit  the  various  land  masses  of  the 
globe  together  like  the  pieces  of  a  dissected  map  or  a  puzzle 
picture  so  as  to  make  a  coherent  whole  with  geological 
features,  glaciation  and  distribution  of  organisms  seen  as 
a  continuous  pattern,  whereas  they  are  now  widely  separated 
on  different  continents. 

According  to  this  view  the  Atlantic  Ocean  has  been  formed 
gradually  by  America  becoming  detached  from  the  common 
land  mass  and  drifting  slowly  to  the  west,  leaving  Europe 
and  Africa  behind.  There  are  many  objections  and  diffi- 
culties in  detail  which  have  been  urged  against  this  most 
revolutionary  theory,  and  the  whole  matter  is  at  present  a 
subject  of  acute  controversy. 


CHAPTER  XI 

CORAL  REEFS  AND  ISLANDS 

Islands  may  be  divided  into  continental  and  oceanic,  and 
oceanic  into  volcanic  and  coral  islands.  When  we  think 
of  the  innumerable  coral  islands  and  reefs  of  tropical  seas, 
and  especially  of  the  Pacific,  and  when  we  remember  that  the 
Great  Barrier  Reef  runs  along  the  north-east  coast  of 
AustraUa  for  over  a  thousand  miles,  we  must  reaUze  that 
these  coral  formations  are  amongst  the  greatest  of  oceano- 
graphical  phenomena.  It  is  not  surprising  that  such 
extensive  coral  structures  have  excited  the  wonder  and 
curiosity  of  voyagers,  naturaHsts  and  poets,  and  that  many 
fanciful  speculations  and  scientific  theories  have  been 
evolved  to  account  for  the  observed  facts  of  distribution 
and  structure. 

From  the  earliest  times  navigators  have  noticed  and 
named  three  types  of  coral  reefs  : — 

The  Fringing  Reef,   which   grows   along  the   coasts   of 

continents  or  islands,  keeping  close  to  the  shore  and 

leaving  no  wide  or  open  lagoon  between  the  reef 

and  the  land. 

The  Barrier  Beefy  also  related  to  the  land  but  at  a  greater 

distance,  so  as  to  leave  an  open  navigable  channel. 

The  Atoll,  a  more  or  less  circular  ring  of  coral,  having  no 

visible  relation  to  any  land  and  enclosing  more  or 

less  completely  a  lagoon,  which  may  be  of  large  extent 

and  of  any  depth  up  to  about  50  fathoms,  usually 

much  shallower. 

Islands  are  merely  the  more  elevated  parts  of  reefs  which 

201 


202     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

form  dry  land  and  may  be  habitable.     The  majority  of 
coral  islands  are  on  atolls. 

Before  passing  to  the  theories  which  have  been  put 
forward  to  account  for  these  forms  of  coral  structures,  let 
us  consider  what  the  reefs  are  made  of.  They  are  wholly 
produced  by  living  organisms,  animals  and  plants,  and 
especially  by  the  coral  animals  or  polypes. 

Huge  coral  structures  of  carbonate  of  lime  are  built  up 
by  innumerable  minute  polypes,  each  of  which  is  like  a 
small  sea-anemone,  and  has  a  mouth  surrounded  by  tentacles. 
There  are  some  solitary  corals,  formed  of  single  polypes, 
comparable  with  sea-anemones  which  have  deposited  lime 
skeletons  in  and  around  their  bodies  ;  but  the  majority  of 
corals  are  colonies  formed  of  an  immense  number  of  polypes 
produced  by  continuous  budding. 

There  are  certain  deep-sea  corals  which  do  not  form  reefs, 
but  may  be  of  importance  in  helping  to  build  up  platforms 
upon  which  reefs  can  grow. 

The  true  reef-forming  corals  live  only  in  shallow  water, 
as  a  rule  not  deeper  than  30  fathoms,  and  in  water  which 
is  never  colder  than  about  68°  F.  They  are,  therefore, 
tropical  animals,  limited  by  the  isotherms  of  68°  North  and 
South  of  the  Equator,  a  zone  lying  for  the  most  part  between 
30°  N.  latitude  and  30°  S.  latitude. 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  coral  reefs  are 
wholly,  or  even  chiefly,  formed  of  coral  skeletons  produced 
by  coral  polypes.  There  are  in  addition  many  other  cal- 
careous organisms  present,  including  Foraminifera,  Molluscs, 
Polyzoa,  and  even  NuUipores  and  other  calcareous  sea-weeds 
(such  as  Halimeda),  and  in  some  cases  these  form  the  greater 
part  of  the  reef. 

Once  the  facts  of  distribution  are  ascertained,  there  is 
no  mystery  in  regard  to  the  formation  of  the  fringing  reef. 
It  merely  grows  and  spreads  under  suitable  conditions 
wherever  it  can  in  shallow  water.  It  hugs  the  coast-Hne 
because  the  living  organisms  which  are  forming  it  cannot 


CORAL  REEFS  AND  ISLANDS  203 

extend  either  upwards  on  to  the  shore  or  downwards  into 
deeper  and  colder  water,  and  so  it  ends  by  encircling  the 
land. 

The  theories  we  have  to  consider,  then,  are  to  account 
for  the  formation  of  barrier  reefs  and  atolls,  and,  omitting 
purely  fanciful  speculations,  the  first  and  most  celebrated 
is  that  of  Charles  Darwin  (1842),  who  based  his  view  of  the 
matter  upon  two  facts,  one  physical  and  the  other  physi- 
ological. The  physical  fact  is  that  many  parts  of  the  land 
are  not  stationary,  but  are  undergoing  slow  movements  of 
elevation  or  subsidence  ;  and  the  physiological  is  that 
the  coral  polypes  can  only  live  in  shallow  water  of  a  certain 
temperature.  Darwin's  theory  is,  in  effect,  that  if  a 
fringing  reef  (Fig.  11,  F.)  has  become  established  round 
the  shore  of  an  island  that  is  slowly  subsiding,  then  as  the 
land  sinks  the  coral  animals  will  build  the  reef  upwards, 
so  as  to  keep  near  the  surface  within  the  zone  of  shallow 
warm  water,  and  so  in  course  of  time,  because  of  the 
natural  slope  of  the  land  and  the  more  or  less  vertical 
upgrowth  of  the  coral,  the  reef  will  become  separated  from 
the  shore  by  a  wide  and  moderately  deep  lagoon,  and  the 
fringing  reef  will  have  become  converted  into  a  barrier  reef 
(B).  Let  these  processes  continue  and  eventually  the 
original  island  will  be  completely  submerged,  and  an  atoll 
or  ring  of  coral  (A)  will  surround  the  lagoon  which  now 
occupies  the  position  of  the  sunken  land.  According  to 
this  view,  the  three  forms  of  reef  are  merely  stages  in  one 
process  of  growth,  which  begins  as  a  fringing  reef  and  ends  as 
an  atoll  (Fig.  11,  Darwin). 

The  simplicity  and  the  comprehensive  nature  of  this 
theory  proved  very  fascinating,  and  led  to  its  wide  accept- 
ance by  biologists  and  geologists  alike.  It  was  adopted  in 
every  textbook  of  physical  geography,  and  the  existence 
of  an  atoll  came  to  be  usually  stated  as  one  of  the  proofs 
of  subsidence.  The  American  geologist,  J.  D.  Dana,  from 
independent  observations  made  during  Wilkes's  expedition, 


204 


FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 


corroborated  Darwin's  views — which  are  now  frequently 
referred  to  as  the  Darwin-Dana  theory. 

In  course  of  time,  however,  other  observers  pointed 
out  that  atolls  were  sometimes  found  on  areas  that  had 
obviously  undergone  elevation,  and  that  old-established 
fringing  reefs,  indicating  stationary  conditions,  might  be 
found  along  with  barrier  reefs  or  atolls,  which  were  supposed 
to  indicate  subsidence.  Thus  Semper's  observations  in  the 
Pelew  Islands  showed  the  co-existence  of  atolls  and  other 
types  of  reef  in  the  same  archipelago,  and  Agassiz  and 
several  other  more  recent  investigators  threw  grave  doubt 
upon  the  validity  of  Darwin's  theory  to  explain  the  structure 
and  distribution  of  the  reefs  they  had  observed.     Thus  the 


Lagoon 


Lagoon 


(Darwin)  (Murray) 

Fig.  1 1. — Theories  of  the  Formation  of  Coral  Atolls. 

matter  became  controversial — but  no  adequate  rival  theory 
was  put  forward  until  Murray's  views,  based  on  the  "  Chal- 
lenger "  observations,  appeared  in  1880. 

A  strong  point  in  favour  of  Darwin's  theory  was  that  it 
had  got  over  the  difficulty  of  suppl3dng  an  enormous  number 
of  suitable  platforms  in  shallow  water  scattered  over  vast 
areas  of  the  deep  sea.  By  slow  subsidence  of  a  tropical 
continent  or  archipelago  every  peak  and  every  island  in 
succession  would  naturally  come  within  the  range  of  reef- 
building  corals,  and  so  form  a  suitable  platform  for  what 
would  eventually  become  an  atoll.  Granted  the  assumption 
of  innumerable  peaks  and  islands  sinking  slowly  in  an 
oceanic  area  suited  to  the  Ufe  of  the  coral  polypes,  then 
the  result  will  follow  in  accordance  with  Darwin's  theory ; 


CORAL  REEFS  AND   ISLANDS  205 

but  it  is  a  very  large  assumption,  for  which  there  is  little 
or  no  justification. 

The  Darwin-Dana  hypothesis  implies  that  a  vast  belt 
of  land  in  equatorial  regions  has  been  sinking  down  to  the 
extent  of  thousands  of  feet  during  more  than  a  million 
of  years.  If  this  has  really  taken  place,  it  is  one  of  the 
greatest  phenomena  in  the  earth's  history. 

Such  was  the  position  of  affairs  when  the  "  Challenger  " 
sailed  on  her  memorable  exploring  expedition,  during  which 
the  investigation  of  depths  and  bottom  deposits  over  the 
floor  of  the  ocean  enabled  John  Murray  to  construct  his 
theory  of  coral  growth  and  atoll  formation,  which  is  perhaps 
the  best  known  after  that  of  Darwin.  Murray  showed  that 
abundant  platforms  could  be  provided  by  the  building  up 
of  submarine  volcanic  elevations  and  banks  by  means  of 
calcareous  deposits  formed  from  the  shells  and  other  hard 
parts  of  animals  living  on  the  bottom,  and  also  of  pelagic 
organisms  in  the  water  above,  such  as  form  Globigerina  ooze 
and  Pteropod  ooze.  He  showed  how  the  various  agencies 
at  work  all  tend  to  wear  down  or  to  level  up  all  elevations 
rising  from  the  floor  of  the  ocean  to  about  the  lower  limit 
of  wave-action,  which  is  the  correct  depth  at  which  to  form 
a  suitable  platform  for  reef -building  corals  to  grow  upon. 
The  coral  colonies  established  on  such  a  platform  will  then 
naturally  grow  towards  the  surface  and  from  the  surface 
outwards  in  all  directions  to  form  a  small  tableland  or 
plantation  of  coral.  In  such  a  plantation  the  conditions 
of  life  will  be  more  favourable  round  the  edges,  where  the 
breaking  water  brings  abundant  microscopic  food  and 
oxygen,  than  in  the  centre  where  the  water  is  more  or  less 
stagnant  and  used-up.  This  leads  to  more  active  growth 
on  the  periphery,  and  to  starvation,  death,  and  decay  in  the 
centre,  and  thus  a  cup -shaped  hollow  is  formed — a  small 
atoll  (Fig.  11,  Murray). 

This  structure,  once  attained,  remains  and  increases. 
The  outer  rim  of  a  coral  reef  is  always  the  most  actively 


206     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

growing  part;  the  lagoon,  according  to  Murray,  is  being 
worn  away  or  dissolved,  and  so  the  small  atoll  increases  in 
size,  growing  outwards  like  a  *'  fairy  ring  "  on  grass,  and 
supported  upon  a  growing  "  talus  "  of  its  own  broken  frag- 
ments (Fig.  11).  On  the  same  principle  a  fringing  reef  might 
grow  outwards  to  form  in  time  a  barrier  reef  on  a  stationary 
or  even  a  slowly  rising  area. 

The  strong  points  of  Murray's  theory  are  (1)  that  it  does 
not  require  any  great  assumption,  such  as  the  subsidence  of 
a  vast  area  of  land  in  tropical  seas  ;  and  (2)  that  it  depends 
upon  observed  facts  and  known  processes  in  the  life  and 
growth  of  the  coral  animals. 

This  theory  was  favourably  received  by  many  biologists, 
especially  by  those  who  had  themselves  explored  coral  reefs. 
Several  more  recent  investigators,  however,  differ  from 
Murray's  view  that  a  lagoon  may  be  formed  or  deepened  by 
solution  of  the  dead  coral,  and  regard  the  lagoon  as  an  area 
of  deposition  or  sedimentation  rather  than  of  solution. 

An  interesting  corroboration  of  Murray's  views  was 
furnished  a  few  years  later  by  Dr.  H.  B.  Guppy,  who  found 
in  the  Solomon  Islands  upraised  coral  reefs  formed  of  a 
relatively  thin  layer  of  coral  upon  limestones  which  were 
evidently  consolidated  Pteropod  and  Globigerina  ooze,  and 
the  consolidated  ooze  was  deposited  upon  a  core  of  volcanic 
rock,  the  whole  structure  being  a  remarkable  verification 
of  what  Murray  had  supposed  would  be  the  case. 

These  two  theories,  Darwin's  and  Murray's,  with  various 
modifications  introduced  by  other  investigators,  such  as 
Wharton,  A.  Agassiz,  Stanley  Gardiner,  Davis,  and  others, 
now  held  the  field,  and  opinion  was  very  equally  divided 
as  to  which  was  the  more  correct  interpretation.  Darwin 
himseK  had  long  ago  expressed  the  hope  that  someone  would 
some  day  make  a  boring  through  a  Pacific  atoll  in  order  to 
determine  what  its  base  was  formed  of,  and  whether,  as  he 
supposed,  coral  which  was  living  in  situ  went  continuously 
down  to  depths  where  no  reef-building  coral  could  live. 


CORAL  REEFS  AND  ISLANDS  207 

When  we  want  a  thing  of  that  kind  done  for  the  benefit 
of  science  in  this  country,  we  generally  go  to  the  British 
Association  and  ask  that  a  research  committee  be  appointed 
for  the  purpose,  and  that  was  done  over  thirty  years  ago, 
at  the  meeting  of  the  British  Association  at  Cardiff  in  1891. 

A  typical  atoll,  thought  to  be  of  irreproachable  character, 
called  Funafuti,  in  the  EUice  group,  near  the  centre  of  the 
Pacific,  was  chosen  for  the  purpose ;  and  several  successive 
expeditions,  under  the  leadership  first  of  Professor  Sollas,  of 
Oxford,  and  afterwards  of  Professor  Edgeworth  David,  of 
Sydney,  eventually,  after  many  difficulties,  succeeded  in 
boring  through  the  reef  to  a  depth  of  1,114  feet,  and  in 
bringing  home  a  core  formed  of  various  layers  of  coral 
and  other  calcareous  structures,  which  was  most  carefully 
examined  from  end  to  end,  microscopically  and  chemically, 
and  has  been  exhaustively  discussed  in  a  valuable  report 
pubHshed  by  the  Royal  Society.  Extraordinary  to  relate, 
this  boring  of  Funafuti  has  not  settled  the  matter.  The 
upholders  of  the  two  rival  theories  each  find  in  the  Funafuti 
core  support^f or  their  own  views.  Professor  Sollas  and  other 
supporters  of  Darwin  maintain  that  the  corals  found  in  the 
core  at  depths  of  over  1,000  feet  prove  that  the  reef  is  based 
upon  what  was  once  living  coral  in  situ,  which  has  been  carried 
bodily  down  by  subsidence  from  the  shallow  water  in  which 
it  lived  to  that  depth  at  which  it  was  found  ;  while  Murray 
and  his  adherents  answered  :  "  Not  at  all.  The  present 
reef  of  Funafuti  has  grown  out  upon  a  talus  of  broken 
fragments,  the  boring  has  gone  down  through  that  talus, 
and  the  corals  in  the  core  are  not  in  situ,  but  are  pieces 
which  have  broken  off  from  the  edge  of  the  reef  and  rolled 
down  into  deeper  water." 

There  seems  no  way  at  present  of  settling  the  matter 
further  ;  but  it  is  very  possible  that  both  theories  are 
partly  right  and  partly  wrong,  and  that  different  atolls 
have  been  formed  in  different  ways.  In  a  slowly  sinking 
area  no  doubt  Darwin's  theory  would  apply,  and  a  fringing 


208     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

reef  would  become  first  a  barrier  reef  and  then  an  atoll. 
But  in  other  areas  which  are  stationary,  or  slowly  rising, 
platforms  for  coral  reefs  might  be  provided,  as  Murray 
supposed  ;  and  the  coral  growth,  once  formed,  would  no 
doubt  become  converted  into  the  ring-like  atoll-shape  by 
natural  processes,  in  accordance  with  Murray's  views.  It 
is  probable,  however,  that  Murray  attached  too  much 
importance  to  solution,  and  that  the  lagoon  is  formed  more 
by  mechanical  erosion  than  by  chemical  processes.  Great 
destruction  of  the  dead  coral  in  the  lagoon  is  now  known 
to  be  effected  by  the  scouring  action  of  tidal  currents  and 
by  boring  algse,  moUusca,  and  worms,  and  by  the  ravages 
of  fishes  and  Holothurians,  which  feed  to  a  great  extent 
upon  the  broken-up  coral  on  the  floor  of  the  lagoon. 

The  late  Dr.  A.  G.  Mayer,  of  the  Carnegie  Institution  of 
Washington,  for  several  years  recently  made  important 
investigations  on  the  coral  reefs  both  of  Florida  and  Tortugas 
in  the  Atlantic,  and  of  Samoa  in  the  Pacific,  and  found 
that  the  rate  of  growth  of  reef-building  corals  in  the  Pacific 
was  about  twice  as  rapid  as  that  of  corresponding  genera 
in  the  Atlantic,  where  there  is  much  more  precipitated  coral 
mud  and  the  food  conditions  are  less  favourable.  He 
estimated  that  the  existing  reefs  in  the  Pacific  might  easily 
have  grown  to  their  present  dimensions  in  30,000  years — 
since  the  last  glacial  epoch.  He  found  at  Samoa  that  the 
corals,  at  their  present  rate  of  growth,  add  annually  about 
840,000  lb.  of  limestone  to  the  reef  ;  but  that,  on  the  other 
hand,  about  four  times  that  quantity  (3,000,000  lb.)  is 
being  removed  annually  by  the  coral-eating  Holothurians; 
aided  by  currents.  Dr.  Mayer  made  a  boring  through  the 
fringing  reef  at  Pago-Pago,  Samoa,  in  1918,  at  575  feet 
from  the  shore,  and  came  upon  volcanic  rock  underlying 
the  coral  at  a  depth  of  121  feet  (20  fathoms),  just  the  right 
depth  for  a  platform  suitable  for  reef-building  corals. 

W.  M.  Davis,  of  Harvard,  from  a  critical  examination 
of  the  physical  features  of  islands  and  their  coral  reefs,  comes 


CORAL  REEFS  AND  ISLANDS  209 

to  conclusions  (1919)  favourable  to  Darwin's  theory.  He 
lays  stress  upon  embay  ments  of  the  coast -lines  due  to 
erosion  and  the  haK-drowned  valleys  as  proof  of  submergence, 
and  he  points  to  the  unconformity  between  the  coral  reef 
and  the  underlying  rock  which  is  eroded,  and  therefore  was 
once  exposed  to  the  air,  which  again  is  evidence  of  sub- 
mergence. But  these  characters  only  prove  that  subsidence 
took  place  before  the  coral  reef  was  formed  upon  the  imder- 
lying  rock,  and  do  not  show  that  the  land  was  still  sinking 
while  the  fringing  reef  was  growing  up  to  become  a  barrier 
reef  or  an  atoll — which  is  the  theory  put  forward  by  Darwin. 
It  is  unnecessary  to  discuss  every  view  that  has  been 
put  forward  by  investigators  of  the  coral-reef  problem,  but 
one  other  of  outstanding  importance  must  be  mentioned. 
R.  A.  Daly,  of  Harvard,  in  a  series  of  papers  since  1915, 
has  advocated  what  is  known  as  the  "  glacial-control  " 
theory,  which  is,  that  existing  coral  reefs  are  very  recent, 
and  have  been  formed  only  during  late  glacial  and  post- 
glacial times  ;  that  the  pre-existing  tropical  reefs  had  been 
exterminated  in  glacial  times,  when,  he  estimates,  the  water 
withdrawn  from  circulation  and  locked  up  in  the  form  of 
ice  may  have  lowered  the  level  of  the  ocean  in  tropi- 
cal regions  by  as  much  as  50  to  70  metres  ;  that  the 
melting  of  the  glaciers  set  free  a  great  volume  of  water,  ^ 
becoming  rapidly  warmer,  which  caused  the  tropical  oceans 
to  deepen  gradually  and  permit  the  newly  estabhshed  coral 
reefs  to  form  as  thin  veneers  upon  the  numerous  shallow 
platforms  which  had  been  produced  by  erosion  or  wave- 
action  during  the  previous  pre-glacial  and  glacial  periods. 
As  the  water  became  warmer,  reefs  would  be  formed  round 
the  edges  of  these  platforms  as  a  consequence  of  the  newly 
established  coral  colonies  growing  upwards  to  keep  pace 
with  the  gradual  deepening  caused  by  the  water  set  free 
from  the  ice  slowly  raising  the  level  of  the  ocean. 

^  But  the  question  arises  whether  this  water  may  not  have  been 
locked  up  again  by  increasing  glaciation  in  the  Antarctic. 

P 


210     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

It  seems  that  A.  Tylor,  T.  Belt,  and  others,  had  to  some 
extent  anticipated  Daly  in  attributing  the  origin  of  existing 
coral  reefs  to  a  change  in  the  ocean  level  consequent  on 
deglaciation ;  but  Daly  has  discussed  the  matter  much 
more  fully  than  his  predecessors  in  all  its  bearings,  and  has 
brought  forward  many  new  facts  in  support  of  his  views. 

The  glacial-control  theory  is  fundamentally  opposed  to 
the  Darwin-Dana  theory,  but  is  not  inconsistent  with 
Murray's  theory,  from  which  it  differs  in  details,  such  as 
the  method  of  formation  of  the  platforms,  but  not  in  general 
principle.  Daly  doubts  whether  archipelagos  of  atolls  and 
barrier  reefs  ever  existed  before  the  glacial  period,  though 
possibly  rare  atolls  may  have  been  developed  locally  where 
a  limited  subsidence  affected  the  floor  of  the  Tertiary  ocean. 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  remarked  that  every  serious 
investigator  of  coral  reefs  seems  to  have  added  something 
of  importance,  and  that  each  of  them,  according  to  our 
present  views,  seems  to  be  right  on  some  points  and  wrong 
on  others.  It  must  be  remembered  that  it  is  unlikely  that 
one  theory  will  explain  all  the  details  of  all  reefs,  which  may 
lie  thousands  of  miles  apart,  and  may  have  been  formed  under 
very  different  conditions. 

Darwin  and  Dana  showed  how  an  atoll  might  be  formed 
on  an  area  of  subsidence,  but  their  theory  does  not  apply 
to  most  atolls  and  barrier  reefs  that  have  been  carefully 
examined. 

Semper  and  A.  Agassiz  were  correct  in  their  criticisms  of 
Darwin*s  theory  in  the  case  of  the  reefs  they  had  investigated, 
and  showed  that  atolls  might  be  present  where  there  was 
no  subsidence. 

Murray  was  right  in  his  views  as  to  the  formation  of 
submarine  platforms,  and  the  possibility  of  these  being 
built  up  to  the  required  level,  and  also  as  to  the  process 
by  which  a  coral  patch  would  naturally  assume  the  atoll 
form,  but  he  was  probably  wrong  as  to  the  formation  of 
lagoons  by  solution. 


CORAL  REEFS  AND  ISLANDS  211 

Wharton  and  others  have  emphasized  the  importance  of 
the  levelling  action  of  the  sea  on  submarine  peaks  in  order 
to  provide  flat  areas  on  which  coral  patches  and  atolls 
might  form. 

As  an  important  supplementary  theory,  Daly  has  advo- 
cated "  glacial-control,"  i.e.,  that  the  melting  of  glaciers 
and  snow  at  the  end  of  the  great  Ice  Age  set  free  so  much 
water  as  to  raise  gradually  the  level  of  the  ocean  about 
30  fathoms,  and  so  submerge  the  bases  of  the  newly 
established  reefs  to  that  extent,  which  would  have  the  same 
effect  upon  their  growth  as  a  sinking  of  the  land  to  that 
amount ;  but  this  would  be  only  a  temporary  and  strictly 
limited  raising  of  the  sea  upon  the  land,  not  comparable 
with  the  continuous  subsidence  postulated  by  Darwin. 

I  would  remark,  finally,  that  even  if  his  theory  has  to  be 
rejected,  as  not  applicable  to  the  majority  of  coral  reefs 
and  islands,  Darwin  did  notable  service  to  science  in  stating 
the  coral-reef  problem  and  attempting  its  solution. 


CHAPTER  XII 

"PHOSPHORESCENCE,"   OR  LUMINESCENCE,  IN 

THE  SEA 

One  of  the  most  widespread  and  most  commonly  observed, 
and  at  the  same  time  most  remarkable  and  mysterious,  of 
the  phenomena  of  the  ocean  is  the  so-called  "  phosphores- 
cence." Most  summer  visitors  to  the  seaside  and  voyagers 
in  ocean  liners  are  familiar  with  the  diffused  glow  of  light 
in  the  water  on  a  dark  night,  or  the  innumerable  brilUant 
sparkles  seen  where  a  wave  breaks  on  the  shore,  or  an  oar 
or  a  rope  ruffles  the  surface,  or  when  a  coin  or  small  stone 
is  dropped  over  the  side  of  a  boat  and  leaves  the  track  of 
its  passage  through  the  water  illumined  by  points  of  light. 
All  this  has  been  known  from  the  earliest  times,  and  there 
are  many  records  from  observers  of  the  phosphorescence 
of  the  sea  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  tropics  and  polar  alike, 
and  almost  as  many  speculations  as  to  the  cause  and  essential 
nature  of  the  phenomena  observed. 

The  term  "  phosphorescence  "  is  unfortunate,  as  it  is  apt 
to  lead  to  confusion  with  mineral  phosphorescence,  while 
the  light  in  the  sea  is  now  known  to  be  due  solely  to  the 
luminosity  of  certain  living  organisms  under  certain  condi- 
tions, and  has  no  connection  with  the  chemical  element 
phosphorus.  The  more  correct  term,  made  use  of  by 
the  most  recent  investigators,  is  "  bio -luminescence,"  or 
briefly  the  noncommittal  word  "  luminescence "  to  which 
I  shall  adhere  in  this  discussion  of  the  subject. 

The  organisms  producing  this  Hght  in  the  sea  are  of  many 
kinds — both  animals  and  plants,  large  and  small,  highly 

212 


PLATE  XIII. 


Fig.   1.— Common  Shore  Amphipoda ;  slightly  enlarged. 


Fig.  2. — Luminescent  Ctenophora  (Pleurobrachia  pileus,  etc.);   natural  size. 

[Photos  by  A.  Scott. 


LUMINESCENCE  IN  THE   SEA  213 

and  lowly  organized.  Luminescence  is  produced  also  in 
the  case  of  a  few  land  animals  and  plants,  such  as  some 
earth-worms,  millipedes,  and  various  insects  (beetles),  the 
best  known  of  which  are  glow-worms  and  fire -flies  ;  but  is 
not  known  to  occur  in  any  fresh-water  organism.  It  is 
therefore  a  widespread,  but  by  no  means  universal,  accom- 
paniment of  life — a  vital  phenomenon,  only  manifested 
by  certain  living  things,  and  by  these  only  under  certain 
conditions. 

In  the  sea  the  organisms  that  give  rise  to  luminescence 
range  from  the  simplest  minute  unicellular  forms  (Protozoa, 
Protophyta,  and  Bacteria)  up  to  Fishes,  and  the  modes  of 
emittiQg  the  light  and  the  appearances  thus  produced  are 
most  varied.  The  following  list  is  not  intended  to  be 
exhaustive,  but  merely  to  give  a  few  examples  of  each  of  the 
cliief  kinds  of  organisms  that  contribute  most  notably  to  the 
different  appearances  of  luminescence  : — 

Bacteria. — Many  of  these  micro-organisms  (e.g.,  the 
various  forms  of  Photohacterium  and  Microspira)  cause  a 
flickering  glow  in  the  water,  on  wet  sand,  and  on  the  bodies 
of  fishes  and  other  larger  organisms.  Fishermen  and 
naturahsts  since  the  days  of  Aristotle  have  noticed  that 
dead  fish  may  glow  in  the  dark,  and  this  is  not  due  to  the 
bacteria  of  putrefaction,  but  to  the  photobacteria  of  the 
living  fish,  as  when  putrefaction  sets  in  the  luminescence 
ceases. 

In  other  cases  the  photobacteria  may  invade  the  body 
of  a  larger  organism,  give  rise  to  a  disease,  and  cause  it  to 
glow  in  the  dark.  The  late  Professor  Giard,  while  walking 
(in  1889)  on  the  sands  of  Wimereux  at  night,  noticed  spots 
of  light  at  his  feet  which  moved  from  place  to  place,  and, 
on  catching  some  of  these,  found  them  to  be  living,  but 
enfeebled,  "  sand-hoppers  "  (the  Amphipods  Talitrus  and 
Orchestia).  Investigation  in  the  laboratory  showed  that 
the  body  was  infested  with  photobacteria,  that  these  caused 
progressive    enfeeblement    of    the    muscular  system,   and 


214     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

finally  death,  and  that  the  infection  could  be  transmitted 
from  one  sand-hopper  to  another.     (Plate  XIII,  Fig.  1.) 

It  is  evident,  then,  that  the  luminescence  of  a  larger 
marine  animal  is  not  necessarily  due  to  the  production  of 
light  from  its  own  body,  but  may  be  caused  by  an  invasion 
of  photobacteria. 

Protophyta. — Minute  unicellular  plants  in  the  surface 
layers  of  the  sea  are  probably  the  cause  of  a  good  deal 
of  the  dull,  generally  diffused  glow,  which  has  been  called 
"  milky  sea  "  in  the  Far  East,  "  white  water  "  in  the  Gulf  of 
Aden  and  elsewhere.  Sir  John  Murray  considered  that 
the  unicellular  plant  Pyrocystis  (possibly  a  Dinofiagellate 
allied  to  Noctiluca)  is  the  chief  cause  of  the  diffused  light 
often  seen  in  tropical  seas  in  calm  weather. 

Protozoa. — Many  of  the  Flagellata  exhibit  luminescence, 
especially  those  belonging  to  the  group  Dinoflagellata  (such 
as  Ceratium  SindPeridinium),  which  have  been  known  to  be 
luminous  since  the  time  of  Ehrenberg  (1831),  and  possibly 
earlier.  I  have  proved  to  my  own  satisfaction,  through  the 
microscope,  that  the  bright  sparkles  in  a  sample  taken  from 
a  luminescent  sea  on  the  west  coast  of  Scotland  were  caused 
by  the  abundant  Dinofiagellate  Ceratium  tripos  (Plate  XIV, 
Fig.  2)  ;  and  similarly  in  the  Southern  Ocean,  off  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  I  once  found  that  the  organism  lighting 
up  the  sea  by  night  and  colouring  it  almost  blood-red  by 
day  was  a  small  red  Peridinium  present  in  extraordinary 
abundance. 

The  aberrant  Dinofiagellate  Noctiluca  scintillans  (Plate 
XIV,  Fig.  1)  is  the  generally  recognized  cause  of  a  great  deal 
of  the  silvery  luminescence  of  our  home  seas  round  the  coasts 
of  North-west  Europe  in  summer  and  autumn,  when  this  little 
organism  is  sometimes  so  abundant  that  every  dip  of  a 
cup  in  the  sea  will  contain  hundreds,  and  every  tide  leaves 
pink- coloured  masses  of  their  bodies  piled  up  on  the  sands. 
In  the  Irish  Sea,  for  example,  Noctiluca  is  very  generally 
present  in  the  plankton,  and  enormous  swarms  appear  from 


PLATE  XIV. 


f.^> 


^ 


■^^ 

^ 


''?l^ 


h. 


•  ^i 


Fig.  1. — Plankton,  consisting  almost 
wholly  of  Noctiluca  scintillans. 


Fig.  2. — The  Luminescent  Dinoflagel- 
late  Ceratium  tripos. 


Fig.   3. — Copepoda  {Pseud ocalanus  elongatus)  from  the  surface-net. 

All  magnified. 

[Photo-micrographs  by  A.  Scott. 


LUMINESCENCE  IN  THE  SEA  215 

time  to  time,  for  the  most  part  in  late  summer,  August  and 
September.  An  unusually  late  and  very  extensive  visitation 
occurred  in  December,  1919,  when  in  some  parts  of  the 
Barrow  Channel  there  was  a  well-marked  brick-red  oily 
zone  on  the  beach  caused  by  the  stranded  Noctiluca,  and 
a  bucket  of  the  shore-water  was  compared  by  observers  to 
*'  thick  tomato  soup,"  and  after  the  sea- water  was  drained 
off  it  was  found  to  contain  fully  2,000  cubic  centimetres 
of  Noctiluca.  Some  of  these  placed  in  a  small  aquarium 
retained  their  power  of  luminescence  for  three  weeks. 

Noctiluca  has  been  known  as  a  common  cause  of  lumines- 
cence in  coastal  waters  for  at  least  two  centuries.  In  the 
middle  of  last  century,  A.  de  Quatrefages  made  notable 
observations  on  Noctiluca,  in  which  he  showed  that  the 
light  was  emitted  from  well-defined  patches  or  slowly  moving 
areas  of  the  surface,  each  composed  of  a  large  number  of 
scintillating  points. 

Many  of  the  Radiolaria,  both  simple  and  compound,  also 
show  bright  luminescence. 

CoELENTERATA. — Many  of  the  Hydroid  Zoophytes,  the 
Medusae,  and  the  Alcyonarian  Corals  show  brilliant  lumines- 
cence. There  is  no  need  to  mention  all  recorded  cases,  or 
even  groups  :  a  few  examples  wiU  suffice.  Some  of  the 
Medusae  are  responsible  for  the  large  spots  of  light,  as  large 
as  a  coco-nut  or  a  tea-tray,  sometimes  seen  by  voyagers, 
especially  in  warmer  seas.  Once  when  at  anchor,  in  a 
native  boat,  on  the  pearl  banks  of  the  Gulf  of  Manaar,  in 
an  intensely  dark  night,  I  saw  the  black  sea  around  us  in 
all  directions  lit  up  by  an  innumerable  assemblage  of  what 
looked  like  globes  of  fire,  waxing  and  waning  in  brightness, 
all  simultaneously  glowing  and  then  fading  away  into  dark- 
ness, and  after  a  few  seconds  lighting  up  once  more.  This 
periodic  display  continued  for  about  an  hour  and  then 
disappeared.  Unfortunately,  we  were  fixed  to  the  spot  and 
had  no  smaU  boat,  so  it  was  impossible  to  capture  a  sample, 
but  the  impression  produced  was  that  the  phenomenon 


216     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

was  probably  caused  by  a  vast  swarm  of  Medusae  excited 
to  luminescence  by  either  an  internal  periodic  or  an  external 
accidental  stimulation,  such  as  a  passing  fish  or  a  colUsion 
of  two  or  more  of  the  Medusae.  The  stimulation  of  one  of 
the  crowd  might  be  sufficient  to  start  them  all.  The  appear- 
ance from  the  deck  of  our  ship  was  as  if  first  one  of  the  globes 
lit  up  and  then  another  and  another  in  rapid  succession, 
suggesting  that  the  luminescence  of  the  one  was  stimulating 
the  others  to  similar  action. 

The  most  brilliant  light-producing  Medusa  in  our  own 
seas  is  Pelagia  noctiluca.  A  small  tankful  of  them  once 
gave  us  a  magnificent  display  in  the  dark  at  the  Port  Erin 
Biological  Station,  and  when  taken  out  in  a  bucket  they 
looked  like  balls  of  fire,  or  rather  incandescent  metal,  as 
the  light  is  white  and  very  intense.  It  was  difficult  to 
believe  it  would  not  burn  one's  fingers  when  touched. 

Alexander  Agassiz  has  recorded  that  in  the  luminous 
Ctenophora  (such  as  Pleurobrachia,  Plate  XIII,  Fig.  2),  not 
only  the  adults  but  even  young  embryos  are  luminous,  which 
shows  that  the  light -producing  material  is  not  necessarily 
the  secretion  of  a  special  gland,  but  may  be  formed  in  the 
protoplasm  of  the  early  cells. 

The  colonial  Coelenterates,  when  luminescent,  remind  one 
of  fireworks  or  electric -light  displays,  as  all  the  polypes,  or 
groups  of  poljrpes,  glow  out  one  after  another  till  the  whole 
series  of  branches  are  ablaze.  It  is  impossible  to  resist  the 
conclusion  that  the  stimulus  spreads  from  one  member  of 
the  colony  to  another.  This  is  typically  the  case  in  the 
well-known  sea-pen  Pennatula  phosjjhorea,  so  named  by 
Linnaeus  in  the  eighteenth  century,  but  known  as  a  luminous 
animal  by  Gesner  a  couple  of  centuries  before,  and  probably 
by  others  still  earlier.     (See  Plate  XVI,  Fig.  1.) 

This,  like  Noctiluca,  is  a  classical  example  of  luminescence 
amongst  British  animals  ;  and  when  taken  into  a  dark 
cabin  immediately  on  being  brought  up  in  the  dredge, 
Pennatula  fhosphorea  is  a  wonderfully  beautiful  sight.     The 


LUMINESCENCE  IN  THE   SEA  217 

slightest  mechanical  stimulation  is  sufficient  to  start  some 
of  the  polypes,  and  the  impulse  is  then  communicated  to 
others  until  every  branch  and  polype  is  outlined  with  light 
Like  a  series  of  fairy-lamps.  Panceri,  who  studied  the 
luminosity  of  many  marine  animals  in  the  Mediterranean, 
showed  that  the  luminous  matter  in  Pennatula  is  produced 
by  eight  bands  of  tissue  in  the  interior  of  each  polype, 
extending  up  to  papillae  surrounding  the  mouth,  so  that 
the  secretion  was  poured  out  on  the  surface  when  lumines- 
cence took  place.  The  display  is,  however,  in  the  main, 
clearly  an  illumination  of  the  polypes.  That  is  not  the 
case  in  the  closely  allied  giant  sea-pen  Funiculina  quadrangu- 
laris  (Plate  XV,  Fig.  1,  a  dozen  specimens  about  yV  ^^^-  size), 
where  the  colony  may  attain  a  length  of  5  to  6  feet, 
and  the  light  is  emitted  from  the  mucus  on  the  surface, 
especially  of  the  axis  or  stem.  I  have  had  both  these  kinds 
of  sea-pen,  freshly  dredged  in  the  Hebridean  seas,  glowing 
side  by  side  in  a  tub  in  the  dark  on  my  yacht  ''  Runa,"  and 
in  the  case  of  Funiculina,  the  light,  which  was  of  a  Hlac 
colour,  compared  by  Wyville  Thomson  (Depths  of  the  Sea, 
p.  149)  to  the  flame  of  cyanogen  gas,  came  mainly  from  the 
surface  of  the  fleshy  stem  or  axis  of  the  colony.  The 
slightest  stimulation,  such  as  gentle  stroking  with  the  finger, 
caused  great  outbursts  of  light  to  travel  like  lambent  flames 
up  and  down  the  stem,  while  the  polypes  remained  com- 
paratively, if  not  wholly,  in  the  dark  (Plate  XV,  Fig.  2). 
G.  H.  Parker  has  shown  lately  that  the  Alcyonarian  colony 
Renilla,  which  glows  with  a  beautiful  golden  green  light, 
spreading  over  the  surface  in  wave-like  ripples  from  the 
spot  stimulated,  can  only  be  excited  to  luminescence  in  the 
night.  He  was  unable  to  cause  any  light -production  during 
the  day,  which  suggests  that  it  cannot  be  wholly  a  physico- 
chemical  process,  but  must  be  in  part  under  nerve-control. 
In  Pennatula  and  Funiculina,  on  the  other  hand,  in  my 
experiments  on  the  yacht,  I  found  no  difficulty  in  exciting 
brilliant  luminescence  at  any  hour  of  the  day. 


218     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

EcHiNODERMATA. — Comparatively  few  of  these  are  known 
to  produce  light.  Some  Ophiuroids  ("  Brittle-stars "), 
however,  show  a  brilhant  luminescence,  which  in  the  case  of 
Ophiacantha  spinulosa  is  said  to  be  of  a  uranium  green  colour. 
Wyville  Thomson,  describing  some  specimens  dredged 
from  deep  water  south-west  of  Ireland,  writes :  "  The 
light  from  Ophiacantha  spinulosa  was  of  a  brilliant  green, 
corruscating  from  the  centre  of  the  disc,  now  along  one 
arm,  now  along  another,  and  sometimes  vividly  illuminating 
the  whole  outHne  of  the  starfish."  In  this  and  a  few  other 
Ophiuroids  the  light  has  been  shown  by  recent  investigations 
to  come  from  internal  cells  in  the  tissues  of  the  ventral  and 
lateral  plates  and  spines  of  the  arms. 

Vermes. — Many  of  the  higher  worms;  or  Annelids,  are 
luminescent.  In  the  Polynoids  the  light  is  emitted  from 
definite  light-organs  arranged  round  the  posterior  edge  of 
the  elytra  or  scales  which  cover  the  dorsal  surface  of  the 
worm,  and  as  the  eljrtra  continue  to  glow  with  a  bright 
light  for  some  time  after  being  detached  from  the  body, 
this  seems  to  be  a  case  where  the  use  to  the  animal  of  its 
luminescence  is  to  distract  the  attention  of  the  fish,  crab, 
or  other  enemy. 

In  some  of  the  Syllid  worms  the  light -production  is 
definitely  related  to  reproduction,  and  is  apparently  of  use 
in  enabling  the  male  to  find  the  female  on  the  surface  of 
the  sea  during  the  periodic  swarming  for  the  purpose  of 
mating.  The  light  is  produced  from  very  definite  Hght-glands 
placed  in  lateral  series  at  the  bases  of  the  parapodia. 

The  light  from  some  of  these  Annelids  is  described  as 
violet  blue,  and  in  other  cases  as  greenish  blue.  I  have 
frequently  seen  a  most  vivid  green  light  produced  by  a 
small  polychaet  worm  which  we  dig  up  from  the  sand  or 
from  the  debris  round  the  roots  of  Laminaria  at  Port  Erin. 
The  light  is  even  visible  for  a  few  seconds  in  the  sunlight. 

But  the  most  brilUantly  luminescent  of  all  marine  worms 
is  certainly  the  tube-building  Chcetopterus,  which  was  studied 


PLATE  XV. 


Fig.  2. — Funiculina  quad- 
rangularis.  Small  part  of 
a  colony,  alive  in  sea -water, 
with  polypes  expanded ; 
about  natural  size. 

Dredged  in  Firth  of 
Lorn,  from  S.Y.  "Runa." 
in  1912. 


Fig.  1. — Funiculina  quad- 
rangularis.  Group  of  a 
dozen  colonies  about  yV 
natural  size. 


[Photos  by  K.  Newstead. 


LUMINESCENCE  IN  THE  SEA  219 

by  Panceri  (1873),  Dubois  (1887),  and  others  since.  The 
light,  which  varies  from  greenish  blue  to  violet,  is  given 
ofiF  from  most  of  the  segments  of  the  body,  and  is  evidently 
an  external  secretion,  as  it  can  be  rubbed  off  and  spread 
through  the  surrounding  water. 

The  use  of  the  light  in  the  case  of  Chcetopterus  remains 
a  mystery.  It  will  probably  illuminate  the  water  around 
the  mouth  of  the  tube,  and  that  may  possibly  attract  minute 
organisms  upon  which  the  worm  feeds.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  this  illumination  might  well  be  a  source  of  danger, 
as  indicating  to  fish  the  presence  of  the  hidden  worm. 
Dahlgren  has  recorded  that  he  has  seen  eels  pulling  the 
Chcetopterus  out  of  its  tube.  This  is  evidently  not  a  case 
where  the  enemy  is  warned  off  from  its  prey  by  the  light. 

Crustacea. — Many  of  the  Crustacea,  both  high  and  low, 
are  Ught-producing,  and  the  light-organs  range  in  structure 
from  simple  groups  of  surface  cells  to  the  most  complicated 
eye-Hke  internal  organs.  For  the  purpose  of  this  brief 
survey,  it  must  suffice  to  select  three  examples—  the  Ostra- 
coda,  such  as  Cypridina ;  Copepoda,  such  as  Metridia ;  and 
Schizopoda,  such  as  Meganyctiphanes. 

Cypridina  and  other  luminous  Ostracods  have  been 
observed  by  many  naturahsts,  and  the  minute  structure 
and  the  bio-chemical  processes  involved  have  been  especially 
elucidated  by  Ulric  Dahlgren  and  E.  N.  Harvey  in  America. 
The  Hght-organs  are  unicellular  glands  opening  above  the 
mouth  and  discharging  the  Hght-producing,  mucus-Uke, 
yellow  secretion  freely  into  the  water.  The  light  is  blue 
in  colour,  and  is  only  produced  at  night.  Harvey  has  shown 
(as  Dubois  had  previously  done  in  the  case  of  the  mollusc 
Pholas)  that  the  secretion  contains  two  distinct  substances, 
which  must  be  brought  together  in  the  presence  of  oxygen 
and  water  in  order  to  produce  light.  Dubois  had  named 
these  "luciferine"  and  "lucif erase"  in  Pholas.  Harvey, 
finding  that  his  two  substances  from  Cypridina  did  not  corre- 
spond wholly  in  their  reactions,  appUed  the  new  terms  **  pho- 


220     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

togen  "  and  ' '  photophelein  " — which,  we  may  hope,  further 
research  will  show  to  be  unnecessary.  Harvey  showed  that 
these  essential  substances  might  be  dried,  extracted  with 
ether,  or  treated  in  various  other  ways,  without  affecting 
their  power  of  subsequently  producing  light.  The  process, 
then,  is  quite  independent  of  the  animal  body  in  which  the 
substances  were  produced,  and  so  far  is  a  physico-chemical 
phenomenon.  Similarly,  Giesbrecht  found  that  he  could 
thoroughly  dry  some  of  the  luminous  Copepoda  at  Naples, 
and  months  afterwards  caused  these  dried  bodies  to  produce 
light  by  adding  a  little  sea-water. 

The  power  of  luminescence  has  only  been  definitely  estab- 
lished in  the  case  of  about  half  a  dozen  kinds  of  Copepoda 
(Plate  XIV,  Fig  3),  but  some  of  these  are  widely  distributed, 
and  have  been  frequently  observed.  The  light-glands  are 
scattered  over  various  parts  of  the  body  and  pour  their 
secretion  out  to  the  exterior.  On  a  voyage  to  Australia 
by  the  South  Atlantic,  I  observed  on  many  occasions  these 
luminescent  Copepoda  caught  in  fine  nets  on  the  sea-water 
bath  taps  ;  and,  having  isolated  one  of  the  sparkhng  speci- 
mens under  the  microscope  in  the  dark,  have  watched  how 
its  luminous  secretion  was  emitted  on  stimulation,  and, 
spreading  from  the  head  along  the  dorsal  surface,  floated 
away  from  the  body  and  hung  in  the  water  for  some  seconds 
as  a  luminous  cloud.  This  has  been  interpreted  as  pos- 
sibly of  use  as  a  ''  sacrifice-lure."  The  Copepod,  when  in 
danger,  emits  the  glowing  secretion  and  escapes,  leaving  the 
luminous  cloud  in  the  water  to  distract  the  attention  of  the 
enemy. 

In  the  luminescent  Schizopoda  (such  as  Euphausia  and 
Meganyctiphanes)  the  light-producing  organs  are  conspicuous, 
highly  organized  structures,  comparable  in  some  respects 
with  an  eye  or  a  buU's-eye  lantern,  and  having  a  source  of 
light  with  a  reflector  behind  and  a  lens  in  front.  They 
were,  in  fact,  supposed  to  be  eyes  at  first,  and  are  described 
in  the  older  books  under  the  term  "  accessory  eyes."     It 


PLATE  XVI. 


[Photo  by  R.  Newstead. 

Fig,   1. — Pennatula  phosphorea,  half  a  dozen  colonies  alive  in  a  jar 
of  sea -water  ;    natural  size. 


[Photo  by  A.  Fleming. 

Fig.   2.- — MeganyctijyJianes  norvegica,  from  deep  water,  Loch  Fyne  ; 

natural  size. 


LUMINESCENCE  IN  THE   SEA  221 

was  the  naturalists  of  the  "  Challenger  "  expedition  who 
demonstrated  that  these  were  organs  for  the  production, 
not  the  reception,  of  Hght. 

The  usual  arrangement  of  these  photospheres,  as  they 
have  been  called,  is — a  pair  on  the  head  behind  the  true 
eyes,  two  pairs  on  the  sides  of  the  thorax,  and  four 
median  ventral  on  the  first  four  segments  of  the  abdo- 
men. 

In  British  seas,  Meganyctiphanes  norvegica  (Plate  XVI, 
Fig.  2),  is  abundant  in  deep  water  off  the  western  coasts,  and 
frequently  comes  to  the  surface  in  swarms  at  night.  On 
several  occasions  in  the  Hebrides,  when  we  brought  some 
up  in  the  deep  tow-net,  I  have  taken  a  few  in  a  large 
jar  of  sea- water  into  a  darkened  cabin  and  watched  how, 
on  stimulation,  they  have  lit  up  their  little  lamps  and 
sailed  round  and  round  the  jar — a  beautiful  sight.  Two 
or  three  such,  freshly  caught,  gave  sufficient  light  to 
enable  one  to  read  for  a  few  seconds  the  newspaper  on 
which  the  jar  was  placed.  In  the  case  of  aU  these  photo- 
spheres of  Meganyctiphanes  and  some  alUed  Crustacea,  the 
light  is  internal,  and  is  produced  in  a  closed  organ  in 
which  the  oxygen  necessary  for  the  luminescence  must  be 
obtained  from  the  blood.  The  photosphere  is  always 
well  suppUed  with  blood  sinuses  and  with  nerves.  It 
has  been  suggested  that  the  light  may  be  of  use  to  these 
animals  in  enabling  them  to  see  their  prey,  or  whatever  lies 
in  front  or  below  the  head. 

MoLLUSCA. — I  select  two  examples  of  luminescence  from 
this  group  of  animals — first,  the  classic  case  of  Pholas,  the 
bivalve  that  bores  deep  holes  in  stiff  clay  or  in  soft  rocks 
on  the  seashore,  and  in  which  Dubois  first  demonstrated 
the  presence  of  luciferine  and  lucif erase  as  the  essential  sub- 
stances concerned  in  the  production  of  light ;  and  secondly, 
the  Cephalopoda,  or  cuttle-fishes,  in  some  of  which  compli- 
cated closed  light-organs  are  present  on  various  parts  of  the 
body. 


222     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

In  the  case  of  Pholas,  the  light -producing  power  has  been 
known  since  classical  times,  but  Panceri  (1873)  first  deter- 
mined that  the  light-giving  mucus  was  produced,  not  from 
the  whole  surface  that  it  usually  covers,  but  from  five  definite 
patches  of  the  integument.  These  are,  then,  external  organs 
formed  of  simple  cellular  glands  in  the  deeper  layer  of  the 
skin,  and  pouring  out  the  luminous  secretion  on  the  surface. 
Dubois  later  (1887)  showed  that  this  secretion  contained  the 
two  essential  substances  luciferine  and  luciferase,  which 
require  to  be  brought  into  contact  in  the  presence  of  water 
in  order  to  produce  light,  and  that  this  action  was  inde- 
pendent of  the  life  of  the  PJiolas,  and  could  still  take  place 
after  the  substances  had  been  dried  or  treated  with  various 
reagents.  The  light-production  was,  in  fact,  shown  to  be 
a  chemical  phenomenon  which  could  be  produced  in  the 
laboratory  by  substances  which  were  no  longer  alive, 
although  originally  formed  by  a  living  animal. 

The  colour  of  the  light  in  Pholas  is  greenish  blue,  and 
very  brilHant  and  persistent  even  after  separation  from  the 
body ;  but  it  is  difficult  to  say  what  the  use  can  be  to  an 
animal  deeply  buried  at  the  bottom  of  a  hole  in  the  rock 
— unless  it  be  that  the  luminous  secretion  spreads  from  the 
body  up  to  and  around  the  mouth  of  the  burrow  and  acts 
as  an  attraction  to  minute  swimming  organisms,  which  are 
then  sucked  in  and  used  as  food.     (See  Fig.  12.) 

In  the  highest  group  of  molluscs,  the  cuttle-fishes,  we  find 
both  primitive  light-producing  glands,  which  eject  their 
secretion  into  the  surrounding  water,  where  the  luciferine 
and  luciferase  in  contact  with  oxygen  generate  light  (external 
combustion),  and  also  most  elaborate  and  more  deeply 
placed  organs,  under  nerve-control,  with  internal  combus- 
tion, the  photogenous  secretion  never  leaving  the  cells  in 
which  it  is  formed. 

The  most  highly  differentiated  of  these  closed  photogenous 
organs  show  cornea,  lens,  and  reflectors  arranged  around 
the  central  light-producing  ceUs,  the  whole  being  surrounded 


LUMINESCENCE   IN  THE   SEA  223 

by  a  protecting  coat  or  capsule,  and  presenting,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  higher  Crustacea,  a  singular  resemblance  to  the 
structure  of  an  eye. 

The  cuttle-fish  lights  have  generally  been  described  as 
blue,  but  in  the  case  of  the  deep-sea  Thaumatolampas  diadema 
most  of  the  twenty-two  organs  scattered  over  the  body 


Fig.  12. — Three  specimens  of  Pholas  ddctylus  in  their  burrows,  nat.  size. 

show  a  white  light,  the  two  anal  lights  are  ruby-red,  a 
median  visceral  light  is  ultramarine,  and  two  ocular  lights 
are  sky-blue.  Whether  all  these  different  colours  are  pro" 
duced  in  the  cells  from  which  the  light  emanates,  or,  as  seems 
more  probable,  are  caused  by  some  of  the  layers  of  tissue 
through  which  the  light  passes  to  the  exterior,  is  not  yet 


224 


FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 


fully  known,  but  the  two  ruby  lights  owe  their  colour  to  a 
screen  of  red  chromatophores  in  the  skin  (Fig.  13). 

TuNiCATA  (Ascidians). — Only  one,  very  remarkable,  case 
need  be  discussed  in  this  group — that  of  Pyrosoma.  This  is  a 
large,  free-swimming  colony  in  the  form  of  a  hollow  cylinder 


Fig.  13. — Sketch  of  Deep-sea  Luminous  Cuttle-fish  with  numerous 

light-organs. 

with  one  end  closed  (Fig  14).  The  walls  of  the  cyHnder 
are  formed  of  the  ascidiozooids,  or  members  of  the  colony, 
placed  closely  side  by  side,  with  their  mouths  on  the  outer 
surface.  Each  ascidiozooid  has  two  photogenous  glands 
placed  one  on  each  side  of  the  anterior  end  of  the  body  a 
little  behind  the  mouth,  and  therefore  close  to  the  outer 
surface  of  the  colony.     Each  gland  consists  of  a  mass  of 


Fig.  14. — Small  Colony  of  Pyrosoma^  natural  size. 

granular  cells  surrounded  by  a  blood  sinus.  The  light  is 
described  as  red  in  some  cases  and  blue  in  others,  and  as  a 
colony  only  a  few  inches  in  length  may  have  several  thou- 
sands of  these  sparkling  points,  the  volume  of  light  emitted 


LUMINESCENCE  IN  THE   SEA  225 

makes  Pyrosoma  one  of  the  most  brilliantly  luminescent 
animals  of  tropical  seas. 

As  in  Pennatula  and  many  other  cases,  any  stimulation 
serves  to  excite  luminescence  in  Pyrosoma,  and  Moseley, 
in  his  Notes  of  a  Naturalist,  states  that,  when  the  "  Chal- 
lenger "  expedition  captured  a  specimen  over  4  feet  in 
length,  "  I  wrote  my  name  with  my  finger  on  the  surface 
of  the  giant  Pyrosoma  as  it  lay  on  deck  in  a  tub  at  night, 
and  my  name  came  out  in  a  few  seconds  in  letters  of 
fire." 

Fishes. — Deep-sea  luminous  fishes  have  been  well  known 
since  the  time  of  the  "  Challenger  "  expedition.  A  few  of 
the  more  notable  forms  belong  to  the  genera  ScopeluSy 
Chauliodus,  Astronesthes,  and  Photostomias.  The  Hght-organs 
may  be  in  various  positions  on  the  head,  on  the  giU-covers, 
along  the  sides  of  the  body,  or  on  the  ventral  surface. 
Ipnops  murrayi  has  two  very  large  photogenous  organs 
occupjdng  most  of  the  flattened  upper  surface  of  the  head. 
Melanocetus  johnsoni  has  the  light  on  the  extremity  of  a 
long  flexible  process  from  the  top  of  the  head,  so  as  to  form 
a  lure  which  may  attract  prey  to  the  wide-open,  formidable 
mouth  below.  There  is  also  much  variety  in  the  structures. 
The  essential  glandular  parts  of  the  organs  are  probably 
in  aU  cases  enlargements  and  differentiations  of  the  mucous 
glands  of  the  skin,  and  the  reflectors  and  other  accessory 
layers  are  developed  from  the  surrounding  integumentary 
tissues.  All  these  light-producing  organs  of  fishes  are  well 
supphed  with  nerves. 

It  is  possible  that  luminescence  in  deep-sea  fishes  may 
serve  a  number  of  useful  purposes,  such  as  general  illumina- 
tion of  the  surrounding  water,  the  attraction  of  prey,  pro- 
tection and  warning,  and  it  has  even  been  suggested  that 
the  specific  arrangement  of  the  lights  facihtates  recognition 
by  other  members  of  the  same  species,  like  colour-schemes 
in  terrestrial  animals.  Murray  and  Hjort  have  shown  that 
many  of  the  tropical  luminous  fishes  do  not  come  from  the 


226     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

greatest  depths,  but  inhabit  intermediate  waters,  and  may 
even  appear  at  the  surface  of  the  sea  at  night. 

Here,  then,  we  have  a  great  phenomenon  of  the  ocean 
— of  all  oceans — and  at  all  depths,  appearing  sometimes  in 
one  form  and  sometimes  in  another  :  it  may  be  as  a  dull 
continuous  glow,  or  it  may  be  seen  as  myriads  of  brilUant 
sparks,  Hke  a  pjrrotechnic  display,  and  in  all  cases  caused 
by  the  presence  in  the  water  of  living  creatures.  These 
luminescent  organisms  are  of  the  most  varied  kinds,  from 
the  lowest  and  simplest  up  to  fishes,  from  particles  of 
microscopic  size  up  to  the  gigantic  Pyrosoma,  and  the  light 
may  be  produced  within  a  simple  protoplasmic  cell,  or  it 
may  be  emitted  from  a  complicated  organ  composed  of 
many  layers  of  cells.  It  may  be  a  constant,  steady  light 
apparently  independent  of  surrounding  conditions,  or  an 
instantaneous  flash  produced  as  the  result  of  direct  stimula- 
tion, and  evidently  under  nerve-control.  And  yet  the  actual 
method  of  production  of  the  light  is  probably  in  all  cases 
the  same,  and  is  essentially  a  physico-chemical  process, 
consisting  of  the  slow  oxidation  of  one  or  more  protein 
substances  secreted  by  the  living  protoplasm.  Moreover, 
in  many  cases,  it  may  be  so  in  all,  it  has  been  shown  that 
two  substances  must  be  produced — the  protein,  called  luci- 
ferine,  and  an  enzyme,  luciferase — which  must  be  brought 
into  contact  in  the  presence  of  oxygen  in  order  to  produce 
the  characteristic  apparently  cold  light.  Bio-luminescence 
differs  from  all  artificial  illuminants  in  being  an  emission 
of  light  without  any  sensible  heat.  It  is  a  conversion  of 
chemical  energy  into  radiant  energy.  The  light  is  a  physical 
accompaniment  of  the  chemical  metabolism  of  the  organism, 
part  of  the  energy  set  free  taking  this  form  in  place  of  the 
more  usual  one  of  heat.  It  is  a  highly  efficient  method  of 
light  production;  and  it  has  been  stated  that  the  best 
artificial  illuminant  has  only  about  four  per  cent,  of  the 
luminous  efiiciency  of  the  fire-fly. 


LUMINESCENCE   IN  THE    SEA  227 

As  we  have  seen,  it  was  the  French  physiologist  Raphael 
Dubois  who  first  determined  the  presence  of  luciferine  and 
luciferase  in  the  case  of  the  marine  boring  bivalve  mollusc 
Pholas  dactylus,  and  also  in  the  case  of  a  terrestrial  insect, 
the  luminous  beetle  Pyrophorus  noctilucus,  and  showed  the 
part  these  proteins  played  in  the  production  of  light ;  but 
the  discovery  has  since  been  extended  to  the  luminous  organs 
and  secretions  of  various  other  animals,  especially  by  the 
recent  work  of  the  American  investigators,  Ukic  Dahlgren 
and  E.  Newton  Harvey.  The  latter  finds  that  although 
the  luciferines  and  luciferases  of  different  luminous  animals 
are  similar  substances,  they  are  not  identical,  but  are  abso- 
lutely specific  ;  for  the  luciferine,  for  example,  of  animal 
A  (say  a  Mollusc)  will  not  give  Hght  with  the  luciferase  of 
animal  B  (a  Crustacean),  and  the  luciferine  of  B  gives  no 
light  with  the  luciferase  of  A. 

Another  point,  requiring  further  investigation  into  the 
chemistry  of  these  substances,  is  the  relation  between  their 
composition  and  the  various  very  distinct  colours  of  the 
Light  produced.  Observers  speak  of  the  silvery  light  of 
Noctiluca,  the  green  glow  of  Ctenophores,  the  brilliant 
blue  of  the  Httle  Crustacean  Cypridina,  the  lilac  flashes  of 
some  sea-pens,  the  ruby-red  of  a  cuttle-fish,  and  the  dim 
white  light  produced  over  large  areas  of  the  ocean  by 
minute  luminous  Protozoa  in  the  case  of  the  so-called 
"  milky  sea  "  or  "  white  water  "  in  the  GuK  of  Aden, 
the  China  Sea,  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  elsewhere  in  the 
tropics. 

Newton  Harvey,  in  his  most  recent  work  (January,  1923), 
has  shown  that  the  luminescent  reaction  in  such  a  case  as 
Cypridina  is  probably  represented  by  the  equation — 
Luciferine  +  oxygen  =  oxy-luciferine  -f  water. 

But  the  presence  of  luciferase,  acting  as  a  catalyst,  is 
also  necessary  for  the  production  of  light.  Moreover,  the 
action  is  reversible,  and  the  oxy-luciferine  formed  can  be 
reduced  back  to  luciferine,  which  will  again  oxidize  under 


228     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

the  appropriate  conditions.  Harvey  suggests  that  the 
steady  luminescence  of  organisms  such  as  Bacteria,  which 
go  on  glowing  day  and  night,  may  be  due  to  continuous 
oxidation  of  luciferine  to  oxy-luciferine  and  reduction  of 
oxy-luciferine  to  luciferine  again  in  different  parts  of  the 
protoplasm  of  the  same  cell.  This  is  a  highly  economical 
process  of  light-production,  as  no  sensible  heat  is  emitted 
— the  radiation  is  apparently  all  cold  Hght. 

The  two  essential  substances  can  be  isolated,  and  when 
the  reaction  is  performed  in  a  test-tube  the  light  is  only 
produced  on  the  surface  of  the  fluid  where  the  luciferine 
can  obtain  oxygen  from  the  air.  Any  shake  or  other 
stimulation  of  the  tube  which  enables  the  fluid  to  dissolve 
more  oxygen  is  enough  to  cause  an  increased  glow  or  a 
flash  of  light  like  that  produced  by  many  luminous  animals 
on  stimulation.  This  observation  suggests  that,  in  some 
cases  at  least,  the  light  produced  in  the  living  animal,  either 
by  external  or  internal  stimulus,  is  a  consequence  of  more 
oxygen  reaching  the  photogenous  cells  as  the  result  of  some 
increase  of  permeabiUty  of  the  surface  layer.  This,  however, 
will  apparently  not  explain  all  cases  of  light-production 
on  stimulation,  and  Newton  Harvey  thinks  it  doubtful 
whether  stimulation  can  cause  any  sudden  increase  in  the 
permeability  of  the  luminescent  cells  to  oxygen. 

Finally,  it  may  be  asked — What  is  the  use  to  the  organism 
concerned  of  this  remarkable  production  of  cold  light  by 
means  of  the  oxidation  of  one  or  more  protein  substances 
secreted  by  the  living  protoplasm  but  retaining  the  power 
of  light -production,  in  some  cases,  at  least,  long  after  separa- 
tion from  the  body  ?  It  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  direct 
utility  in  all  cases.  In  the  lowest  organisms  where  there 
is  a  steady  glow  not  depending  upon  any  stimulation,  it  may 
be  that  the  light  is  merely  a  by-product  of  metabolism, 
that  is,  of  the  chemical  processes  going  on  in  the  living 
protoplasm  and  resulting  in  the  production  of  light  just  as  of 
heat  in  other  cases.     But  where  the  photogenous  secretion 


LUMINESCENCE  IN  THE    SEA  229 

is  the  product  of  a  special  gland  or  of  definite  organs  which 
may  have  a  complicated  structure  comparable  mechanically 
to  an  eye  or  a  bull's-eye  lantern,  and  where  the  emission 
of  light  is  a  direct  response  to  special  stimulation  (as  in 
higher  Crustacea  and  fishes)  utility  must  be  assumed ;  and 
the  different  colours  and  intensities  of  the  light  produced, 
the  different  forms  and  situations  of  the  glands  or  photo- 
spheres and  the  different  light  schemes  or  patterns  all  suggest 
that  the  use  is  not  one  and  the  same  in  all  cases,  but  may 
differ  widely  in  the  different  luminous  organisms. 

In  stating  these  uses  we  are  on  somewhat  uncertain 
ground.  Much  experimental  evidence  is  necessary,  such  as 
can  only  be  obtained  on  oceanographic  expeditions  and  by 
observations  on  the  living  organisms  at  biological  stations. 
But  it  seems  probable  (1)  that  luminous  lures  such  as  are 
seen  on  some  fishes  may  serve  as  an  attraction  or  bait  for 
prey  ;  (2)  that  some  photospheres  may  be  recognition  marks 
for  the  attraction  of  other  individuals  of  the  same  species 
for  mating  or  other  purposes  ;  (3)  that  the  sudden  flashing 
of  light  may  be  a  protection  of  an  alarming  or  warning 
nature  to  enemies,  like  the  brilliant  colours  and  threatening 
attitudes  of  some  land  animals  (possibly  the  warning  may 
be  an  indication  of  a  distasteful  animal  to  be  avoided  as 
food)  ;  (4)  that  the  luminous  clouds  of  secretion  sometimes 
emitted  may  distract  an  enemy  and  allow  an  active  Copepod 
to  escape  ;  (5)  that  a  detached  luminous  fragment  cast  off 
from  the  body  may  be  a  "  sacrifice  lure  "  to  deceive  the 
enemy ;  (6)  that  in  the  case  of  some  stationary  animals 
where  the  nutrition  depends  upon  ciHary  currents  or  upon 
waving  tentacles,  the  light  may  attract  swarms  of  minute 
organisms  which  can  then  be  captured  as  food  ;  and  (7) 
that  in  the  case  of  predaceous  animals  prowling  about  the 
dark  sea-bottom,  lights  on  the  head,  near  the  eyes  or  on  the 
lower  surface  of  the  body  may  be  of  use  for  general  illumina- 
tion of  the  abysses  in  the  constant  search  for  food. 

The  various  cells,  tissues  and  organs  that  give  rise  to 


230     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

luminescence  in  marine  organisms  may  be  regarded  as  an 
evolutionary  series.  Starting  with  the  emission  of  light 
from  a  single  cell  as  a  non-utilitarian  incident  of  the  meta- 
boUsm  of  the  living  protoplasm,  we  may  imagine  this  vital 
characteristic  becoming  of  survival  value  in  some  sets  of 
organisms  and  not  in  others,  according  to  the  difference  of 
environment  and  habits.  Furthermore,  the  value  of  one 
type  of  light -production  might  be  greater  in  one  set  of  animals 
than  that  of  another  type  in  a  different  set.  Thus  super- 
ficial photogenous  tissue,  or  more  deeply  seated  glands,  a 
more  general  diffusion,  or  a  concentration  in  special  photo- 
spheres, might  each  be  of  more  use  in  one  case  than  in 
another  under  different  environmental  conditions.  Thus 
we  can  imagine  the  gradual  evolution  through  the  ages, 
under  the  action  of  variation  and  natural  selection  or  elimina- 
tion, of  the  different  kinds  of  luminescent  organs  in  accord- 
ance with  their  survival  value  in  one  kind  of  animal  or 
another — and  thus  the  diversity  of  the  light-producing  organs 
and  their  sporadic  distribution  in  the  animal  kingdom  does 
not  seem  unnatural.  We  can,  at  any  rate,  imagine  a  possible 
explanation  of  the  mystery,  and  hope  that  further  experi- 
mental work  will  throw  much  needed  light  upon  the  real 
utility  of  the  various  types  of  luminescence. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
PLANKTON  :    ITS  NATURE  AND  INVESTIGATION 

The  animals  and  plants  that  live  in  the  sea  have  been 
divided,  according  to  their  habits  and  the  regions  they 
inhabit,  into  the  following  three  sets  : — 

1.  Benthos — those  that  live  attached  to  or  crawling  over 

the  sea-bottom. 

2.  Nekton — Those  that  swim  freely  in  the  water. 

3.  Plankton — those  that  float  or  drift  in  the  water  with 

little  or  no  powers  of  independent  locomotion. 


'x:-^ 


Surface  of  Sea 


J^sritic  Oceanic 

7y/////y9d\Mero-plankton        Holo-plankton 

-'y^'^  Zoo-plankton 

\%K  and 

^/^iP\^     Phyto- plankton 


Epi-plankton 
Meso-plankton 
Bathy- plankton 


The  term  "  Plankton  "  was  introduced  by  Victor  Hensen 
in  1887,  and  was  popularized  by  Ernst  Haeckel  a  few  years 
later  {Plankton-Studien,  1890),  and  classified  under  various 
subdivisions  such  as  Phyto-  and  Zoo-plankton,  Neritic  and 
Oceanic,  Macro-  and  Micro-plankton,  Epi-,  Meso-  and  Bathy- 
plankton,  and  other  convenient  groups  according  to  the 
nature  and  habitat  of  the  organisms  (see  Fig.  15).     Holo- 

231 


232     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

planktonic  forms  are  such  as  remain  free  and  pelagic  during 
the  whole  of  their  life  (Diatoms,  Copepoda,  etc.),  and  Mero- 
planktonic  those  that  are  transitory  only,  such  as  the  embry- 
onic, larval  and  other  free  stages  of  benthonic  animals 
(Coelenterates,  Echinoderms,  Molluscs  and  many  others). 
Fig.  2,  on  Plate  XVII,  shows  the  appearance  under  the 
microscope  of  a  sample  of  mixed  plankton  containing  both 
plants  and  animals,  both  holo-  and  mero-planktonic. 

The  importance  of  the  plankton  in  the  scheme  of  nature 
and  in  relation  to  the  nutrition  of  the  larger  animals  of  the 
benthos  and  the  nektonic  fishes  can  scarcely  be  overstated, 
and  many  investigators  all  over  the  world — on  special 
expeditions  and  at  biological  stations — during  the  last  half- 
century,  have  made  contributions  to  knowledge  of  the  nature 
of  the  plankton  and  its  detailed  distribution  both  in  space 
and  time  and  the  many  other  problems  of  its  occurrence. 
Fig.  1,  on  Plate  XVII,  shows  the  plankton  net  outfit  on  a 
Yacht  engaged  in  scientific  work. 

The  earlier  investigations  of  the  plankton  were  almost 
entirely  qualitative,  that  is,  they  consisted  in  identifying  the 
organisms  caught,  working  out  their  minute  structure  and 
tracing  their  life-history  ;  but  more  recently  much  attention 
has  been  directed  to  the  quantitative  distribution  of  organ- 
isms in  the  sea  mainly  as  the  result  of  the  elaborate  investiga- 
tions of  the  Kiel  school  of  Planktologists  and  the  German 
Plankton  Expedition  of  the  "  National,"  through  the  Atlan- 
tic, in  1889.  Previously,  the  plankton  had  been  caught  by 
various  forms  of  tow-nets,  from  the  simple  open  cheese-cloth 
or  silk  tapering  bag,  as  used  by  the  "  Challenger  "  and  many 
other  expeditions,  to  the  more  compHcated  "  closing  "  nets 
of  Agassiz,  Nansen  and  other  Scandinavian  investigators, 
which  were  designed  to  sample  special  zones  of  water  below 
the  surface  (Fig.  16).  But  the  Kiel  school  consisting  of  Hensen, 
Brandt,  Apstein,  Lohmann,  and  their  disciples,  introduced 
more  precise  methods,  and  designed  nets  of  definite  shape 
and  dimensions  which  were  calculated  to  strain  a  known 


PLATE  XVII. 


[Photo  by  Edwin  Thompson. 

Fig.    1. — Set  of  Plankton  Nets,   drying  after  use  on  the  yacht. 
Agassiz  trawl  hanging  from  the  derrick  forward. 


[Photo-micrograph  by  A.  ScoTT. 

Fig.   2. — Mixed  Plankton,  containing  Diatoms,  Copepoda  and  Polychaet 

larvae,  etc.      X  25. 


PLANKTON 


233 


column  of  water  and  give  a  catch 
which,  when  multiplied  by  a  co- 
efficient, would  be  the  exact  con- 
tents of  so  many  fathoms  of,  say, 
a  square  metre  in  section — a 
most  desirable  result,  if  possible 
of  attainment.  Moreover,  the 
Kiel  planktologists  assumed  a 
uniform  distribution  of  the  or- 
ganisms in  sea  areas  under  con- 
stant conditions  ;  and  by  these 
methods  arrived  at  far-reaching 
conclusions  in  regard  to  the 
amount  of  food  matters  in  the 
sea,  such  as  the  numbers  of 
floating  fish- eggs  and  of  the  fish- 
populations — all  based  upon  (1) 
the  supposed  uniform  distribu- 
tion over  wide  areas  and  (2)  the 
vaHdity  of  a  comparatively 
small  number  of  samples  taken 
at  considerable  distances  apart. 
Fig.  3,  on  Plate  XVIII,  shows 
one  form  of  the  Hensen  quanti- 
tative net. 

Before  considering  these  and 
other  quantitative  methods  more 
in  detail,  it  may  be  convenient  to 
name  and  characterize  briefly  a 
few  of  the  leading  groups  of  the 
plankton  and  some  represen- 
tative   genera    which    may  re- 


FiG.  16. — "Nansen"  Closing  Tow-Net  in  Action. 

I.  Open,  as  it  descends  and  as  it  fishes  coming  up. 

II.  Closed,  as  it  is  when  hauled  in  after  fishing.  B,  brass  bucket  containing 
the  catch.  C,  canvas  front  to  net.  L,  releasing  apparatus.  M,  brass  mes- 
senger sent  down  line  to  effect  closing.  T,the  throttling  noose.  W,  weight. 


234     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

quire  to  be  mentioned  further  on  in  the  discussion.  Amongst 
the  microscopic  plants  of  the  plankton  there  are  a  few  Algae 
and  an  immense  number  of  Diatoms. 

Trichodesmium  eryihrceum  is  one  of  the  "  blue-green  " 
algae,  which,  however,  is  of  a  yellowish-brown  colour 
and  occurs  as  bundles  or  clusters  of  short  hair-like 
filaments  in  enormous  abundance  on  the  siirface  of  some  of 
the  warmer  seas,  especially  in  the  Indian  Ocean  and  the  Red 
Sea  (hence  so  named).  It  is  most  irregularly  distributed, 
and  may  occupy  narrow  tracts  miles  in  length,  or  patches  of 
large  area,  and  then  be  totally  absent  in  equally  large  adjoin- 
ing spaces.  Our  knowledge  of  this  phenomenon  dates  back 
to  the  times  of  Cook's  voyages  in  southern  seas  when  the 
tracts  of  yellowish  discoloured  water  were  referred  to  (in  the 
journal  of  Sir  Joseph  Banks)  by  the  sailors'  name  of  "  sea- 
sawdust."  This  and  other  swarms  were  also  noticed  by 
Charles  Darwin  in  the  South  Atlantic  during  the  voyage  of 
the  "  Beagle  "  in  1835. 

Coccospheres  and  Rhahdospheres  are  minute  unicellular 
algae  having  calcareous  plates  and  spines,  found  in  very 
great  abundance  throughout  the  open  oceans,  and  especially 
abundant,  according  to  Sir  John  Murray,  in  the  tropics — 
though  often  overlooked  on  account  of  their  minute 
size. 

Diatoms  are  found  most  abundantly  near  the  coasts  and  in 
colder  waters  such  as  the  Southern  Ocean  and  the  North 
Pacific.  They  vary  greatly  in  size  and  shape  (globes,  drums; 
spindles,  ribbons,  hairs,  etc.),  but  are  usually  of  a  yellowish- 
brown  colour  and  are  enclosed  in  siliceous  shells  (the  frustules) 
which  may  be  elaborately  and  delicately  carved  and  pro- 
longed into  spines  and  other  projections.  A  few  of  the  more 
notable  forms  are  : — 

Chcetoceras  ~a>  genus  containing  many  species,  some  of 
which  are  amongst  the  most  abundant  Diatoms  in  the 
Irish  Sea  in  late  spring  and  early  summer,  and  sometimes 
again  in  late  autumn.     As  many  as  150  millions  have  some- 


PLATE  XVIII. 


Fig.   L— The  Tile  Fish. 


Fig.  2. — Lucas  Sounding  Machine  as  used  with 
"  Nansen  "  vertical  closing  net  on  rail  of  the 
yacht. 


Fig.   3.— a   "  Hensen  "   Quanti- 
tative Net. 


PLANKTON  235 

times  been  obtained  in  one  haul  of  a  small  tow-net  in  May. 
Chcetoceras  (Plate  XIX,  Fig.  2)  is  characterized  by  the  long 
slender  cm'ved  spines  which  project  in  groups  from  the  ends 
of  the  cells. 

Rhizosolenia — another  large  genus,  some  of  the  species 
(Plate  XIX,  Fig.  1)  of  which  are  very  abundant  in  our  seas  in 
early  summer  and  late  autumn,  reaching  the  maximum 
usually  in  June,  when  up  to  180  millions  have  been  taken  in 
one  haul  of  the  tow-net. 

Coscinodiscus  appears  as  discoid  and  drum-shaped  forms 
in  which  the  siliceous  frustrules  are  marked  with  concentric 
and  other  geometric  curves  so  as  to  form  elaborate  patterns. 
It  is  a  winter  and  early  spring  form.  (Seen  as  discs  on  Plate 
XVII,  Fig.  2.) 

Biddulphia  is  also  a  common  winter  and  spring  form  and 
has  square  or  oblong  cells  with  spines  at  the  corners  and 
bright  yellow  contents.  In  addition  to  the  common  European 
species,  B.  mdbilienis  (?  B.  regia),  a  more  elongated  form, 
B,  sinensis  (Plate  XVII,  Fig.  2),  has  appeared  of  late  years 
and  is  now  abundant.  It  is  supposed  to  have  come  from  far 
eastern  seas,  and,  according  to  Ostenfeld,  to  have  been 
found  first  in  the  North  Sea  near  the  Elbe  in  1903,  and  to 
have  spread  from  there  to  the  Irish  Sea,  the  English  Channel 
and  up  the  coasts  of  Denmark  to  Norway. 

Dinoflagellata  or  Peridiniales  are  minute  unicellular 
organisms  which  are  usually  regarded  as  Protozoa,  but  have 
been  claimed  by  some  as  plants.  They  may  be  very  abun- 
dant on  occasions  and  are  of  great  importance  as  the  food  of 
some  of  the  larger  organisms  of  the  plankton  and  even  of 
small  fishes.  Two  genera  are  very  abundant  in  our  seas  : 
Ceratium  (Plate  XIV,  Fig.  2),  which  is  said  to  be  the  chief 
food  of  the  sardine  at  times  on  the  coasts  of  France  and 
Portugal,  and  Peridinium,  which  is  sometimes  so  abundant 
as  to  discolour  the  sea. 

Noctiluca  scintillans  (Plate  XIV,  Fig.  1),  a  globular  gelatin- 
ous Protozoon,  related  to  the  Dinoflagellates,  which  gives  rise 


236     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

to  a  good  deal  of  the  phosphorescence  of  the  sea.  It  may 
occur  in  dense  swarms,  especially  in  inshore  waters,  and  may 
be  abundant  in  one  place  and  totally  absent  in  other  localities 
not  far  distant.  It  has  been  found  swarming  in  the  sea 
round  Anglesey  in  August,  while  none  were  found  round  the 
Isle  of  Man.  A  few  years  ago  it  occurred  in  enormous 
abundance  in  the  Barrow  Channel  in  December,  which  is 
unusually  late  for  these  coasts  ;  but  in  the  Baltic  it  usually 
appears  in  great  swarms  late  in  the  year.  Its  home,  where  it 
is  commonly  present  throughout  the  year,  is  said  to 
be  the  English  Channel  and  the  southern  part  of  the  North 
Sea  (see  also  p.   214). 

The  Diatoms  and  the  Dinoflagellata  and  their  allies  are 
frequently  grouped  together  as  "  Phytoplankton  "  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  animals   (Zooplankton)  which  follow  : — 

The  Copepoda,  small  shrimp-like  Crustacea  averaging 
about  an  eighth  of  an  inch  in  length,  are  the  most  important 
group  of  the  zoo-plankton  and  are  found  in  all  seas  at  various 
depths  and  at  almost  all  times  of  year.  Some,  such  as  the  gen- 
era Parapontella  and  Temora  (Plate  XXIII),  are  characteristic 
of  coastal  waters  ("  neritic  "),  while  others,  such  as  Acartia 
(Plate  XIX,  Fig.  4)  and  Anomalocera,  are  "  oceanici"  in  origin. 
Calanus  finmarchicus  (Plate  XIX,  Fig.  3)  is  one  of  the  largest 
of  Copepoda  found  in  the  British  seas,  and  probably  the  most 
important  from  a  practical  fisheries'  point  of  view,  as  it  is  an 
element  in  the  food  of  various  migratory  fishes  such  as  the 
mackerel  and  the  herring.  Its  home  appears  to  be  in  the 
North  Atlantic  to  the  south  of  Iceland,  but  it  occurs  on 
occasions  in  large  swarms  in  various  other  parts  of  the 
European  seas,  and  appears  to  be  a  constant  inhabitant  of 
deep  water  near  the  bottom  of  some  of  the  Scottish  sea- 
lochs. 

Sagitta  (Plate  XX,  Fig.  2),  the  "arrow- worm,"  and  Tomop- 
teris  are  both  transparent,  pelagic  worms  frequently  met 
with  in  the  plankton  and  usually  more  abundant  in  deeper 
zones  of  water  than  at  the  surface. 


PLATE  XIX. 


A 


^i^,^  V 


V>J^i,:5^i:4M;^ 


.•^ 


Fig.  1. — Phyto-plankton,  consisting  of 
the  Diatom  Rhizosolenia  semispina. 


" 

^^^t^ 

"<*v. 

*#y^ 

/ 

"v. 

^® 

Fig.  2. — The  Diatom  Chcetoceras  deci- 
piens. 


Fig.    3. — Zoo-plankton,   consisting  of 
the  Copepod  Calanus  finmarckicus. 

All  magnified. 


Fig.  4. — The  Copepod  Acartia  claiisi. 
[Fhoto-micrographs  by  A.  Scott. 


PLANKTON  237 

Fodon  and  Evadne  are  small  Crustacea  allied  to  Cope- 
poda,  which  may  occm:  as  dense  local  swarms  in  sum- 
mer, and  are  an  important  element  of  the  food  of  young 
fishes. 

Oikopleura  is  a  minute,  pelagic,  highly- organized  animal, 
related  to  the  sedentary  Ascidians  of  the  benthos,  but 
having  a  locomotory  tail  provided  with  a  rudimentary 
backbone  (notochord)  and  remaining  free-swimming 
throughout  life.  It  is  abundant  in  our  seas  at  all  times  of 
year,  and  is  commonly  known  as  Appendicularia. 

In  addition  to  these  and  many  other  adult  organisms, 
there  are  in  the  plankton  immense  numbers  of  the  eggs, 
embryos,  larvse  and  free-swimming  stages  of  most  of  the 
fixed  and  crawling  animals,  such  as  zoophytes,  starfishes, 
worms,  crabs  and  molluscs,  on  the  bottom.  It  is  evident 
then,  even  from  this  brief  survey,  that  the  plankton  may  con- 
tain representatives  of  almost  all  kinds  of  marine  organisms 
and  may  be  immensely  varied  both  in  amount  and  nature 
at  different  localities  and  times  of  year. 

We  now  return  to  the  methods  of  capture,  and  the  investi- 
gation of  the  problems  plankton  presents  to  the  oceanog- 
rapher,  in  its  distribution  both  horizontally  and  vertically 
and  in  its  seasonal  and  other  variations. 

Let  us  consider  one  or  two  published  examples  of  the 
problems  in  the  economics  of  the  sea  which  Hensen  and  his 
fellow-workers  undertake  to  solve  by  their  quantitative 
methods  : — 

From  certain  samples  obtained  in  the  west  Baltic  it  was 
calculated  that  every  square  mile  contained  80  to  100  billion 
Copepoda,  and  from  the  relative  proportions  of  eggs,  larvse 
and  adults  it  was  deduced  that  for  the  sixteen  square  miles 
of  a  certain  fishery  district  the  annual  consumption  of  Cope- 
poda must  be  15,600  biUions,  and  that  consequently  that 
locahty  supports  Copepod-food  sufficient  for  534  million 
herrings  of  an  average  weight  of  60  grammes. 

Then,  again,  we  are  told  that  Brandt  found  about  200 


238     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

Diatoms  per  drop  of  water  in  Kiel  Bay,  and  that  Hensen 
estimated  that  there  are  several  hundred  millions  of  Diatoms 
under  each  square  metre  of  the  North  Sea  or  the  Baltic  ; 
and  it  has  been  calculated  that  there  is  approximately  one 
Copepod  in  each  cubic  inch  of  Baltic  water. 

The  floating  eggs  and  embryos  of  the  more  important 
food-fishes  occur  in  quantities  in  the  plankton  during 
certain  months  in  spring,  and  Hensen  and  Apstein  have  made 
some  notable  calculations  based  on  the  occurrence  of  these 
in  a  series  of  158  samples  which  led  them  to  the  conclusion 
that,  taking  six  of  our  most  abundant  fish,  such  as  the  cod 
and  some  of  the  flat  fish,  the  eggs  present  were  probably 
produced  by  about  1,200  million  spawners,  leading  them  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  total  fish  population  of  the  North 
Sea  (of  these  six  species),  at  that  time  (spring  of  1895) 
amounted  to  about  10,000  millions.  Further  calculations 
led  them  to  the  result  that  the  fishermen's  catch  of  these 
fishes  amounted  to  about  one-quarter  of  the  total  popu- 
lation. 

Now  all  this  is  not  only  of  scientific  interest,  but  also  of 
great  practical  importance  if  we  could  be  sure  that  the  small 
series  of  samples  upon  which  these  colossal  calculations  are 
based  were  adequate  and  representative,  but  it  will  be  noted 
that  these  samples  represent  only  one  square  metre  in 
3,465,968,354.  Hensen's  statement,  repeated  in  various 
works  in  slightly  differing  words,  is  to  the  effect  that  using  a 
net  of  which  the  constants  are  known,  hauled  vertically 
through  a  column  of  water  from  a  certain  depth  to  the 
surface,  he  can  calculate  the  volume  of  water  filtered  by  the 
net  and  so  estimate  the  quantity  of  plankton  under  each 
square  metre  of  the  surface  ;  and  his  whole  results  depend 
upon  the  assumption,  which  he  considers  justified,  that  the 
plankton  is  evenly  distributed  over  large  areas  of  water 
which  are  under  similar  conditions.  In  these  calculations  in 
regard  to  the  fish  eggs  he  takes  the  whole  of  the  North  Sea 
as  being  an  area  under  similar  conditions,  but  we  have  known 


PLATE  XX. 


fm" 


^fii^^f^ 


[Photo-micrograph  by  A.  Scott. 
Fig.   1. — Zoea   stage  of  the  Crab,  inagnified. 


[Photo  by  A.  ScOTT. 
Fig.   2. — Sagitta  bipunctata,  the  Arrow-worm;  about  twice  natural  size. 


PLANKTON  239 

since  the  days  of  P.  T.  Cleve  and  from  the  observations  of 
Hensen's  own  colleagues  that  this  is  not  the  case,  and  they 
have  published  chart-diagrams  showing  that  at  least  three 
different  kinds  of  water  under  different  conditions  are  found 
in  the  North  Sea  and  that  at  least  five  different  planktonic 
areas  may  be  encountered  in  making  a  traverse  from  Germany 
to  the  British  Isles. 

There  is  also  direct  evidence  of  irregularity  in  the  dis- 
tribution of  such  fish  eggs.  Hjort  and  Petersen,  in  1905, 
showed  that  cod  eggs  are  found  in  great  quantities  over  the 
isolated  banks  of  the  coast  of  Norway,  while  none  or  very 
few  are  found  over  the  channels  between  the  banks.  Schmidt 
also  found  eggs  and  fry  of  cod  on  the  Rockall  Bank,  but  not 
outside  it.  If  the  argument  be  used  that  wherever  the 
plankton  is  found  to  vary,  there  the  conditions  cannot  be 
uniform,  then  few  areas  of  the  ocean  of  any  considerable  size 
remain  as  cases  suitable  for  population-computation  from 
random  samples. 

The  Kiel  School  of  Planktologists  cannot  have  it  both  ways. 
They  claim  that  the  adequacy  of  their  samples  holds  good 
for  an  area  of  sea  all  of  which  is  under  similar  conditions. 
They  tell  us  at  one  time  that  the  North  Sea  contains  water  of 
different  kinds  from  different  sources  and  with  several  types 
of  plankton.  If,  then,  it  is  not  homogeneous — as  of  course, 
from  aU  the  evidence,  it  is  not — then  they  cannot  average 
the  samples  and  multiply  up  for  the  whole  area  as  Hensen 
and  Apstein  have  done. 

We  have  published  many  examples  from  the  Irish  Sea  of 
marked  irregularity  in  the  plankton.  If  the  plankton  were 
uniformly  distributed,  then  two  ordinary  open  horizontal 
nets  towed  together  at  the  same  time  ought  to  show  similar 
catches,  and  they  sometimes  do  ;  but  very  often  they  do 
not.  Even  when  the  volume  of  the  catch  is  much  the 
same  in  a  pair  of  nets,  the  totals  may  be  made  up  very 
differently,  as  in  the  case  of  nets  A  and  B  shown  in  the 
table  on  next  page. 


240 


FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 


April  13,  1907— Surface. 

Net  A  -  16  c.c. 

Net  B  -  16*5  CO. 

Balanus  nauplii 

3,000 

None 

Copepoda  nauplii 

7,000 

2,000 

Copepoda 

13,000 

None 

Coscinodiscus 

8,000 

14,000 

Biddulphia     . 

40,000 

70,000 

Rhizosolenia  . 

1,000 

3,000 

Thalassiosira  . 

2,000 

7,000 

ChaBtoceras     . 

None 

1,000 

Oikopleura 

2,000 

150 

The  following,  showing  a  sudden  change  in  the  nature  of 
the  plankton,  is  quoted  from  one  of  the  Port  Erin  Plankton 
Reports  : — 

"  We  were  fortunate  enough  on  one  occasion  to  obtain 
incontrovertible  evidence  of  the  sharply  defined  nature  of  a 
shoal  of  organisms,  forming  an  instructive  example  of  how 
nets  hauled  under  similar  circumstances  a  short  distance 
apart,  may  give  very  different  results.  On  the  evening  of 
April  1  (1907),  at  the  '  alongshore  '  Station  III,  north  of 
Port  Erin,  one  mile  out,  I  took  six  simultaneous  gatherings 
in  both  surface  and  deeper  waters.  Two  of  the  nets  were 
the  exactly  similar  surface  tow-nets  called  A  and  B.  At 
half-time  I  hauled  in  A,  emptied  the  contents  into  a  jar,  and 
promptly  put  the  net  out  again.  This  haK-gathering  was  of 
very  ordinary  character,  containing  a  few  Copepoda,  some 
Diatoms  and  some  larvae,  but  no  Crab  Zoeas.  At  the  end  of  the 
fifteen  minutes,  when  all  the  nets  were  hauled  onboard,  all  the 
gatherings,  including  A,  showed  an  extraordinary  number  of 
Crab  Zoeas  (Plate  XX,  Fig.  1),  rendering  the  ends  of  the  nets 
quite  dark  in  colour.  A  was  practically  the  same  as  B,  although 
A  had  only  been  fishing  for  seven  minutes.  It  was  evident 
that  at  about  half-time  the  nets  had  encountered  a  remark- 
able swarm  of  organisms  which  had  multiplied  several  times 
the  bulk  of  the  catch  and  had  introduced  a  new  animal  in 


PLANKTON  241 

enormous  numbers.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  chance  observa- 
tion of  the  contents  of  A  at  half-time,  it  would  naturally  have 
been  supposed  that,  as  all  the  nets  agreed  in  their  evidence, 
the  catches  were  fair  samples  of  what  the  water  contained 
over  at  least  the  area  traversed — whereas  we  now  know  that 
the  Zoeas  were  confined  to  at  most  the  latter  half  of  the 
traverse  and  may  have  been  even  more  restricted.  Under 
these  circumstances,  an  observation  made  solely  in  the  water 
traversed  during  the  first  seven  minutes  would  have  given 
a  very  different  result  from  that  actually  obtained  ;  or,  to 
put  it  another  way,  had  two  expeditions  taken  samples  that 
evening  at  what  might  well  be  considered  as  the  same  station, 
but  a  few  hundred  yards  apart,  they  might  have  arrived  at 
very  different  conclusions  as  to  the  constitution  of  the 
plankton  in  that  part  of  the  ocean." 

As  an  example  of  marked  differences  in  the  micro -plankton 
in  small  areas,  the  Norwegian  Professor  H.  H.  Gran  {Puh. 
de  Circon.,  No.  62,  1912),  finds  at  two  neighbouring  stations 
in  the  Skagerak  two  distinctly  separated  layers  of  water 
each  with  its  own  characteristic  flora.  One  layer  is  from 
the  surface  to  about  20  metres,  and  the  second  from  about 
40  metres  to  100.  There  is  a  boundary  layer  between  the 
two  at  about  30  metres.  He  points  out,  moreover,  that  the 
plankton  has  a  very  different  character  at  these  two  adjacent 
stations — the  Diatoms  at  the  one  being  what  we  should 
expect  to  find  in  the  southern  part  of  the  North  Sea,  while 
at  the  other  the  Diatom  plankton  may  have  come  from 
the  north  part  of  the  North  Sea  between  Scotland  and 
Norway.     His  conclusions  are  : 

"  It  will  be  apparent  already  from  the  few  investigations, 
which  have  been  mentioned  here  as  examples,  that  an 
exact  quantitative  investigation  of  the  plankton  at  different 
depths  will  be  able  to  give  interesting  information,  not  only 
regarding  the  biological  conditions  of  the  species,  but  also 
regarding  their  dependence  on  the  currents.  Such  an 
investigation,  where  the  quantity  of  plankton  at  certain 

R 


242     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

depths  with  certain  biological  conditions  is  determined,  is 
in  any  case  of  much  more  value  for  many  questions  than 
vertical  hauls  or  investigation  of  water-samples,  which  are 
taken  to  be  representative  of  a  whole  column  of  water  from 
the  surface  to  a  definite  depth.  The  result  of  these  latter 
methods,  which  have  been  used  especially  by  the  Kiel 
naturalists,  is,  that  the  interesting  details  found  on  com- 
paring the  plankton  flora  at  different  depths  disappear  in 
an  average,  which  often  has  a  very  doubtful  value.  In 
any  case,  it  is  better,  as  Lohmann  has  done,  to  calculate 
the  average  for  the  plankton  of  the  whole  column  of  water, 
after  reliable  and  exact  observations  have  been  made  at 
definite  depths."  So  far  Gran,  who  may  be  regarded  as 
a  very  refiable  authority. 

Now  these  are  cases  of  catches  taken  in  shallow  water 
or  in  coastal  areas,  and  it  may  be  said — it  has  been  said — 
that  results  may  be  very  different  out  on  the  high  seas  far 
from  land  where  the  conditions  are  more  constant  and  the 
plankton  ought  to  be  more  regularly  distributed  ;  but  when 
we  look  at  the  evidence  that  is  available  we  find  that  there 
is  much  that  tells  the  other  way.  Many  naturalists  on 
long  voyages  have  told  of  the  swarms  of  some  planktonic 
organism  met  with  in  quite  limited  areas — organisms  such 
as  Trichodesmium,  Medusce,  Salpa,  Physalia  and  Clione. 
Most  of  these  are  members  of  the  macro -plankton,  it  is  true, 
but  macro-plankton  is  of  the  greatest  importance  as  the 
food  of  fishes  and  whales.  Then,  to  record  a  personal 
experience,  I  have  examined  the  plankton  daily  on  twelve 
ocean  traverses,  through  the  North  and  South  Atlantic, 
the  Indian  Ocean,  and  the  great  expanse  of  the  Southern 
Ocean  (going  to  North  America,  to  South  Africa,  to  Ceylon, 
and  to  AustraHa),  caught  by  means  of  fine  silk  nets  on  taps 
with  sea-water  running  day  and  night,  and  the  variations 
from  day  to  day  have  usually  been  very  marked,  and  not 
in  the  macro-plankton  only,  but  also  in  the  case  of  the 
Diatoms  and  Peridinians  belonging  to  the  micro-  or  nanno- 


PLANKTON  243 

plankton.     On  one  occasion  in  mid-ocean  I  encountered  a 

good  example  of  a  swarm  of  a  very  minute  organism  so 

abundant  as  to  colour  the  water.     In  the  Southern  Ocean, 

between  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  and  Australia,  the  sea  was 

noticed  one  afternoon  to  be  blood-red  in  the  curl  of  the 

waves  where  the  sunlight  shone  through.     I  pointed  it  out 

to  several  members  of  the  British  Association  party  on 

board,  and  all  agreed  that  it  was  most  striking.     My  tap-net 

a  little  later  showed  that  the  colour  was  due  to  a  minute 

red  Peridinian,  which  must  have  been  present  in  enormous 

profusion  over  a  limited  area  in  the  open  sea  where  there 

was  no  recognized  current  carrying  special  conditions— and 

cases  are  on  record  of  swarms  of  this  or  an  allied  form  not 

only   colouring   the   sea   locally,  but  also   causing   such   a 

pollution  of  the  water  as  to  result  in  widespread  death  of 

larger  marine  animals  so  as  to  cause  a  nuisance  when  cast 

up  on  the  Australian  coasts.     In  the  recent  literature  of 

the  subject  there  are  many  other  similar  cases  of  marked 

irregularity  of  even  the  more  minute  plankton  in  the  open 

ocean,    such   as  Ove   Paulsen's    observation   that  the  sea 

to  the  east  of  Iceland  in  July  was  blood-red  for  days  from 

the  presence  of  Mesodinium  pulex,  and  also  his  record  of 

very  unequal  distribution  in  the  open  Atlantic  Ocean  near 

the   Faroe   Bank — the   quantity   of   plankton   being   very 

much  greater  in  one  haul  than  in  the  previous  one.     But 

to  my  mind  the  chart-diagrams  of  the  quantitative  plank- 

tologists  themselves  tell  in  the  same  direction  ;  for  example, 

the  one  giving  the  results  of  the  Plankton  Expedition  in 

the  Atlantic  shows  a  very  marked  irregularity,  not  only  as 

between   arctic,    temperate,  and  tropical  waters,  but  also 

almost  day  by  day  in  most  parts  of  the  ocean  traversed. 

In  all  these  cases,  no  doubt  it  may  be  said  the  plankton 
results  were  different  because  the  conditions  were  not 
similar  ;  but  it  is  surely  not  justifiable  to  say  that  in  the 
open  sea  the  plankton  must  be  evenly  distributed  because 
the   conditions  are   constant   over  large  areas,  and  then, 


244     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

whenever  a  case  of  irregularity  in  distribution  is  observed, 
to  say  that  only  proves  that  the  conditions  cannot  have 
been  constant  at  that  locality.  If  all  these  areas  are  ruled 
out,  then  it  becomes  a  question  whether  what  remains  of 
the  ocean  is  of  any  use  to  us  as  a  basis  for  calculations  as 
to  the  planktonic  contents  of  the  sea  either  for  practical 
fishery  purposes  or  for  purely  theoretical  speculations. 
Moreover,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  coastal  waters, 
which  it  is  agreed  are  not  homogeneous  in  character,  and 
where  the  plankton  is  very  irregularly  distributed,  are  just 
the  areas  of  most  practical  importance  in  connection  with 
the  fishing  industries.  All  the  great  fisheries  of  the  world 
are  carried  on  in  coastal  waters,  so  far  as  is  known  to  us  of 
mixed  character  and  containing  a  very  irregularly  distributed 
plankton. 

P.  T.  Cleve  has  shown  that  in  January,  1897,  the  North 
Sea,  our  most  celebrated  North  European  fishery  area, 
contained  at  least  five  different  types  of  plankton  (named 
from  their  characteristic  organisms) — "  Tripos  "  plankton,  in 
the  centre ;  *'  Halosphsera  "  plankton  forming  a  belt  around 
that  and  stretching  from  Denmark  to  Scotland  ;  "  Con- 
cinnus  "  plankton,  nearer  each  shore  and  extending  down 
the  coasts  of  Holland  and  Belgium  towards  the  English 
Channel ;  while  "  Tricho  "  plankton  and  "  Sira  "  plankton 
border  the  south  of  Norway  and  fill  up  the  Skagerak. 
And  a  similar  mixture  of  different  types  and  quantities  of 
plankton  will  probably  be  found  to  obtain  in  other  large 
fishery  areas — not  to  say  oceans— when  they  come  to  be 
adequately  investigated. 

As  another  example  of  evidence  of  irregularity  in  distri- 
bution of  the  plankton,  take  the  results  obtained  by  Dr. 
Herbert  Fowler  in  his  expedition  in  the  North  Atlantic 
in  the  summer  of  1900 — a  cruise  which  has  thrown  much 
light  upon  the  relations  of  oceanic  plankton.  Dr.  Fowler's 
results  are  valuable  in  demonstrating  the  varied  composition 
of  the  plankton  from  day  to  day  in  the  open  sea.     His  sixteen 


PLANKTON  245 

stations  were  so  close  together  that  the  whole  area  investigated 
measured  only  sixty-six  miles  by  twenty-two,  and  his  results 
for  the  Chsetognatha  (Sagitta,  Plate  XX,  Fig.  2)  show  that 
even  at  adjacent  stations  on  successive  days  the  numbers 
obtained  were  very  different,  one  catch  being  many  times 
another,  and  the  greatest  about  thirty  times  as  much  as  the 
least.  Now,  if  a  vessel  taking  observations,  say,  twenty 
miles  apart,  were  to  have  traversed  this  area  and  obtained 
only  one  of  these  gatherings,  she  might  have  gone  off  with 
a  so-called  sample  which  was  ten  or  twenty  times  too  great 
or  too  small  to  represent  fairly  the  average,  in  either  case 
giving  an  indication  that  was  false  and  might  lead  to  entirely 
erroneous  conclusions.  Similarly  in  the  case  of  Doliolum, 
Dr.  Fowler  found  an  enormous  disproportion  between  the 
amounts  of  the  catch  on  the  different  days,  even  at  closely 
adjacent  localities.  It  is  obvious  that  if  the  number  of 
Doliolum  present  in  the  area  were  calculated  from  one  of 
his  samples,  the  result  would  be  entirely  different  from  that 
based  upon  other  samples.  Cases  of  this  kind  could  be 
multiplied,  and  have  no  doubt  occurred  in  the  experience 
of  most  naturalists  who  have  done  much  work  at  sea. 

The  stock  area  of  the  open  ocean,  often  quoted  as  being 
under  constant  conditions,  is  the  Sargasso  Sea,  far  from 
the  disturbing  influence  of  the  coasts  and  isolated  by  a  vast 
surrounding  current.  There  the  conditions  must  be  as 
uniform  as  in  any  large  oceanic  area,  and  we  would  certainly 
expect  that  there,  if  anywhere,  the  plankton  would  be 
uniform.  But  in  the  twenty -four  hauls  made  in  the  Sargasso 
Sea  during  the  Plankton  Expedition  the  catches  varied  in 
volume  from  1*5  to  6-5  cubic  centimetres.  Where  the 
difference  in  range  is  so  great  as  this,  is  one  justified  in  taking 
an  average  and  using  it  to  multiply  up  for  the  purpose  of 
estimating  the  population  of  the  vast  area  ? 

Moreover,  it  is  not  justifiable  to  add  together  the  estimated 
amounts  of  the  various  possible  sources  of  error  and  deduct 
these  from  the  apparent  irregularity,   as  some   of  these 


246     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

sources  of  error,  such  as  the  movements  of  the  ship,  may, 
for  all  we  know,  have  added  to  the  bulk  of  the  smallest  catch  or 
have  diminished  that  of  the  largest,  and  so  may  have  actually 
lessened  the  evidence  in  regard  to  the  natural  irregularity 
of  the  plankton,  and  the  same  is  true  of  any  possible  error 
there  may  be  in  the  reading  of  the  catch.  The  total  mean 
divergence  of  the  average  catch  has  been  estimated  at 
32  per  cent.,  and  Schiitt  attributes  20  per  cent,  of  this  to 
the  possible  errors  of  the  experiment  all  combined,  and  he 
then  deducts  this  from  the  32  per  cent,  so  as  to  reduce  the 
amount  of  divergence  ;  but  some  of  the  errors  may  have  to 
be  added,  not  deducted,  or  they  may  neutralize  one  another. 
They  are  quite  unknown  and  it  must  not  be  assumed  that 
they  tell  in  all  cases,  or  at  all  times,  in  favour  of  uniformity. 

The  Sargasso  Sea,  and  no  doubt  some  other  oceanic  areas 
of  limited  extent,  are  probably  more  constant  in  their 
physical  conditions  and  more  uniform  in  plankton  contents 
than  inshore  seas  and  than  many  other  parts  of  the  ocean  ; 
but  it  may  be  doubted  whether  they  are  sufficiently  uniform 
to  yield  results  by  Hensen-net  methods  that  would  enable 
us  to  make  a  census  or  a  quantitative  estimate  of  the 
whole  area. 

Great  stress  has  been  laid  by  some  writers  upon  the 
efficacy  of  vertical  hauls  as  giving  reliable  and  therefore 
comparable  samples  of  the  contents  of  a  column  of  water  of 
known  dimensions.  I  shall  therefore  discuss  in  some  detail 
the  results  obtained  from  a  recent  series  of  such  hauls  taken 
in  the  Irish  Sea. 

A  few  experiments  have  been  made  in  the  past,  by  Hensen 
and  others,  in  hauling  comparable  nets  simultaneously  or 
the  same  net  several  times  in  rapid  succession  in  order  to 
estimate  the  amount  of  variation  in  the  results  or  the 
divergence  of  each  sample  from  an  average.  With  the  view 
of  getting  further  evidence  from  a  new  series  of  data,  taken 
with  all  possible  care  under  favourable  conditions,  I  carried 
out  a  number  of  similar  experiments  at  Port  Erin  during 


PLANKTON  247 

several  months  in  the  spring,  summer  and  autumn  of  1920. 
They  consisted  of  seven  series  of  four  to  six  successive 
(that  is,  as  nearly  as  possible  simultaneous)  vertical  hauls 
taken  with  the  "  Nansen "  net  of  No.  20  silk.^  The 
*'Nansen  "  net  is  shown  in  Fig.  16,  on  p.  233,  and,  attached 
to  the  Lucas  sounding  machine,  at  Plate  XVIII,  Fig.  2. 

An  apparent  uniformity  in  the  successive  catches  of  each 
series  was  obvious  at  the  time  of  collecting.  It  seemed  to 
the  eye  to  be  the  same  catch  that  was  emptied  from  the 
Nansen-bucket  into  the  bottle  of  formaline  time  after  time 
throughout  a  series.  And  this  apparent  uniformity  of 
volume  was  in  most  cases  confirmed  by  the  subsequent 
measurements  in  the  laboratory — for  example,  the  six 
successive  hauls  from  8  fathoms  on  April  3  all  measure  0*2 
c.c,  four  out  of  five  of  those  from  20  fathoms  on  April  6  are 
0*6  CO.,  and  all  four  on  August  7  from  20  fathoms  measure 
0'5  c.c.  The  remaining  four  series  show  some  variation, 
but  the  percentage  deviation  from  the  average  of  each 
series  is  in  no  case  great  (see  table,  p.  248). 

If,  however,  we  make  a  microscopic  investigation  of  the 
catches,  we  find  that  even  in  the  same  series,  similar  volumes 
of  the  plankton  may  be  made  up  rather  differently,  and 
may  in  some  cases  show  surprising  differences  in  the  numbers 
of  a  species  in  successive  hauls,  such  as  10  and  100,  40 
and  800,  4,000  and  18,000.  Notwithstanding,  then,  some 
appearance  of  similarity  between  the  hauls  of  a  series, 
there  is  a  considerable  percentage  deviation  in  the  case  of 
some  hauls  from  the  average  of  their  series^not  infrequently 
about  plus  or  minus  50  per  cent.,  and  in  several  cases  about 
70,  and  in  one  case  plus  129.  The  following  table  gives 
the  percentage  deviations  in  the  case  of  the  volumes  of  the 
catches,  and  also  of  the  counted  or  estimated  numbers  of 

1  For  full  details  as  to  the  conditions  of  the  experiment,  and  the 
methods  of  obtaining  the  results  here  given,  see  "  Variation  in 
Successive  Vertical  Plankton  Hauls  at  Port  Erin,"  Trans,  Biol.  Soc, 
L'pool,  vol.  XXXV,  p.  161,  1921. 


248 


FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 


the  four  chief  groups  of   organisms  present,  viz.  Diatoms, 
Dinoflagellates,  Copepoda  and  the  Nauplii  of  Copepoda. 


Date 

and. 

Depth. 


April  3— 
8  fathoms 


April  6 — 
20  fathoms 


April  8 — 
20  fathoms 


No. 

of 

hauls. 


Vol. 
in  c.c, 
aver- 


0-2 


058 


April  13 — 
8  fathoms 


May  25— 

20  fathoms 


August  7 — 
20  fathoms 


September  16- 
20  fathoms 


Greatest 
per  cent, 
devia- 
tion 
from 
average. 


0-52 


0-48 


16125 


05 


61 


(-  23 
+  15 


Dia- 
toms 
ditto. 


-  51 
+  41 


Dino- 
flagel- 
lates 
ditto. 


-  42 

+  24 


-  24 

+  17 


-  41 
+  73 


-  21 
+  15 


-  36 

+  30 


-  53 

+  56 


Cope- 
poda 
ditto. 


-  14 

+  21 


-  20 
+  15 


-  65 
+  44 


-  22 

+  23 


-  27 
+  17 


-  22 

+  36 


-  50 
+  42 


Cope- 
pod 
Nau- 
plii 
ditto. 


-  19 

+  39 


-  40 
+  22 


-  22 
+  33 


-  72 
+  60 


-  13 

+  32 


-  36 

+  53 


-  44 
+  41 


-  39 
+  22 


-  67 
+  129 


-  33 

+  66 


-  21 

+  10 


-  31 

+  37 


In  all  there  are  about  fifty  species  of  organisms  that 
occur  with  fair  regularity  throughout  the  series  :  twenty- 
four  species  of  Diatoms,  four  of  Dinoflagellates,  eight  of 
Copepoda  and  about  fourteen  other  organisms  or  groups 
of  organisms  which  are  not  of  so  much  importance  and  may 
be  omitted.  Of  the  twenty-four  species  of  Diatoms,  as  a 
general  rule,  if  a  species  occurs  in  one  of  the  hauls  of  a  series 
it  occurs  in  all,  and  in  many  cases  in  much  the  same  propor- 
tions in  all ;    that  is,  there  may  be  two  or  three  or  even 


PLANKTON  249 

more  times  as  many  individual  cells  in  one  haul  as  in  another, 
but  all  will  be  in  the  tens,  or  in  the  hundreds,  or  the 
thousands,  or  millions.     For  example,  on  April  3  we  have  : — 

Coscinodiscus  radiatus,  1,600,  2,600,  2,600,  2,800,  2,800, 
2,200. 

Streptotheca  thamensiSy  40,  30,  30,  40,  40,  60. 
Many  other  similar  examples  might  be  given  from  the 
detailed  records,  but  on  the  other  hand  other  occasions 
show  more  variation. 

It  is  much  the  same  with  the  four  common  species  of 
Dinoflagellates  recorded.  There  again  we  find  cases  of 
considerable  constancy  in  the  hauls  of  a  series,  such  as  : — 

May  25.      Peridinium  divergens,  46,000,  62,000,  50,000, 
44,000  ; 
and  other  cases  of  more  variation,  even  in  that  same  series, 
such  as : — 

May  25.     Ceratium  furca,   6,000,   2,000,   8,000,    1,000. 
Are  we  entitled  from  this  to  conclude  that  the  Peridinium 
is  evenly  distributed  through  the  zone  of  water  sampled 
and  the  Ceratium  much  less  so  ?     I  doubt  it. 

The  Copepoda  seem  also  to  indicate  in  many  cases  a 
fairly  even  distribution.  Sometimes  they  occur  only  in 
units,  and  yet  each  haul  of  the  series  shows  a  few  : — 

April  3.     Oithona  similis,  8,  4,  3,  3,  5,  11. 

April  13.     Temora  longicornis,  10,  5,  10,  10,  10. 

April  13.     Oithona  similis,  20,  20,  20,  20,  20. 

Other  cases;  again,  seem  to  indicate  considerable  variation 
in  adjacent  hauls.  Which  of  these  contradictory  impressions 
received  from  an  inspection  of  the  results  of  the  hauls  is 
true  to  nature  ?  If  the  Oithonas  on  April  13  had  been 
very  irregularly  scattered  through  the  water;  is  it  likely 
that  we  could  catch  exactly  20  in  each  of  five  successive 
hauls  ?  On  the  other  hand,  if  they  are  evenly  distributed, 
how  can  we  account  for  one  haul  (April  6)  catching  40 
and  the  next  140,  or  for  the  series  on  May  25  : — 20,  80,  460, 
290,  in  the  four  successive  hauls  ? 


250     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

Some  of  the  other  common  organisms  of  the  plankton 
outside  the  above  main  groups  also  give  conflicting  evidence. 
The  pelagic  arrow- worm,  Sagitta  hipunctata,  is  present  in 
nearly  every  haul  in  numbers  varying  from  one  to  twenty- 
seven,  but  in  some  series  one  or  two  individuals  are  present 
in  every  haul,  while  in  another  series  the  successive  hauls 
varied  from  one  to  eleven.  The  impression  one  receives 
from  an  inspection  of  the  lists  and  numbers  as  they  stand 
is  that  if  on  each  occasion  one  haul  only  in  place  of  four  or 
six  had  been  taken,  and  one  had  used  the  results  of  that  haul 
to  estimate  the  abundance  of  any  one  organism  or  group 
of  organisms  in  that  sea-area,  one  might  have  arrived  at 
conclusions  about  50  per  cent,  wrong  in  either  direction. 

Is  such  a  result  of  any  real  value  as  a  basis  for  calculations 
as  to  the  population  of  the  sea  ?  And  is  it  possible  that 
such  numerical  variations  are  compatible  with  the  hjnpothesis 
of  an  even  distribution  of  the  plankton  throughout  a  sea- 
area  of  constant  character  ?  The  answer  to  such  questions 
depends  to  some  extent  upon  the  possible  range  of  error 
under  the  conditions  of  the  experiment,  and  upon  the 
possibility  of  allowing  for  that  experimental  error,  and  of 
reducing  it  by  more  refined  methods  of  collecting  and 
estimating.  I  feel  confident  that  the  possibility  of  error  in 
the  collecting  was  reduced  to  a  minimum.  There  is  also 
the  possibility  of  error  in  the  microscopic  examination  and 
estimation  of  the  contents  of  the  catch.  This  can  only 
apply  in  the  case  of  the  more  minute  organisms,  present  in 
great  abundance,  such  as  the  Diatoms  which  have  to  be 
estimated  from  counted  samples.  In  the  case  of  Copepoda 
and  Sagitta  and  other  larger  organisms,  this  source  of  possible 
error  is  excluded,  as  these  are  picked  out  from  the  entire 
preserved  catch  with  the  eye  or  a  hand  lens,  and  counted 
directly.  Sampling  and  estimation  are  not  applied  to  the 
macro -plankton,  and  yet  the  variation  is  as  great  there 
as  in  the  case  of  the  estimated  micro -plankton. 

The  experimental  error  to  be  expected  in  the  case  of  the 


PLANKTON  251 

three  chief  groups  of  organisms,  and  also  in  the  case  of  a  typical 
species  of  each,  has  been  calculated,  by  means  of  a  formula 
for  obtaining  the  probable  error,  with  the  following  results. 

The  total  number  of  Diatoms  on  April  3  varied  in  the 
six  hauls  from  3,880  to  10,020,  the  mean  being  8,055. 
Two  of  the  hauls  are  below  the  mean  and  four  above.  The 
smallest  haul  is  52  per  cent,  below  the  mean,  and  the  largest 
haul  is  24  per  cent,  above.  The  question  is  :  Do  these 
variations  in  the  catch  come  within  the  limits  of  the  probable 
error  of  the  experiment  ?  If  we  assume  that  the  estimation 
of  the  number  of  Diatoms  in  each  haul  is  correct,  then  the 
possible  errors  are  those  inseparable  from  all  such  collecting 
at  sea — slight  movements  of  the  boat,  unknown  currents 
in  the  water,  irregularities  in  the  verticality  of  the  line, 
etc.  In  this  case  of  the  Diatoms  on  April  3,  the  ''  probable 
error  "  is  found  to  be  =  1,458,  and  the  "  range  "  is  the  mean 
±  the  probable  error,  that  is  from  6,600  to  9,500.  Compar- 
ing this  range  with  the  estimated  results  of  the  hauls,  we 
find  that  three  of  the  series  are  within  the  range  and  three 
are  outside  it,  and  two  of  the  latter  (3,880  and  10,020)  are 
very  considerably  beyond  the  limits  of  the  probable  error 
of  the  experiment. 

The  Diatoms  of  the  other  hauls  give  much  the  same  result 
when  treated  in  the  same  manner — that  is,  roughly  50  per  cent, 
or  rather  more  of  the  observed  variation  in  the  catches  is  not 
covered  by  the  calculated  range  of  error  of  the  experiment. 

A  series  of  detailed  tables  are  given  in  the  full  report 
from  which  the  above  is  summarized,  in  which  each  of  the 
principal  groups  of  the  plankton,  and  also  three  prominent 
organisms,  the  Diatom  Coscinodiscus  radiatus,  the  Dino- 
flagellate  Ceratium  tripos  and  the  Copepod  Pseudocalanus 
elongatus,  are  shown  for  all  seven  series  of  hauls  treated  as 
in  the  case  of  the  Diatoms  of  April  3  discussed  above,  and 
giving  in  each  case  the  figures  necessary  to  make  a  com- 
parison between  the  range  of  variation  in  the  catches  and  the 
calculated  range  of  error.    These  tables  show  that  in  each 


252     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

case  a  large  proportion — from  60  per  cent,  to  22  out  of 
34— of  the  observed  variations  are  outside  the  range  of 
error  of  the  experiment. 

To  the  question,  What  light  does  a  series  of,  say,  six 
successive  hauls  throw  upon  the  validity  of  a  single  haul, 
say,  the  first  of  the  series  ?  the  answer  seems  to  be  that  as 
regards  mere  size  (volume)  and  general  nature  (such  as 
phyto-plankton,  zoo-plankton,  or  mixed)  of  the  catch  the 
series  confirms  the  representative  character  of  the  single 
haul  in  a  general  way  and  within  limits. 

But  if  one  next  proceeds  to  deal  quantitatively  with  the 
groups  and  the  individual  species,  it  is  found  that  the  hauls 
in  a  series  may  differ  widely:  up  to  fully  50  per  cent,  of 
the  variations  from  the  mean  of  the  series  extend  beyond 
the  range  of  error  and  are  therefore  not  due  to  possible 
imperfections  in  the  experiment.  Thus  more  than  half  the 
differences  between  the  hauls  of  a  series  remains  unaccounted 
for,  and  may  naturally  be  interpreted  as  evidence  of  an 
unequal  distribution  of  the  plankton  in  closely  adjacent  areas 
of  water  or  in  the  same  area  in  successive  periods  of  time. 

Whether  the  present  methods  of  collecting  and  of  estimat- 
ing are  sufficiently  accurate  to  enable  us  to  determine  the 
amount  of  this  inequality  in  the  distribution,  so  as  to  be 
able  to  assign  probable  upper  and  lower  limits  to  the  number 
of  each  organism  per  unit  volume  of  water,  may  be  doubtful, 
but  we  may  hope  that  improvements  in  method  and 
accumulation  of  evidence  may  in  time  enable  us  to  make 
some  approximation  to  an  estimate  of  the  population  of 
various  sea-areas.  Other  more  refined  methods  of  collecting 
samples  of  the  micro-plankton  have  been  recently  devised 
such  as  the  filtering  and  centrifuging  (or  other  exhaustive 
examination)  of  small  measured  quantities  of  water,  or  the 
cultivation  of  every  organism  in  a  very  small  volume  of 
water.  These  methods  have  added  much  to  our  knowledge 
of  the  minuter  and  more  elusive  forms — the  "  nanno- 
plankton,"  but  the  drawback  to  all  of  them  is  that  they 


PLANKTON  263 

deal  with  relatively  small  volumes  (one,  three  or  five  litres) 
of  the  water,  and  it  must  remain  doubtful  whether  the 
same  organisms  in  the  same  quantity  would  have  been 
present  in  the  next  bucketful  of  water  that  might  have 
been  taken  from  the  sea. 

Even  if  we  had  no  hope  of  attaining  to  greater  accuracy 
our  present  planktonic  results  are  of  some  value.  Although 
estimates  which  may  be  50  per  cent,  wrong  in  either  direction 
do  not  justify  us  in  calculating  exactly  the  number  of 
organisms  or  of  potential  food  present  per  area  of  sea  or 
volume  of  water,  they  do  give  us  a  useful  approximation. 
Even  if  100  per  cent,  out,  doubling  or  halving  the  estimated 
number  is  a  relatively  small  variation  compared  with  the 
much  larger  increases  and  reductions,  amounting  to,  it  may 
be,  ten  thousand  times  in  the  case  of  Diatoms,  ten  to  fifty 
times  in  the  Dinoflagellates  and  five  to  twenty  times  in 
Copepoda,  which  we  find  between  adjacent  months — and 
even  greater  differences  if  we  take  groups  of  months—in  a 
survey  of  the  seasonal  variations  of  the  plankton. 

Successive  improvements  and  additions  to  Hensen's 
methods  in  collecting  plankton  have  been  made  by  Lohmann, 
Apstein,  Gran,  and  others,  such  as  pumping  up  water  of 
different  layers  through  a  hose-pipe  and  filtering  it  through 
felt,  filter-paper,  and  other  materials  which  retain  much  of 
the  micro -plankton  that  escapes  through  the  meshes  of  the 
finest  silk.  Use  has  even  been  made  of  the  extraordinarily 
minute  and  beautifully  regular  natural  filter  spun  by  the 
pelagic  animal  Appendicular ia  for  the  capture  of  its  own 
food.  This  grid-like  trap,  when  dissected  out  and  examined 
under  the  microscope,  reveals  ^  surprising  assemblage  of 
the  smallest  Protozoa  and  Protophyta,  less  than  thirty 
micro -miUimetres  in  diameter,  which  would  all  pass  easily 
through  the  meshes  of  our  finest  silk  nets.  That  the 
regularity  of  the  meshes  in  the  silk  rapidly  deteriorates  with 
use  is  seen  from  a  comparison  of  Plate  XXI,  Figs.  1  and  2. 

The  latest  refinement  in  capturing  the  minutest -known 


254     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

organisms  of  the  plankton  (excepting  the  Bacteria)  is  a 
culture  method  devised  by  Dr.  E.  J.  Allen  of  Plymouth. 
By  diluting  half  a  cubic  centimetre  of  the  sea-water  with  a 
considerable  amount  (1,500  c.c.)  of  sterilized  water  treated 
with  a  nutrient  solution,  and  distributing  that  over  a  large 
number  (70)  of  small  flasks  in  which  after  an  interval  of 
some  days  the  developed  organisms  can  be  counted,  he 
calculates  that  the  sea  contains  464,000  of  such  organisms 
per  litre,  whereas  the  centrifuge  showed  only  14,450  per 
litre  ;  and  he  gives  reasons  why  his  cultivations  must  be 
regarded  as  minimum  results,  and  states  that  the  total 
per  litre  may  well  be  something  like  a  million.  Thus  every 
new  method  devised  seems  to  multiply  many  times  the 
probable  total  population  of  the  sea  and  reminds  one  of  the 
poet  Spenser's  lament  in  "  The  Faerie  Queen  "  :^ 

**0  what  an  eudlesse  worke  have  I  in  hand, 

To  count  the  sea's  abundant  progeny, 

Whose  fruitful  seede  farre  passeth  those  in  land, 
«  ♦  ♦  ♦  * 

Then  to  recount  the  sea's  posterity 

So  fertile  be  the  fiouds  in  generation, 

So  huge  their  numbers  and  so  numberlesse  their  nation." 

The  conclusion  in  regard  to  this  branch  of  plankton 
investigation  must  be  that  there  is  probably  no  one  method 
which  can  give  us  a  complete  quantitative  estimate  of  the 
total  number  of  organisms  in  a  sample  of  sea-water  ;  but 
by  the  combination  of  a  number  of  methods — coarse  and 
fine  nets  for  the  larger  organisms,  centrifuging  and  cultiva- 
tion flasks  for  smaller — we  may  hope  in  time  to  approximate 
to  a  solution  of  the  problem,  how  to  obtain  a  planktonic 
census  of  the  sea.  And  even  then  it  will  only  be  the  sea  at 
that  time  and  place. 

Therefore,  in  my  judgment,  the  validity  of  the  conclusions 
arrived  at  by  the  quantitative  methods  depend  too  much 
upon  exactly  where  and  when  the  samples  are  taken.  At 
another  neighbouring  locality,  or  at  a  different  time,  the 
results    might   be   very   different.     There   are,    obviously, 


PLATE  XXI. 


t  ^  tfrf  ff  f  ^♦^  •  •  •  * 

m-m^mm'^imm  -#  r  ^  #  «  w  #  • 
'•  t-  #  rf^##  f  %  •  •  •  f  • 

'•  ##f  ^i^it^^a  ill  •-# 

^•li-#  #  i  «r  #  l^;%  s-^  i  J^^»^-« 


Fig.  1. — Plankton-net  Silk,  Mesh  of 
No.  20,  when  new.      x    23. 


Fig.  3. — Zoo-plankton,  consisting  of 
Oithona  Helgolandica ;  magnified. 


Fig.  2. — The  same  silk  after  use  in 
the  "  Xansen  ''  net,  for  a  few 
weeks.      X   23. 


■31 


m^ 


^^v 

* 


#  ^*  i 


1» 


■-  *^> .-'/. 

Fig.  4. — Mixed  Plankton,  consist- 
ing of  Diatoms,  Nauplii,  Poly- 
chaet  larvae,  etc. ;  magnified. 


PLANKTON  255 

three  possible  sources  of  error  in  the  quantitative  methods : — 

1.  The  imperfections  of  the  net  as  a  filtering  apparatus. 
These  of  course  apply  to  all  nets  and  are  generally  admitted, 
and  improvements  and  substitutes,  such  as  pump  and  filter 
and  centrifuge,  have  been  proposed  and  used.  Kofoid  finds 
that  the  coefficient  of  the  net  may  vary  from  1-5  to  5-7, 
according  to  its  condition,  and  that  it  may  retain  anything 
from  J  to  4Vth  of  the  solid  contents  of  the  water  filtered. 

2.  The  vertical  haul  may  defeat  its  object  by  mixing 
zones  of  plankton  which  ought  to  be  sampled  separately. 
Closing  quantitative  nets  have  been  devised  to  meet  this 
difficulty,  but  Paulsen  has  shown  recently  that  these  vertical 
nets  may  fish  while  being  lowered  down,  as  well  as  when 
coming  up,  and  therefore  are  not  reliable. 

3.  The  irregularity  in  distribution  of  the  plankton. 
No  device  can  get  over  this  difficulty.  The  only  remedy  is 
more  frequent  sampHng  and  more  accurate  and  detailed 
determination  of  the  characters,  both  physical  and  biological, 
of  the  various  areas,  currents  and  zones  of  water  making 
up  our  seas — and  all  that  is  being  done,  and  must  be  done 
in  still  greater  detail,  by  oceanographers  all  over  the  world. 

We  need  not,  however,  fail  to  appreciate  the  labours  of 
the  plankton  school  at  Kiel,  or  be  at  all  hopeless  as  to  science 
attaining  to  a  more  exact  knowledge  of  the  populations 
of  the  oceans.  The  leading  idea  of  quantitative  estimation 
is  a  good  one,  the  implements  devised  are  very  ingenious, 
and  the  long-continued  laborious  computations  of  some  of 
the  German  professors  have  been  most  praiseworthy.  But 
the  method  is  still  open  to  serious  objections,  the  most 
fundamental  of  which  is  the  obvious  irregularity  in  the 
distribution  of  the  plankton — horizontally,  vertically  and 
chronologically— an  irregularity  which  must  vitiate  any 
calculations  based  upon  comparatively  few  and  distant 
samples.  Marine  biologists  will  probably  do  better  to 
concentrate  their  efforts  upon  the  intensive  study  of  small 
areas  before  trying  to  estimate  the  contents  of  an  ocean. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

PLANKTON  (continued)  :    ITS  VARIATIONS  AND  ITS 

PROBLEMS 

There  are  many  other  problems  of  the  plankton  in  addition 
to  those  of  the  quantitative  estimates — possibly  even  some 
that  we  have  not  yet  recognized — and  various  interesting 
conclusions  may  be  drawn  from  some  recent  planktonic 
observations.  Here  is  a  case  of  the  introduction  and  rapid 
spread  of  a  form  new  to  British  seas. 

Biddulphia  sinensis  (see  Fig.  1  on  Plate  XXII)  is  an  exotic 
Diatom  which,  according  to  Ostenfeld,  made  its  appearance 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Elbe  in  1903,  and  spread  during  succes- 
sive years  in  several  directions.  It  appeared  suddenly  in 
our  plankton  gatherings  at  Port  Erin  in  November,  1909, 
and  has  been  present  in  abundance  each  year  since. 
Ostenfeld,  in  1908,  when  tracing  its  spread  in  the  North  Sea, 
found  that  the  migration  to  the  north  along  the  coast  of 
Denmark  to  Norway  corresponded  with  the  rate  of  flow  of 
the  Jutland  current  to  the  Skagerak — viz.  about  17  cm. 
per  second— a  case  of  plankton  distribution  throwing  light 
on  hydrography — and  he  predicted  that  it  would  soon  be 
found  in  the  English  Channel.  Dr.  Marie  Lebour,  who 
recently  examined  the  store  of  plankton  gatherings  at  the 
Plymouth  Laboratory,  finds  that  as  a  matter  of  fact  this 
form  did  appear  in  abundance  in  the  collections  of  October, 
1909,  within  a  month  of  the  time  when  according  to  our 
records  it  reached  Port  Erin.  Whether  or  not  this  is  an 
Indo-Pacific  species  brought  accidentally  by  a  ship  from  the 
Far  East,  or  whether  it  is  possibly  a  new  mutation  which 

256 


PLATE  XXII. 


[Photo-microfjraphs  by  A.  Scott. 
Fig.   1. — Plankton  showing  (a)  Biddulphia  mohiliensis  and  (6)  B.  sinensis. 

X  25. 


Fig.  2. — Xauplius  stage  of  Balanus. 
X  30. 


Fig.  3. — Cvpris  stage  of  Balanus. 
X  30. 


PLANKTON  257 

appeared  suddenly  in  our  seas,  there  is  no  doubt  that  it  was 
not  present  in  the  Irish  Sea  plankton  gatherings  previous 
to  1909,  but  has  been  abundant  since  that  year,  and  has 
completely  adopted  the  habits  of  its  English  relations — 
appearing  with  B.  mobiliensis  in  late  autumn,  persisting 
during  the  winter,  reaching  a  maximum  in  spring,  and  dying 
out  before  summer. 

The  NaupUus  and  Cypris  stages  of  Balanus  in  the  plankton 
form  an  Interesting  study.  The  adult  barnacles  are  present 
in  enormous  abundance  on  the  rocks  round  the  coast,  and 
they  reproduce  in  winter,  at  the  beginning  of  the  year.  The 
newly  emitted  young  (Nauplii)  are  sometimes  so  abundant 
as  to  make  the  water  in  the  shore  pools  and  in  the  sea  close 
to  shore  appear  muddy.  The  Nauplii  (Fig.  2  on  Plate  XXII) 
first  appeared  at  Port  Erin,  in  1907,  in  the  bay  gatherings  on 
February  22  (in  1908  on  February  13),  and  increased  with 
ups  and  downs  to  their  maximimi  on  April  15,  and  then 
decreased  until  their  disappearance  on  April  26.  None  were 
taken  at  any  other  time  of  the  year.  The  Cypris  stage  (Fig.  3 
on  Plate  XXII)  follows  on  after  the  Nauphus.  It  was  first  taken 
in  the  bay  on  April  6,  rose  to  its  maximum  on  the  same  day 
with  the  Nauplii,  and  was  last  caught  on  May  24.  Through- 
out, the  Cypris  curve  keeps  below  that  of  the  Nauphus,  the 
maxima  being  1,740  and  10,500  respectively.  Probably  the 
difference  between  the  two  curves  represents  roughly  the 
death-rate  of  Balanus  during  the  Nauphus  stage.  That 
conclusion  I  think  we  are  justified  in  drawing,  but  I  would 
not  venture  to  use  the  result  of  any  haul,  or  the  average  of 
a  number  of  hauls,  to  multiply  by  the  number  of  square 
yards  in  a  zone  round  the  coast  in  order  to  obtain  an 
estimate  of  the  number  of  young  barnacles,  or,  after  a  further 
calculation,  of  the  old  barnacles  that  produced  them — 
the  irregularities  are  too  great. 

To  my  mind  it  seems  clear  that  there  must  be  three  factors 
making  for  irregularity  in  the  distribution  in  space  and  time 
of  a  plankton  organism  : — 

s 


268     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

1.  The  sequence  of  stages  in  its  life-history — such  as  the 
Nauplius  and  Cypris  stages  of  Balanus. 

2.  The  results  of  interaction  with  other  organisms — as 
when  a  swarm  of  Calanus  is  pursued  and  devoured  by  a 
shoal  of  herring. 

3.  AbnormaHties  in  time  or  abundance  due  to  the  physical 
environment — as  in  favourable  or  unfavourable  seasons. 
And  these  factors  must  be  at  work  in  the  open  ocean  as  well 
as  in  coastal  waters. 

Then,  turning  to  other  problems,  let  us  take  next  the  fact 
— if  it  be  a  fact — that  the  genial  warm  waters  of  the  tropics 
support  a  less  abundant  plankton  than  the  cold  polar  seas. 
The  statement  has  been  made  and  supported  by  some 
investigators  and  disputed  by  others,  both  on  a  certain 
amount  of  evidence.  This  is  possibly  a  case  like  some  other 
scientific  controversies  where  both  sides  are  partly  in  the 
right,  or  right  under  certain  conditions.  At  any  rate  there 
are  marked  exceptions  to  the  generalization.  The  German 
Plankton  Expedition  in  1889  showed  in  its  results  that  much 
larger  hauls  of  plankton  per  unit  volume  of  water  were 
obtained  in  the  temperate  North  and  South  Atlantic  than 
in  the  tropics  between,  and  that  the  warm  Sargasso  Sea  had 
a  remarkably  scanty  microflora.  Other  investigators  have 
since  reported  more  or  less  similar  results.  Lohmann  found 
the  Mediterranean  plankton  to  be  less  abundant  than  that 
of  the  Baltic,  gatherings  brought  back  from  tropical  seas 
are  frequently  very  scanty,  and  enormous  hauls  on  the  other 
hand  have  been  recorded  from  Arctic  and  Antarctic  seas. 
There  is  no  doubt  about  the  large  gatherings  obtained  in 
northern  waters.  I  have  myself  in  a  few  minutes'  haul  of 
a  small  horizontal  net  in  the  north  of  Norway  collected  a 
mass  of  the  large  Copepod  Calanus  finmarchicus  sufficient  to 
be  cooked  and  eaten  Hke  potted  shrimps  by  half  a  dozen  of 
the  yacht's  company,  and  I  have  obtained  similar  large 
hauls  in  the  cold  Labrador  current  near  Newfoundland. 

On  the  other  hand,  Kofoid  and  Alexander  Agassiz  have 


PLANKTON  259 

recorded  large  hauls  of  plankton  in  the  Humboldt  current 
off  the  west  coast  of  America,  and  during  the  "  Challenger  " 
expedition  some  of  the  largest  quantities  of  plankton  were 
found  in  the  equatorial  Pacific,  and  Diatoms  were  found  to 
be  as  abundant  in  the  Arafura  Sea  (lat.  10°  S.)  as  in  the 
Antarctic.  Murray  and  Hjort  found  in  their  Atlantic 
expedition  that  Coccolithophoridae,  separated  from  the  sea- 
water  by  the  centrifuge,  were  very  abundant  in  tropical 
seas,  and  they  found  large  quantities  of  Crustacea  at  deeper 
zones  in  the  tropics.  Moreover,  it  is  common  knowledge 
that  on  occasions  vast  swarms  of  some  planktonic  organism 
may  be  seen  in  tropical  waters.  The  yellow  alga  Trichodes- 
mium  may  cover  the  surface  over  considerable  areas  of  the 
Indian  and  South  Atlantic  oceans  ;  and  some  pelagic 
animals  such  as  Salpae,  Medusae  and  Ctenophores  are  also 
commonly  present  in  abundance  in  the  tropics.  Then, 
again,  American  biologists  have  pointed  out  that  the  warm 
waters  of  the  West  Indies  and  Florida  may  be  noted  for  the 
richness  of  their  floating  life  for  periods  of  years,  while  at 
other  times  the  pelagic  organisms  become  rare  and  the 
region  is  almost  a  desert  sea. 

It  is  probable,  on  the  whole,  that  the  distribution  and 
variations  of  oceanic  currents  have  more  than  latitude  or 
temperature  alone  to  do  with  any  observed  scantiness  of 
tropical  plankton.  These  mighty  rivers  of  the  ocean  in 
places  teem  with  animal  and  plant  life,  and  may  sweep 
abundance  of  food  from  one  region  to  another  in  the  open 
sea. 

But  even  if  it  be  a  fact  that  there  is  this  alleged  deficiency 
in  tropical  plankton,  there  is  by  no  means  agreement  as  to 
the  cause  thereof.  Brandt  first  attributed  the  poverty  of  the 
plankton  in  the  tropics  to  the  destruction  of  nitrates  in  the 
sea  as  a  result  of  the  greater  intensity  of  the  metabolism 
of  denitrifying  bacteria  in  the  warmer  water  ;  and  various 
other  writers  since  then  have  more  or  less  agreed  that  the 
presence  of  these  denitrifying  bacteria,  by  keeping  down  to 


260     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

a  minimum  the  nitrogen  concentration  in  tropical  waters, 
may  account  for  the  relative  scarcity  of  the  phyto-plankton, 
and  consequently  of  the  zoo-plankton,  that  has  been 
observed.  It  has  been  said  that  the  colder  seas,  with  more 
plankton,  contain  more  nitrogen  (three  parts  in  a  million 
parts  of  water)  than  the  warmer  waters,  with  less  plankton, 
which  have  only  one  part  per  million.  But  Gran,  Nathan- 
sohn,  Murray,  Hjort  and  others  have  shown  that  such 
denitrifying  bacteria  are  rare  or  absent  in  the  open  sea,  that 
their  action  must  be  neghgible,  and  that  Brandt's  hypothesis 
is  untenable.  It  seems  clear,  moreover,  that  the  plankton 
does  not  vary  directly  with  the  temperature  of  the  water. 
Furthermore,  Nathansohn  has  shown  the  influence  of  the 
vertical  circulation  in  the  water  upon  the  nourishment  of 
the  phyto-plankton — by  rising  currents  bringing  up  necessary 
nutrient  materials,  and  especially  carbon  dioxide  from  the 
bottom  layers  ;  and  also  possibly  by  conveying  the  products 
of  the  drainage  of  tropical  lands  to  more  polar  seas  so  as  to 
maintain  the  more  abundant  life  in  the  colder  water. 
Putter's  view  is  that  the  increased  metabolism  in  the  warmer 
water  causes  all  the  available  food  materials  to  be  rapidly 
used  up,  and  so  puts  a  check  to  the  reproduction  of  the 
plankton. 

According  to  van  t'HoJff's  law  in  Chemistry,  the  rate  at 
which  a  reaction  takes  place  is  increased  by  raising  the 
temperature,  and  this  probably  holds  good  for  all  bio- 
chemical phenomena,  and  therefore  for  the  metabolism  of 
animals  and  plants  in  the  sea.  This  has  been  verified 
experimentally  in  some  cases  by  Jacques  Loeb.  The  con- 
trast between  the  zoo -plankton  of  Arctic  and  Antarctic 
zones,  consisting  mainly  of  large  numbers  of  small  Crus- 
taceans belonging  to  comparatively  few  species,  and  that  of 
tropical  waters,  containing  a  great  many  more  species, 
generally  of  smaller  size  and  fewer  in  number  of  individuals, 
is  to  be  accounted  for,  according  to  Sir  John  Murray  and 
others,  by  the  rate  of  metabolism  in  the  organisms.     The 


PLANKTON  261 

assemblages  captured  in  cold  polar  waters  are  of  different 
ages  and  stages,  young  and  adults  of  several  generations 
occurring  together  in  profusion,  ^  and  it  is  supposed  that  the 
adults  "  may  be  ten,  twenty  or  more  years  of  age."  At  the 
low  temperature  the  action  of  putrefactive  bacteria  and  of 
enzymes  is  very  slow  or  in  abeyance,  and  the  vital  actions  of 
the  Crustacea  take  place  more  slowly  and  the  individual 
lives  are  longer.  On  the  other  hand,  in  the  warmer  waters 
of  the  tropics  the  action  of  the  bacteria  is  more  rapid, 
metabolism  in  general  is  more  active,  and  the  various  stages 
in  the  life -history  are  passed  through  more  rapidly,  so 
that  the  smaller  organisms  of  equatorial  seas  probably  only 
live  for  days  or  weeks  in  place  of  years. 

This  explanation,  if  confirmed,  may  account  also  for  the 
much  greater  quantity  of  benthonic  organisms  which  has 
been  found  so  often  on  the  sea-floor  in  polar  waters.  It  is 
a  curious  fact  that  the  development  of  the  polar  marine 
animals  is  in  general  '  direct '  without  larval  pelagic  stages, 
the  result  being  that  the  young  settle  down  on  the  floor  of 
the  ocean  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  parent  forms,  so 
that  there  come  to  be  enormous  congregations  of  the  same 
kind  of  animal  within  a  limited  area,  and  the  dredge  will  in 
a  particular  haul  come  up  filled  with  hundreds,  it  may  be, 
of  an  Echinoderm,  a  Sponge,  a  Crustacean,  a  Brachiopod, 
or  an  Ascidian  ;  whereas  in  warmer  seas  the  young  pass 
through  a  pelagic  stage  and  so  become  more  widely  dis- 
tributed over  the  fioor  of  the  ocean.  The  "  Challenger  " 
expedition  found  in  the  Antarctic  certain  Echinoderms,  for 
example,  which  had  young  in  various  stages  of  development 
attached  to  some  part  of  the  body  of  the  parents,  whereas 
in  temperate  or  tropical  regions  the  same  class  of  animals 
set  free  their  eggs  and  the  development  proceeds  in  the  open 
water  quite  independently  of,  and  it  may  be  far  distant  from, 
the  parent  animal. 

1  Whether,  however,  the  low  temperature  may  not  also  retard 
reproduction  is  worthy  of  consideration. 


262     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

Another  characteristic  result  of  the  difference  in  tempera- 
ture is  that  the  secretion  of  carbonate  of  lime  in  the  form 
of  shells  and  skeletons  proceeds  more  rapidly  in  warm  than 
in  cold  water.  The  massive  shells  of  molluscs,  the  vast 
deposits  of  carbonate  of  lime  formed  by  corals  and  by 
calcareous  seaweeds,  are  characteristic  of  the  tropics ; 
whereas  in  polar  seas,  while  the  animals  may  be  large,  they 
are  for  the  most  part  soft -bodied  and  destitute  of  calcareous 
secretions.  The  calcareous  pelagic  Foraminifera  are  charac- 
teristic of  tropical  and  sub -tropical  plankton,  and  few,  if 
any,  are  found  in  polar  waters.  Globigerina  ooze,  a  cal- 
careous deposit,  is  abundant  in  warmer  seas,  while  in  the 
colder  Antarctic  the  characteristic  deposit  is  siliceous 
Diatom  ooze. 

It  has  been  recorded  that  tropical  plankton  is  especially 
scanty  around  coral  reefs,  and  the  explanation  has  been 
given  that  the  abundant  animal  life  of  the  reef  feeding  on 
the  microscopic  plants  of  the  plankton  keeps  the  amount 
visible  at  any  one  time  very  low.  It  may  be  a  case  of  rapid 
production  and  rapid  consumption  compared  with  the 
slower  rates  of  living  and  of  reproducing  in  colder  seas. 
And  in  all  plankton  investigation  and  estimation  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  the  rate  of  production  of  successive 
generations,  of  which  we  know  very  little,  is  probably  quite 
as  important  as  the  quantity  of  developed  organisms  present 
at  a  given  moment.  This  is  a  matter  I  shall  have  to  return 
to  in  a  later  chapter  in  connection  with  the  fundamental 
food  supply  of  the  ocean  as  the  basis  of  man's  harvest  from 
the  sea. 

The  adaptation  of  many  planktonic  organisms  to  the 
special  conditions  of  their  life  in  the  surface  waters  is 
interesting,  and  shows  two  main  tendencies — to  render 
them  inconspicuous,  and  to  ensure  buoyancy.  Many,  such 
as  Medusae,  are  gelatinous  and  transparent,  or,  if  coloured, 
are  of  a  bluish  tint,  so  as  to  tone  in  with  their  surroundings. 
In  order  to  maintain  their  position  at  any  required  level, 


PLANKTON  263 

or  alter  it  without  too  much  expenditure  of  muscular  effort, 
many  free-swimming  or  floating  animals,  from  Fishes  down 
to  Protozoa,  have  some  form  of  hydrostatic  apparatus,  such 
as  the  swim-bladders  of  Fishes,  the  gas-containing  floats 
or  pneumatophores  of  Siphonophora,  the  oil-globules  of 
Radiolaria  and  of  some  fish-eggs,  or  have  the  tissues  so 
reduced  in  bulk  and  so  permeated  with  water,  as  in  Medusae, 
Salpse,  etc.,  that  the  specific  gravity  of  the  body  becomes 
much  the  same  as  that  of  the  surrounding  sea.  In  some 
cases  the  gas  in  the  float  can  be  secreted  or  absorbed  as 
required,  so  as  to  compensate  for  increased  or  diminished 
pressure  when  changing  to  a  different  level. 

Another  device  has  been  adopted  in  many  cases  in  order 
to  take  advantage  of  the  varying  viscosity  of  the  water  in 
accordance  with  depth  and  temperature,  viz.,  an  increase 
of  the  surface  of  the  body  in  relation  to  its  bulk  by  means  of 
changes  of  shape  and  formation  of  outgrowths,  such  as 
flat  expansions,  long  spines,  and  branched  or  plume -like 
setae.  Many  examples  of  such  remarkable  devices,  leading 
to  extraordinary  and  very  ornamental  appearances,  are 
seen  in  Copepoda,  Foraminifera,  Radiolaria,  etc.,  especially 
in  warmer  seas,  where  the  viscosity  is  low. 

One  of  the  most  striking  phenomena  of  the  plankton, 
in  temperate  seas  at  least,  is  the  way  in  which  it  differs  both 
in  quantity  and  quaUty,  in  the  same  locaHty,  at  different 
times  of  year.  In  British  seas,  for  example,  a  typical  haul 
of  the  plankton-net  in  spring  (say  March  or  April)  will 
consist  almost  wholly  of  Diatoms  and  allied  organisms  (Plate 
XIX,  Fig.  I,  and  Plate  XXII,  Fig.  1) ;  it  is  a  phyto -plankton ; 
while  a  corresponding  haul  in  summer  (say  July  or  August) 
will  have  few  Diatoms,  if  any,  but  will  show  a  large  number  of 
Copepoda  (Plate  XIX,  Figs.  3  and  4),  and  many  other  kinds  of 
minute  animals,  making  up  a  tjrpical  zoo -plankton.  At  the 
time  of  the  spring  Diatom  maximum  a  small  silk  tow-net 
hauled  for  about  fifteen  minutes  through  about  half  a  mile 
of  the  surface  water  of  the  Irish  Sea  will  usually  catch  some 


264     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

millions  of  individual  Diatoms,  constituting  on  the  average 
some  999,999  out  of  each  million  of  organisms  in  the 
gathering.  Similarly,  when  the  zoo-plankton  is  at  its  height 
in  summer,  the  same  net  may  contain  a  gathering  of  Copepoda 
numbering  hundreds  of  thousands  of  individuals,  making  up 
about  999  out  of  every  thousand  organisms  present.  At  other 
intermediate  times  of  year  the  plankton  is  smaller  in  amount, 
and  of  a  mixed  nature  (PL  XVII,  Fig.  2 ;  PI.  XXI,  Fig.  4). 

It  is  evident  that  there  is  an  annual  planktonic  cycle 
(text-fig.  17)  as  follows: — After  a  winter  minimum,  the 
spring  maximum  of  phy  to -plankton  starts  about  March 
(when  the  sea  has  still  a  low  temperature),  and  increases  to 
a  climax  in  April,  May,  or  June,  after  which  the  Diatoms 
rapidly  diminish  in  number  to  their  minimum  in  the  height 
of  summer,  when  their  place  is  taken  by  the  Copepoda  and 
other  animals  of  the  zoo-plankton,  to  be  followed  by  a 
secondary  lesser  Diatom  maximum  in  late  autumn  (Septem- 
ber or  October),  after  which  the  whole  plankton  diminishes 
to  the  winter  minimum.  This  cycle  has  been  followed  year 
after  year  at  several  localities  in  North-West  Europe  ;  but 
further  observations  throughout  the  year  are  still  required  in 
regard  to  tropical  seas  and  the  open  oceans. 

In  a  series  of  observations  carried  on  at  the  Port  Erin 
Biological  Station  during  fifteen  years,  1907-21  (when  on 
the  average  six  plankton  hauls  were  taken  and  examined^ 
every  week,  amounting  to  over  7,500  samples  in  all), 
it  is  found  that  the  spring  maximum  for  the  total 
plankton  varies  from  April  to  June,  and  is  in  most  years 
in  May  ;  and  if  the  total  plankton  be  analysed  into  its 
three  chief  constituents  (Fig.  17),  Diatoms,  Dinoflagellates, 
and  Copepoda,  they  are  found  to  succeed  one  another  in 
that  order.  For  example,  the  Diatom  maximum  was  in 
March  in  1907,  in  April  in  1909,  and  in  May  in  1908;  the 
DinoflageUate  maximum  was  about  a  month  later  in  each 

^  For  a  summary  of  the  results,  see  "  Spolia  Runiana  V,"  Journ, 
Linnean  Soc,  Botany,  July,  1922. 


PLANKTON 


265 


case,  and  the  Copepod  maximum  usually  about  a  month 
after  that  of  the  Dinoflagellates. 

The  cause  of  all  these  seasonal  changes  is  still  very  obscure, 
and  they  may  be  due  to  the  interaction  of  several  factors. 
In  addition  to  the  normal  succession  of  stages  in  the  life- 
histories  of  the  organisms  throughout  the  year,  and  the 
diminution  or  extermination  of  those   (such  as  Diatoms) 


JC.C 


*oopoo 


2.000  D 


»,oooC 


■t^^-*^-"-T  •III     "^^  t  — 1 1 — =*— 1 r 

Jan.    Feb.     Mar.     Apr.     May     Jitxe     July    Aug.      Sept.     Oct.      Nov.    Dec. 

Fig.  17 — Curves  fob  Total  Plankton  and  fob  Chief  Constituent 
Groups  in  Port  Erin  Bay  in  1912. 

which  form  the  food  of  others  (such  as  Copepoda  and  young 
fishes),  we  naturally  turn  to  the  meteorological  conditions 
prevaihng  at  the  various  seasons  as  being  a  possible  cause 
of  the  increase  or  the  diminution  in  numbers.  Although 
one  may  arrive  at  the  general  conclusion  that  variations  in 
the  amount  of  the  plankton  from  year  to  year  must  be  due 
ultimately  to  meteorological  conditions,  it  is  not  easy  to 


266     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

demonstrate  the  connection  between  cause  and  effect  in 
detail.  The  plankton  increase  in  spring  cannot  be  due  to 
temperature,  as  the  records  of  sea  temperatures  at  Port 
Erin  show  that  they  are  as  low,  if  not  lower,  in  March,  at 
the  time  when  the  phyto-plankton  is  waking  up  to  activity, 
as  at  any  time  during  the  winter.  But  although  the  sea  has 
not  yet  commenced  to  warm  up,  the  days  are  much  longer 
and  there  are  more  hours  of  sunlight,  and  it  seems  probable 
that  this  great  increase  in  phyto-plankton,  one  of  the  most 
important  phenomena  of  the  ocean,  depends  primarily  upon 
the  rapid  increase  in  the  amount  of  solar  energy  which 
accompanies  the  lengthening  days  of  early  spring  about  the 
time  of  the  vernal  equinox.  But  this  rapid  increase  in 
Diatoms  is  no  doubt  also  aided  by  the  relatively  large  amount 
of  carbon  dioxide  and  other  necessary  food  matters,  including 
silica  for  their  shells,  accumulated  in  the  sea  during  the 
winter.  Gran  and  Gaarder's  investigations  in  the  Chris- 
tiania  Fjord  show  a  connection  between  the  plankton  in 
spring  and  the  amount  of  oxygen  in  the  water,  and  also 
indicate  some  relation  between  the  increase  of  plankton  and 
the  presence  of  nutrient  matters  in  the  water.  The  rapid 
disappearance  of  the  Diatoms  after  their  maximum  may  be 
due  to  a  combination  of  causes — the  exhaustion  of  the 
carbon  dioxide  and  the  silica  in  the  water,  the  depredations 
of  the  increasing  numbers  of  Copepoda,  young  fishes,  and 
other  diatom-eating  animals,  or  even  to  the  toxic  effect  upon 
the  water  of  their  own  metabolism  in  dense  crowds. 

Moreover,  the  conditions  that  suit  one  Diatom  apparently 
do  not  suit  another,  and  so  we  have  a  regular  succession 
of  different  generic  forms  appearing  at  different  times,  and 
therefore  under  different  conditions.  The  first  to  become 
abundant  are  the  winter  and  early  spring  forms — the 
circular  discs  or  drum-shaped  species  of  Coscinodiscus  and  the 
almost  square  or  oblong  bright  yellow  species  of  Biddulphia 
(Plate  XXII,  Fig.  1 ) .  These  two  genera  are  at  their  maximum 
in  March  and  early  April  in  an  average  year.     Then  follow 


PLANKTON  267 

the  abundant  species  of  Chcetoceras  (Plate  XIX,  Fig.  2), 
jointed  filaments  with  groups  of  deUcate  curved  hairs  and 
spines  projecting  at  their  sides,  and  although  species  differ 
somewhat  in  their  times  of  appearance,  the  genus  as  a  whole 
is  characteristic  of  late  April  and  early  May.  After  Chce- 
toceras comes  the  equally  large  and  important  genus  Ehizo- 
solenia  (Plate  XIX,  Fig.  1),  long,  slender,  needle-like  forms 
of  a  dark  brown  colour  when  present  in  mass.  In  the  Irish 
Sea  we  have  three  most  abundant  species  which  follow  in 
this  order — Rhizosolenia  semispina  in  late  May,  R.  shruhsolii 
in  June,  and  R.  stoUerfothi  in  late  June  and  early  July.  When 
any  one  of  these  kinds  of  Diatoms  is  present  in  abundance, 
it  may  discolour  the  sea,  and  give  a  characteristic  appearance 
to  a  plankton  gathering  in  a  glass  vessel.  Coscinodiscus 
and  Biddulphia  give  a  yellowish  brown  tint  and  a  granular 
appearance.  Chcetoceras  colours  the  water  pale  green,  and 
when  the  numerous  filaments  sink  to  the  bottom  they 
adhere  together  in  fluffy  masses  like  cotton-wool.  Rhizo- 
solenia in  mass  has  a  dark  greenish  brown  colour  and  a  very 
characteristic  silky  appearance. 

Then,  again,  some  species  of  Chcetoceras  and  Rhizosolenia 
help  to  constitute  the  second  (autumnal)  maximum  in 
September  and  October,  and  Biddulphia  sinensis  makes  its 
appearance  in  quantity  in  November. 

There  are  many  other  genera  and  species  of  Diatoms  which 
appear  in  the  plankton  during  the  year,  all,  no  doubt,  with 
their  special  characters  and  requirements.  I  have  only 
taken,  as  examples,  the  few  that  are  most  abundant  in  the 
Irish  Sea,  and  are  probably  the  most  important  as  food  for 
animals  in  the  plankton. 

There  are  thus  many  problems  of  the  plankton  connected 
with  the  determination  of  the  causes  of  all  these  seasonal 
variations  I  have  referred  to — first  the  sudden  awakening  of 
microscopic  plant-life  in  early  spring,  when  the  water  is 
still  at  its  coldest,  and  when  in  the  course  of  a  few  days  the 
upper  layers  of  the  sea  may  become  so  filled  with  Diatoms 


2  68  FOUNDERS   OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

that  a  small  tow-net  will  capture  hundreds  of  millions  of 
individuals  in  a  few  minutes.  And  these  mjnriads  of  micro- 
scopic organisms,  so  abundant  as  to  colour  the  water,  after 
persisting  for  a  few  weeks,  may  disappear  as  suddenly  as 
they  came — which  is  another  problem  for  the  oceanographer. 
Then  later  in  the  summer  follow  the  swarms  of  Copepoda  and 
many  other  kinds  of  minute  animals,  and  these  again  may 
give  place  in  the  autumn  to  the  second  maximum  of  Diatoms, 
or  in  some  years  of  the  Dinoflagellates,  such  as  Ceratium  and 
Peridinium—all  of  which  requires  explanation. 

I  have  already  referred  to  some  of  the  theories  which 
have  been  advanced  to  account  for  these  more  or  less  periodic 
changes  in  the  plankton,  such  as  Liebig's  "  law  of  the 
minimum,"  which  limits  the  reproduction  of  an  organism 
by  the  amount  of  that  substance  necessary  for  existence 
which  is  present  in  least  quantity — it  may  be  nitrogen,  or 
silicon,  or  phosphorus.  According  to  Raben,  for  example, 
it  is  the  accumulation  of  silicic  acid  in  the  sea -water  during 
winter  that  determines  the  great  increase  of  Diatoms  in 
spring,  and  again  in  autumn,  after  a  further  accumulation. 
Some  writers  have  considered  these  variations  in  the 
plankton  to  be  caused  largely  by  changes  in  temperature, 
supplemented,  according  to  Ostwald,  by  the  resulting 
changes  in  the  viscosity  of  the  water  ;  but,  as  I  have 
indicated  above,  my  opinion  is  that  those  investigators 
are  more  probably  correct  who  attribute  the  spring  develop- 
ment of  phyto-plankton  to  the  increasing  power  of  the 
sunhght  and  its  value  in  photosynthesis,  the  process  by  which 
green  plants  (including  Diatoms)  obtain  the  necessary  supply 
of  carbon  from  the  carbon  dioxide  in  the  sea-water. 

As  was  pointed  out  by  Edward  Forbes  just  seventy  years 
ago,  the  seas  around  the  British  Islands  (his  "  Celtic 
Province  ")  are  the  meeting-ground  of  northern  ("  Boreal  ") 
and  southern  ("  Lusitanian  ")  faunas — "  The  Celtic  Province 
is  the  neutral  ground  of  the  European  seas  ;  it  is  the  field 
upon  which  the  creatures  of  the  north  and  those  of  the 


PLANKTON  269 

south  meet  and  intermingle."  ^  We  can  now  give  an  oceano- 
graphic  explanation  of  the  facts  by  showing  that  no  less 
than  three  masses  of  sea-water  of  different  origin  and 
character  may  enter  and  affect  the  British  seas  in  varying 
quantity,  viz.  (1)  Arctic  water,  such  as  normally  surrounds 
Iceland  and  the  east  of  Greenland,  and  may  extend  farther 
south  and  eastwards  towards  Norway,  the  Faroes,  and 
Shetland  ;  (2)  Atlantic  water  (Gulf  Stream  drift),  which 
impinges  on  the  western  shores  of  Ireland  and  may  flood  the 
English  Channel,  and  even  extend  round  the  Shetlands  and 
down  into  the  North  Sea;  and  (3)  "Coastal"  water,  such 
as  flows  out  of  the  Baltic  and,  mixed  with  the  other  waters, 
bathes  the  coasts  of  N.W.  Europe  generally,  and  to  a  large 
extent  surrounds  the  British  Islands.  Each  of  these  bodies 
of  water  contains  characteristic  plankton  organisms,  and 
this  accounts  for  much  of  the  variation  in  our  fauna  from 
year  to  year. 

The  Irish  Sea,  for  example,  may  be  regarded  as  primarily 
an  area  of  coastal  water,  which  is  liable  to  be  periodically 
invaded  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  by  bodies  of  warmer  and 
Salter  Atlantic  water,  carrying  in  oceanic  plankton,  and 
more  rarely  by  Norwegian  or  Arctic  water,  causing  an 
invasion  of  northern  organisms.  The  variations  in  the 
nature  and  amount  of  the  plankton  at  the  same  locality  in 
different  years  depend  partly  upon  the  volume  and  period 
of  such  southern  and  northern  invasions,  but  also  upon 
other  factors,  such  as  temperature,  sunshine,  rainfall,  wind, 
etc.,  at  the  time  and  previously.  Of  the  half-dozen  most 
abundant  Copepoda  of  the  Irish  Sea,  only  one,  Temora 
longicornis  (Plate  XXIII),  is  a  "  Neritic  "  form,  native  to  the 
locahty.  The  others  are  all  usually  regarded  as  "  Oceanic," 
that  is,  as  having  their  true  home  and  centre  of  distribution 
somewhere  to  the  north,  west,  or  south  in  the  open  Atlantic. 

In  many  oceanographical  inquiries  there  is  a  double  object. 

1  Natural  History  of  the  European  Seas,  p.  80,  Van  Voorst,  1859. 
But  this  portion  was  written  by  Forbes  about  1853. 


270     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

There  is  the  scientific  interest  and  there  is  the  practical 
utihty — the  interest,  for  example,  of  tracing  a  particular 
swarm  of  a  Copepod  like  Calanus,  and  of  making  out  why  it 
is  where  it  is  at  a  particular  time,  tracing  it  back  to  its  place 
of  origin,  finding  that  it  has  come  with  a  particular  body  of 
water,  and  perhaps  that  it  is  feeding  upon  a  particular 
assemblage  of  Diatoms  ;  endeavouring  to  give  a  scientific 
explanation  of  every  stage  in  its  progress.  Then  there  is  the 
utihty — the  demonstration  that  the  migration  of  the  Calanus 
has  determined  the  presence  of  a  shoal  of  herrings  or  mackerel 
that  are  feeding  upon  it,  and  so  have  been  brought  within  the 
range  of  the  fisherman  and  have  constituted  a  commercial 
fishery. 

We  have  evidence  that  pelagic  fish  which  congregate  in 
shoals,  such  as  herring  and  mackerel,  feed  upon  the  Crus- 
tacea of  the  plankton,  and  especially  upon  Copepoda.  A 
few  years  ago,  when  the  summer  herring  fishery  ofi  the  south 
end  of  the  Isle  of  Man  was  unusually  near  the  land,  the 
fishermen  found  large  red  patches  in  the  sea  where  the  fish 
were  specially  abundant.  Some  of  the  red  stuff,  brought 
ashore  by  the  men,  was  examined  at  the  Port  Erin  Laboratory 
and  found  to  be  swarms  of  the  Copepod  Temora  longicornis 
(Plate  XXIII) ;  and  the  stomachs  of  the  herring  caught  at  the 
same  time  were  engorged  with  the  same  organism.  It  is  not 
possible  to  doubt  that  during  these  weeks  of  the  herring  fishery 
in  the  Irish  Sea  the  fish  were  feeding  mainly  upon  this  species 
of  Copepod.  Some  years  ago.  Dr.  E.  J.  Allen  and  Mr.  G.  E. 
BuUen  pubHshed  some  interesting  observations,  from  the 
Plymouth  Marine  Laboratory,  demonstrating  the  connection 
between  mackerel  and  Copepoda  and  sunshine  in  the  EngUsh 
Channel ;  and  Farran  states  that  in  the  spring  fishery  on  the 
West  of  Ireland  the  food  of  the  mackerel  is  mainly  composed 
of  Calanus. 

Then,  again,  at  the  height  of  the  summer  mackerel  fishery 
in  the  Hebrides,  in  1913,  we  found  the  fish  feeding  upon  the 
Copepod  Calanus  finmarchicus  (Plate  XXIV,  Figs.  1  and  2), 


PLATE  XXIII. 


Fig.    1. — Temora  longicornis,  from  the   "  red  patches  "  on  the 
sea  ;    magnified. 


Fig.   2. — Temora  longicornis,  from  the  stomach  of  a  maclcerel ; 

magnified. 

[Photo-tnicro(fraphs  by  A.  Scott. 


PLANKTON  271 

which  was  caught  in  the  tow-net  at  the  rate  of  about  6,000  in  a 
five-minutes'  haul,  and  6,000  was  also  the  average  number 
found  in  the  stomachs  of  the  fish  caught  at  the  same  time. 

These  were  cases  where  the  fish  were  feeding  upon  the 
organism  that  was  present  in  swarms — a  monotonic  plankton 
— but  in  other  cases  the  fish  are  clearly  selective  in  their  diet. 
If  the  sardine  of  the  French  coast  can  pick  out  from  the  micro- 
plankton  the  minute  Peridiniales  in  preference  to  the  equally 
minute  Diatoms  which  are  present  in  the  sea  at  the  same 
time,  there  seems  no  reason  why  the  herring  and  the  mackerel 
should  not  be  able  to  select  particular  species  of  Copepoda 
or  other  large  organisms  from  the  macro-plankton,  and  we 
have  evidence  that  they  do.  Thirty  years  ago  (in  1893)  the 
late  Mr.  Isaac  Thompson  showed  me  that  young  plaice  at 
Port  Erin  were  selecting  one  particular  Copepod,  a  species  of 
Jonesiella,  out  of  many  others  caught  in  our  tow-nets  at 
the  time.  H.  Blegvad  in  Denmark  showed  in  1916  that 
young  food  fishes,  and  also  small  shore  fishes,  pick  out  certain 
species  of  Copepoda  (such  as  Harpacticoids)  and  catch  them 
individually — either  lying  in  wait  or  searching  for  them.  A 
couple  of  years  later  Dr.  Marie  Lebour  published  a  detailed 
account  of  her  work  at  Plymouth  on  the  food  of  young  fishes, 
proving  that  certain  fish  undoubtedly  do  prefer  certain 
planktonic  food. 

These  Crustacea  of  the  plankton  feed  upon  smaller  and 
simpler  organisms — the  Diatoms,  the  Peridinians,  and  the 
Flagellates — and  the  fish  themselves  in  their  youngest  post- 
larval  stages  are  nourished  by  the  same  minute  forms  of  the 
plankton.  Thus  it  appears  that  our  sea-fisheries  ultimately 
depend  upon  the  living  plankton,  which  no  doubt  in  its  turn 
is  affected  by  hydrographic  conditions.  A  correlation  seems 
to  be  established  between  the  Cornish  pilchard  fisheries  and 
periodic  variations  in  the  physical  characters  (probably  the 
salinity)  of  the  water  of  the  Enghsh  Channel  between  Ply- 
mouth and  Jersey.  Apparently  a  diminished  intensity  in 
the  Atlantic  current  corresponds  with  a  diminished  fishery 


272     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

in  the  following  summer.     Possibly  the  connection  in  these 
cases  is  through  an  organism  of  the  plankton. 

Nathansohn,  Gran  and  others  lay  stress  upon  the  import- 
ance of  vertical  currents  in  bringing  nutriment  to  the  plank- 
ton, and  suggest  that  some  of  the  irregularities  may  be  due 
to  such  up-welling  currents  from  deeper  water.  The  enor- 
mous quantity  of  plankton  over  the  Faroe  Bank  is  probably 
due  to  vertical  currents  caused  by  the  bank  facing  the  Gulf 
Stream  drift.  It  is  a  matter  of  common  observation  among 
fishermen  that  where  there  are  strong  tidal  races  and  swirls 
sea-birds  congregate,  and  are  found  to  be  feeding  on  small 
fishes,  and  these  in  their  turn  are  eating  the  abundant  plank- 
ton brought  and  nourished  by  the  current. 

It  is  only  a  comparatively  small  number  of  different  kinds 
of  organisms — both  plants  and  animals— that  make  up  the 
bulk  of  the  plankton  that  is  of  real  importance  to  fish.  One 
can  select  about  haK  a  dozen  species  of  Copepoda  which 
constitute  the  greater  part  of  the  summer  zoo-plankton 
suitable  as  food  for  larval  or  adult  fishes,  and  about  the  same 
number  of  generic  types  of  Diatoms  which  similarly  make  up 
the  bulk  of  the  available  spring  phy  to -plankton  year  after 
year.  This  fact  gives  great  economic  importance  to  the 
attempt  to  determine  with  as  much  precision  as  possible  the 
times  and  conditions  of  occurrence  of  these  dominant  factors 
of  the  plankton  in  an  average  year.  An  obvious  further 
extension  of  this  investigation  is  an  inquiry  into  the  degree  of 
coincidence  between  the  times  of  appearance  in  the  sea  of  the 
plankton  organisms  and  of  the  young  fish,  and  the  possible 
effect  of  any  marked  absence  of  correlation  in  time  and 
quantity. 

Just  before  the  war  the  International  Council  for  the 
Exploration  of  the  Sea  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  fishery 
investigations  indicated  the  probabiHty  that  the  great  periodic 
fluctuations  in  the  fisheries  are  connected  with  the  fish  larvse 
being  developed  in  great  quantities  only  in  certain  years. 
Consequently  they  advised  that  plankton  work  should  be 


^) 


PLATE  XXIV. 


[Photo -micrograph  by  A.  ScOTT. 

Fig.   1. — The  Copepod  Calanus  fin^narchicus  from  the  West  Coast 

of  Scotland.      X    20. 


Fig.  2. — Photograph  of  large  hauls  (about  1,000  c.c.  in  a  jar)  of  Calanus, 
taken  from  the  yacht  "  Runa  "  in  1913  on  the  West  Coast  of  Scotland, 
with  the  large  "Nansen"  net  shown.  The  largest  haul  was  esti- 
mated to  contain  at   least  half  a  million  individuals. 


PLANKTON  273 

directed  primarily  to  the  question  whether  these  fluctuations 
depend  upon  differences  in  the  plankton  production  in  differ- 
ent years.  It  was  then  proposed  to  begin  systematic  investi- 
gation of  the  fish  larvae  and  the  plankton  in  spring,  and  to 
determine  more  definitely  the  food  of  the  larval  fish  at  various 
stages — all  of  which  was  interrupted  by  the  war. 

About  the  same  time  Dr.  Hjort  made  the  interesting 
suggestion  that  possibly  the  great  fluctuations  in  the  number 
of  young  fish  observed  from  year  to  year  may  not  depend 
wholly  upon  the  number  of  eggs  produced,  but  also  upon 
the  relation  in  time  between  the  hatching  of  these  eggs  and 
the  appearance  in  the  water  of  the  enormous  quantity  of 
Diatoms  and  other  plant  plankton  upon  which  the  larval 
fish,  after  the  absorption  of  their  yolk,  depend  for  food.  He 
points  out  that,  if  even  a  brief  interval  occurs  between  the 
time  when  the  larvse  first  require  extraneous  nourishment 
and  the  period  when  such  food  is  available,  it  is  highly 
probable  that  an  enormous  mortahty  would  result.  In  that 
case  even  a  rich  spawning  season  might  yield  but  a  poor 
result  in  fish  in  the  commercial  fisheries  of  successive  years 
for  some  time  to  come.  So  that,  in  fact,  the  numbers  of  a 
"  year-class  "  of  fish  may  depend  not  so  much  upon  a  favour- 
able spawning  season  as  upon  a  coincidence  between  the 
hatching  of  the  larvse  and  the  presence  of  abundance  of 
phyto-planliton  available  as  food.^ 

The  curve  for  the  spring  maximum  of  Diatoms  corresponds 
in  a  general  way  with  the  curve  representing  the  occurrence 
of  pelagic  fish  eggs  in  our  seas.  But  is  the  correspondence 
sufficiently  exact  and  constant  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  case  ? 
The  phy  to -plankton  may  still  be  relatively  small  in  amount 
during  February  and  part  of  March  in  some  years,  and  it  is 
not  easy  to  determine  exactly  when,  in  the  open  sea,  the  fish 
eggs  have  hatched  out  in  quantity  and  the  larvae  have 

1  For  the  purpose  of  this  argument  we  include  in  "  phyto- 
plankton "  the  various  groups  of  Flagellata  and  other  minute 
organisms  which  may  be  present  with  the  Diatoms. 

T 


274 


FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 


absorbed  their  food-yolk  and  started  feeding  on  Diatoms. 
If,  however,  we  take  the  case  of  one  important  fish — the 
plaice — we  can  get  some  data  from  our  hatching  experiments 
at  the  Port  Erin  Biological  Station,  which  have  now  been 
carried  on  for  a  period  of  nearly  twenty  years.  An  examina- 
tion of  the  hatchery  records  for  these  years  in  comparison 
with  the  plankton  records  of  the  neighbouring  sea,  which 
have  been  kept  systematically  for  the  fifteen  years  from  1907 
to  1921  inclusive,  shows  that  in  most  of  these  years  the 
Diatoms  were  present  in  abundance  in  the  sea  a  few  days  at 
least  before  the  fish  larvae  from  the  hatchery  were  set  free,  and 
that  it  was  only  in  four  years  (1908,  '09,  '13,  and  '14)  that 


Plaice   just  hatched 


Fig.  18 — Young  Larval  Plaice  with  supply  of  Food-yolk,     x  15. 

there  was  apparently  some  risk  of  the  larvae  finding  no  phyto- 
plankton  food,  or  very  little.  The  evidence  so  far  seems  to 
show  that  if  fish  larvae  (Fig.  18)  are  set  free  in  the  sea  as  late 
as  March  20,  they  are  fairly  sure  of  finding  suitable  food  ;  ^ 
but  if  they  are  hatched  as  early  as  February,  they  run  some 
chance  of  being  starved. 

But  this  does  not  exhaust  the  risks  to  the  future  fishery. 
C.  G.  Joh.  Petersen  and  Boysen- Jensen,  in  their  valuation  of 
the  Limf  jord,  in  Denmark,  have  shown  that  in  the  case  not 
only  of  some  fish,  but  also  of  the  larger  invertebrates  on 


1  All  dates  and  statements  as  to  occurrence  refer  to  the  Irish  Sea 
round  the  south  end  of  the  Isle  of  Man.  For  further  details  see 
Report  Lanes,  Sea-Fish,  Lab,  for  1919. 


PLANKTON  275 

which  they  feed,  there  are  marked  fluctuations  in  the  number 
of  young  produced  in  different  seasons,  and  that  it  is  only 
at  intervals  of  years  that  a  really  large  stock  of  young  is  added 
to  the  population. 

The  prospects  of  a  year's  fishery  may  therefore  depend, 
primarily,  upon  the  rate  of  spawning  of  the  fish,  affected  no 
doubt  by  hydrographic  and  other  environmental  conditions  ; 
secondarily,  upon  the  presence  of  a  sufficient  supply  of  phyto- 
plankton  in  the  surface  layers  of  the  sea  at  the  time  when 
the  fish  larvae  are  hatched,  and  that  in  its  turn  depends  upon 
photosynthesis  and  physico-chemical  changes  in  the  water ; 
and,  finally,  upon  the  reproduction  of  the  stock  of  molluscs  or 
worms  at  the  bottom,  which  were  all  transitory  members  of 
the  plankton  in  their  embryonic  and  larval  stages,  and  which 
constitute  the  fish  food  at  later  stages  of  growth  and  develop- 
ment. 

The  question  has  been  raised  of  recent  years — Is  there 
enough  plankton  in  the  sea  to  provide  sufiicient  nourishment 
for  the  larger  animals,  and  especially  for  those  fixed  forms, 
such  as  Sponges,  that  are  supposed  to  feed  by  drawing  currents 
of  plankton-laden  water  through  the  body  ?  In  a  series  of 
papers  from  1907  onwards  Piitter  and  his  followers  put 
forward  the  views  (1)  that  the  carbon  requirements  of  such 
animals  could  not  be  met  by  the  amount  of  plankton  in  the 
volume  of  water  that  could  be  passed  tlnrough  the  body  in  a 
given  time,  and  (2)  that  sea- water  contained  a  large  amount 
of  dissolved  organic  carbon  compounds  which  constitute  the 
chief,  if  not  the  only,  food  of  a  large  number  of  marine  animals. 
These  views  have  given  rise  to  much  controversy,  and  have 
been  useful  in  stimulating  further  research,  but  I  believe  it  is 
now  admitted  that  Putter's  samples  of  water  from  the  Bay 
of  Naples  and  at  Kiel  were  probably  polluted,  that  his  figures 
were  erroneous,  and  that  his  conclusions  must  be  rejected, 
or  at  least  greatly  modified.  His  estimates  of  the  plankton 
were  minimum  ones,  while  it  seems  probable  that  his  figures 
for  the  organic  carbon  present  represent  a  variable  amount  of 


276     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

organic  matter  arising  from  one  of  the  reagents  used  in  the 
analyses.     The  later  experimental  work  of  Henze,  of  Raben, 
and  of  Moore,  shows  that  the  organic  carbon  dissolved  in 
sea-water  is  an  exceedingly  minute  quantity,  well  within  the 
Hmits  of  experimental  error.     Moore  puts  it,  at  the  most,  at 
one-millionth  part,  or  one  mgm.  in  a  litre.     At  the  Dundee 
meeting  of  the  British  Association  in  1912  a  discussion  on 
this  subject  took  place,  at  which  Piitter  still  adhered  to  a 
modified  form  of  his  hypothesis  of  the  inadequacy  of  the 
plankton  and  the  nutrition  of  lower  marine  animals  by  the 
direct  absorption  of  dissolved  organic  matter.     Further  work 
at  Port  Erin  since  has  shown  that,  while  the  plankton  supply 
as  found  generally  distributed  would  prove  sufficient  for  the 
nutrition  of  such  sedentary  animals  as  Sponges  and  Ascidians, 
which  require  to  filter  only  about  fifteen  times  their  own 
volume  of  water  per  hour,  it  is  quite  inadequate  for  active 
animals,  such  as  Crustaceans  and  Fishes.     These  latter  are, 
however,  able  to  seek  out  and  capture  their  food,  and  are  not 
dependent  on  what  they  may  filter  or  absorb  from  the  sea- 
water.     This  result  accords  well  with  recorded  observations 
on  the  irregularity  in  the  distribution  of  the  plankton,  and 
with  the  variations  in  the  occurrence  of  the  migratory  fishes 
which  may  be  regarded  as  following  and  feeding  upon  the 
swarms  of  planktonic  organisms.     I  shall  deal  with  this 
question  of  nutrition  in  marine  animals  in  further  detail  in 
the  final  chapter. 

Our  knowledge  of  the  relations  between  plankton  produc- 
tivity and  variation  and  the  physico-chemical  environment 
is  still  in  its  infancy,  but  gives  promise  of  great  results  in  the 
hands  of  the  bio-chemist  and  the  physical  chemist.  Recent 
work  by  Sorensen,  Pahtzsch,  Witting,  Moore,  and  others 
have  made  clear  that  the  hydrogen-ion  concentration  as 
indicated  by  the  relative  degree  of  alkalinity  and  acidity  in 
the  sea -water  may  undergo  local  and  periodic  variations,  and 
that  these  have  an  effect  upon  the  living  organisms  in  the 
water  and  can  be  correlated  with  their  presence  and  abun- 


PLANKTON  277 

dance.  To  take  an  example  from  om*  own  seas,^  Professor 
Benjamin  Moore  and  his  assistants,  in  their  work  at  the  Port 
Erin  Biological  Station  in  successive  years  from  1912  onwards, 
have  shown  that  the  sea  around  the  Isle  of  Man  is  a  good  deal 
more  alkaline  in  spring  (say  April)  than  it  is  in  summer  (say 
July).  The  alkalinity,  which  gets  low  in  summer,  increases 
somewhat  in  autumn,  and  then  decreases  rapidly,  to  disappear 
during  the  winter  ;  and  then  once  more,  after  several  months 
of  a  minimum,  begins  to  come  into  evidence  again  in  March, 
and  rapidly  rises  to  its  maximum  in  April  or  May.  This 
periodic  change  in  alkalinity  will  be  seen  to  correspond 
roughly  with  the  changes  in  the  living  microscopic  contents 
of  the  sea  represented  by  the  phyto-plankton  annual  curve, 
and  the  connection  between  the  two  will  be  seen  when  we 
realize  that  the  alkalinity  of  the  sea  is  due  to  the  relative 
absence  of  carbon  dioxide.  In  early  spring,  then,  the 
developing  myriads  of  Diatoms  in  their  metabolic  processes 
gradually  use  up  the  store  of  carbon  dioxide  accumulated 
during  the  winter,  or  derived  from  the  bi-carbonates  of 
calcium  and  magnesium,  and  so  increase  the  alkalinity  of  the 
water,  till  the  maximum  of  alkalinity,  due  to  the  fixation  of 
the  carbon  and  the  reduction  in  amount  of  carbon  dioxide, 
corresponds  with  the  crest  of  the  phyto-plankton  curve  in, 
say,  April. 

Prof.  B.  Moore  has  calculated  that  the  annual  turnover 
in  the  form  of  carbon  which  is  used  up  or  converted  from  the 
inorganic  into  an  organic  form  probably  amounts  to  some- 
thing of  the  order  of  20,000  or  30,000  tons  of  carbon  per 
cubic  mile  of  sea-water,  or,  say,  over  an  area  of  the  Irish 
Sea  measuring  16  square  miles  and  a  depth  of  50  fathoms  ; 
and  this  probably  means  a  production  each  season  of  about 
two  tons  of  dry  organic  matter,  corresponding  to  at  least 
ten  tons  of  moist  vegetation,  per  acre — which  suggests  at 

1  I  have  already  referred  to  these  variations  in  alkalinity  in  the 
chapter  on  Hydrography,  but  they  require  to  be  noticed  here  in 
their  relation  to  plankton  production. 


278   ^  FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

least  the  possibility  that  there  may  be  much  more  ultimate 
food  matter  in  the  sea  than  is  at  present  made  use  of,  and 
that  a  scientific  aquiculture  in  the  future  may  discover  the 
means  of  converting  more  of  the  available  carbon  into  fish 
food  and  then  into  fish,  so  as  to  increase  our  marine  harvest. 
Testing  the  alkalinity  of  the  sea-water  may  therefore  be 
said  to  be  merely  ascertaining  and  measuring  the  results  of 
the  photosynthetic  activity  of  the  great  phyto-plankton  rise 
in  spring  due  to  the  daily  increase  of  sunlight. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  in  these  two  chapters  I  have 
been  able  to  give  an  exhaustive  account  of  plankton  occur- 
rence, investigations,  methods,  difficulties,  and  results  ; 
but  possibly  enough  has  been  said  to  give  some  idea  of 
the  nature  of  the  matter  and  its  importance  both  in  scientific 
interest  and  in  practical  utility.  I  shall  have  to  return  to 
the  subject  of  plankton  in  relation  to  the  ultimate  food  of 
the  sea  in  the  final  chapter. 


CHAPTER  XV 

APPLIED  OCEANOGRAPHY 

AQUICULTURE— OYSTER  AND  MUSSEL 

FISHERIES 

Oceanography  has  many  practical  appHcations — chiefly, 
but  by  no  means  wholly,  on  the  biological  side.  Even  if 
attention  be  directed  only  to  contents  of  the  sea  of  direct 
value  to  man,  as  food,  bait,  adornment  and  other  useful 
products,  these  range  from  whales  and  fur-seals  downwards 
through  many  groups  of  lower  marine  animals,  and  even 
sea- weeds  (kelp,  etc.),  to  the  inorganic  salt  which  is  obtained 
by  evaporation  in  salt-pans  and  otherwise  on  many  coasts. 
As  examples,  it  is  only  necessary  to  mention  the  valuable 
pearl  fisheries  of  Eastern  seas  and  of  many  coral  lagoons, 
the  sponge  fisheries  of  the  Levant,  the  precious  red-coral 
of  the  Mediterranean,  the  clam  of  America,  the  trepang  of 
China,  our  own  lobster,  crab,  shrimp,  prawn,  and  many 
other  minor  coastal  industries,  before  passing  to  two  more 
important  products — (1)  shellfish,  such  as  oysters,  and  (2) 
the  true  fishes,  such  as  sole,  cod,  and  herring — both  of  which 
will  be  treated  more  in  detail  as  man's  harvest  from  the  sea. 

These  great  fishing  industries  throughout  the  world 
deal  with  living  organisms  of  which  the  vital  activities  and 
interrelations  with  the  environment  are  matters  of  scientific 
investigation.  Aquiculture  is  as  susceptible  of  scientific 
treatment  as  agriculture  can  be  ;  and  the  fisherman  who 
has  been  in  the  past  too  much  the  nomad  and  the  hunter, 
if  not,  indeed,  the  devastating  raider,  must  become  in  the 
future  the  settled  farmer  of  the  sea  if  his  harvest  is  to  be 

279 


280     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

less  precarious.  Perhaps  the  nearest  approach  to  cultiva- 
tion of  a  marine  product,  and  of  the  fisherman  reaping  what 
he  has  sown,  is  seen  in  the  case  of  the  oyster  and  mussel 
industries  on  the  west  coast  of  France,  and  of  these  I  shall 
now  give  a  short  account  from  notes  made  on  a  personal 
visit  some  thirty  years  ago. 

Oyster-culture  is  spread  over  a  number  of  centres  from 
Arcachon  in  the  south  to  Brittany  and  the  Channel  in  the 
north,  and  may  be  conveniently  divided  into  the  capture 
and  rearing  of  the  very  young  oysters,  or  "  spat,"  which 
takes  place  at  Arcachon  and  elsewhere,  and  the  fattening 
and  preparing  the  full-grown  shellfish  for  the  market,  which 
is  seen  at  Marennes  and  other  centres  farther  north. 

Arcachon,  on  the  west  coast,  a  little  south  of  Bordeaux, 
is  notable  for  the  large  shallow  bay,  or  inland  sea,  shut 
off  from  the  ocean  outside  by  a  long  bar  of  sand,  in  which 
is  a  single  narrow  opening  through  which  the  tide  runs 
strongly.  At  low  tide  a  large  area  of  the  bay  is  dry,  and 
this  is  occupied  by  oyster-farms,  the  only  evidence  of  which 
at  high  water  is  the  rows  of  saplings  marking  the  boundaries 
of  submerged  fields.  As  the  tide  falls,  fields,  banks,  ditches, 
sluices,  spat -collectors  and  young  oyster- ambulances  all 
make  their  appearance  ;  and  the  oyster-culturists,  men, 
women  and  children,  troop  out  from  the  town  and  may 
be  seen  for  the  next  few  hours,  some  in  boats  proceeding 
along  the  water-ways,  others  wading  in  the  fields  inspecting 
their  stock,  collecting  and  shifting,  removing  enemies  of 
the  precious  oyster,  and  performing  other  necessary  opera- 
tions. It  reminds  one  of  market -gardening  and  working 
on  allotments,  and  it  is  a  busy  scene  until  the  rising  tide 
drives  the  workers  from  their  farms  back  to  the  town. 
Plate  XXV  shows  two  views  on  different  parts  of  an  oyster 
pare  at  low  tide. 

The  bay  of  Arcachon  is,  from  its  natural  features,  a 
splendid  rearing-ground  for  immense  quantities  of  young 
oysters.     The  old  breeding  oysters  produce  their  free-swim- 


AQUICULTURE  281 

ming  larvae  in  summer  (July),  and  these  larvae,  during  the 
days  of  their  free  existence,  are  carried  in  enormous  numbers 
by  the  outgoing  tide  down  the  runnels  and  streams  which 
converge  towards  the  channel  that  opens  to  the  Atlantic. 
The  first  object  of  the  oyster-farmer  is  to  place  artificial 
"  collectors  "  in  the  course  of  these  streams,  so  as  to  inter- 
cept the  microscopic  young  oysters  in  that  earliest  stage, 
and  so  save  them  from  being  carried  out  to  sea  and  lost. 
When  the  proper  time  comes,  the  oyster  larva  will  settle 
down  for  life  by  attaching  itselE  to  any  object  which  is  firm 
and  clean — not  slimy,  like  some  sea-weeds.  They  have 
been  found  elsewhere  growing  in  numbers  on  the  soles  of 
old  boots,  on  the  stems  and  bowls  of  old  tobacco-pipes,  and 
on  fragments  of  glass-ware  and  crockery.  In  natural 
oyster-beds  on  the  sea-bottom  the  young  become  attached 
to  the  shells  of  the  old  oysters,  to  other  dead  shells,  such 
as  those  of  cockles,  and  to  any  stones  there  may  be  in  the 
neighbourhood.  On  many  oyster-beds,  especially  in  Hol- 
land, great  quantities  of  old  shells  of  oysters  and  cockles 
are  scattered  over  the  ground  as  "  cultch,"  for  the  young 
"  spat  "  to  settle  upon.  But  at  Arcachon,  and  elsewhere 
in  France,  special  "  collectors  "  are  constructed  and  care- 
fully placed  in  the  best  positions  at  the  right  time  of  year. 
The  simplest  are  merely  bundles  of  twigs,  or  "  fascines," 
tied  together  and  anchored  with  stones.  The  more  usual 
collectors  are  earthenware  tiles,  coated  with  a  preparation 
of  lime  and  sand,  so  as  to  be  clean  and  slightly  rough,  which 
facilitates  the  attachment  of  the  larva.  Moreover,  this 
layer  of  whitewash  forms  a  medium  which  can  be  cracked 
off  later  on,  when  the  young  oyster  has  grown  sufficiently 
to  be  independent  of  support,  and  thus  the  tiles  are  left 
intact,  need  not  be  broken  up  to  free  the  oysters,  and  so 
can  be  used  as  collectors  year  after  year.  The  proportions 
of  lime  and  sand  in  the  whitewash  differ  on  different  farms, 
and  so  do  the  methods  of  arranging  the  tiles.  They  may 
be  stacked  on  the  ground  in  open  piles,  so  that  the  ebbing 


282     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

tide  will  run  through  the  openings,  or  they  may  be  arranged 
in  rough  wooden  crates,  the  successive  layers  of  tiles  being 
placed  alternately  longitudinally  and  transversely,  in  order 
to  break  up  the  currents  of  water,  delay  its  passage,  and 
cause  eddies,  so  as  to  afford  every  opportunity  for  those 
larvae  that  are  ready  to  come  in  contact  with  the  hme-coated 
surface  and  adhere  to  it.  As  many  as  a  couple  of  hundred 
young  oysters  may  sometimes  be  found  attached  to  one 
tile.  The  success  of  a  "  spat-fall  "  depends  largely  upon 
the  weather  during  the  critical  days,  and  upon  the  collecting 
tiles  being  placed  in  position  just  at  the  right  time — not 
too  early,  as  then  they  may  become  coated  with  diatoms 
and  other  minute  organisms,  which  render  the  surface  slimy, 
and  so  prevent  the  oyster  larvae  from  adhering. 

At  Arcachon  the  young  oysters  are  allowed  to  remain 
on  the  tiles  at  least  till  October  or  early  in  winter,  when 
they  are  about  the  size  of  the  finger-nail,  say  J  to  f  inch  in 
diameter.  Then  the  tiles  are  collected  and  taken  ashore, 
and  the  process  of  "  detroquage,"  or  separating  the  oysters 
from  the  tiles,  takes  place.  This  is  effected  very  rapidly  by 
a  skilled  hand,  the  Httle  oyster,  with  the  film  of  lime  to 
which  it  is  attached,  being  flicked  off  the  tile  rapidly  by  a 
square-ended  knife. 

Many  of  the  oysters  are  sold  at  this  stage  to  the  "  ele- 
veurs,"  who  rear  and  fatten  them  elsewhere ;  but  many,  on 
the  other  hand,  are  kept  for  another  year  or  two  in  the 
pares  at  Arcachon.  These  latter,  after  removal  from  the 
tiles,  are  placed  in  flat  trays  having  a  floor  and  a  lid  of  close 
galvanized  wire  netting  of  about  J-inch  mesh,  and  these 
trays  are  fixed  between  short  posts  in  the  sea  on  the  oyster- 
pare,  so  that  the  tide  can  run  freely  through  them, 
supplying  the  oysters  with  food  and  oxygen.  Such  trays 
are  called  "  ambulances,"  or  "  caisses  ostreophiles,"  and 
measure  about  6  feet  by  4  feet,  by  6  inches  deep.  They 
serve  to  keep  the  young  oyster  during  the  early  period  of 
its  life  out  of  the  sediment,  and  they  also  protect  it  from 


PLATE  XXV. 


%'i  lM:J 


■•k;<>v'  "t-xMHi  Mi^i  iawiAaiitz)r>*i«,l 


Oyster-Culture  at  Arcachon  :    Two  Views  of  Work  in  an  Oyster 

Parc  at  Low  Tide. 


AQUICULTURE  283 

its  numerous  natural  enemies,  such  as  the  boring  sponge 
(Cliona),  which  ruins  the  shell;  starfishes  and  crabs,  which 
manage  to  suck  or  pick  out  the  soft  animal ;  and  whelks 
{Purpura  and  Nassa)  and  other  Gastropods,  which  can  bore 
a  hole  through  the  shell  and  prey  upon  the  oyster  within. 

The  ambulances  are  constantly  looked  after  by  the  oyster- 
men,  and  especially  women,  who  come  at  low  tide,  when 
the  "  caisses  "  are  exposed,  open  the  lid,  and  pick  over  the 
contents,  removing  any  enemies  or  impurities  which  may 
have  got  in,  such  as  crabs,  taking  out  any  dead  shells,  and 
rearranging  the  oysters,  if  necessary,  so  that  all  may  have 
a  fair  chance  of  obtaining  food  and  growing  normally.  The 
young  oysters  grow  rapidly  iu  the  ambulances,  and  have 
soon  to  be  thinned  out.  The  larger  ones  are  removed  to 
other  ''caisses" — or,  if  large  enough,  they  are  thrown  into 
the  open  enclosures  or  little  fields  of  the  pare.  Additional 
young  ones  may  now  be  added,  or  all  the  space  may  be 
required  for  a  time  by  those  left.  In  this  way,  by  thinning 
out,  rearranging,  and  adding,  relays  of  young  oysters  in 
their  first  year  may  occupy  the  ambulances  for  eight  months, 
although  an  individual  oyster  may  only  be  in  for  one  month 
or  so.  Eventually  all  the  oysters  not  sold  to  "  eleveurs  "  or 
exported  get  transferred  from  the  ambulances  to  the  field- 
like enclosures  of  the  pare  (PI.  XXV). 

During  the  last  half-century  the  number  of  oyster-pares 
at  Arcachon  has  varied  from  about  3,000  to  6,000.  The 
number  of  oysters  exported  in  the  year  has  generally  varied 
from  about  300  million  to  500  million,  and  the  value  from 
about  a  milhon  francs  upwards,  according  to  the  current 
prices  for  oysters. 

The  whole  of  this  prosperous  industry,  both  at  Arcachon 
and  elsewhere  on  the  coast  of  France,  was  started  between 
1859  and  1865,  by  a  professor  of  biology,  M.  P.  Coste, 
who,  instigated  by  the  Government,  made  investigations 
and  experiments,  and  is  said  to  have  imported  Scottish 
oysters  from  the  then  flourishing  natural  beds  in  the  Firth 


284     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

of  Forth  ;  and  now  we  buy  back  from  the  French  ostreo- 
culturists  the  descendants  of  our  own  oysters  to  replenish 
our  neglected  and  depleted  beds.  It  is  an  object-lesson  in 
the  value  of  aquiculture. 

The  further  rearing  and  preparing  for  market  of  the  oysters 
produced  at  Arcachon  takes  place  farther  north,  on  the 
west  coast  of  France,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  La  Rochelle, 
Marennes,  and  Le  Croisic.  In  these  and  many  other  places 
along  that  flat  coast  there  are  large,  shallow  ponds,  or 
"  claires,"  into  which  sea- water  is  brought  by  means  of  canals 
with  sluices,  so  that  the  "claires,"  in  some  cases  several 
miles  inland,  may  be  filled  at  high  spring  tides  and  remain 
as  areas  of  stagnant  sea-water,  becoming  warmer  and  denser, 
and  more  and  more  occupied  with  Diatoms  and  other 
vegetation,  as  the  days  go  on,  until  the  next  high  tide  affords 
an  opportunity  of  refreshing  the  water.  In  this  somewhat 
artificial  environment  the  half -grown  oyster  from  Arcachon 
is  highly  nourished,  rapidly  increases  in  size,  and  becomes 
fat,  soft,  and  luscious.  Moreover,  in  certain  "  claires  "  the 
process  known  as  "  greening  "  takes  place.  The  gills  and 
certain  other  parts  of  the  oyster  acquire  a  bluish  green 
colour,  which  is  probably  due  to  the  pigment  in  the  Diatom 
Navicula  fusiformis  variety  ostrearia,  which  abounds  in  these 
"claires"  and  upon  which  the  oysters  feed.  Such  green 
oysters  ("  huitres  vertes  de  Marennes  ")  are  highly  esteemed 
in  the  Parisian  and  some  other  markets. 

The  final  stage  in  the  preparation  of  the  oyster  is  to 
cleanse  it  from  impurities,  decomposing  organic  matter, 
and  possibly  germs,  by  placing  it  for  a  few  days  in  clean 
tiled  tanks,  known  as  ''  bassins  de  degorgement,"  in  which 
the  pure  sea-water  is  frequently  renewed,  so  as  to  wash  away 
all  deleterious  matter. 

Oysters,  mussels,  and  other  shellfish  are,  of  course,  liable, 
from  the  nature  of  their  food — microscopic  particles  carried 
in  from  the  water  or  the  mud  close  to  land — ^to  become 
infected  with  various  bacteria,  including,  it  may  be,  if  there 


AQUICULTURE  285 

is  sewage  contamination  in  the  neighbourhood,  disease 
germs  such  as  the  bacillus  of  typhoid.  Experiments  have 
shown  that  the  common  intestinal  colon  bacillus  is  of  fre- 
quent, if  not  constant,  occurrence  in  the  oyster  and  other 
shellfish,  and  that  the  typhoid  bacillus  may,  though  very 
rarely,  be  present,  and  can  live  for  a  short  time  in  the  mollusc's 
interior.  These  disease  organisms  can,  however,  be  readily 
washed  out  by  a  stream  of  running  water  or  by  placing  for 
some  hours  in  water  which  is  frequently  changed.  The 
living  shellfish,  in  fact,  tends  by  its  vital  processes  to  clear 
itself  of  such  matters,  and  the  typhoid  bacillus  is  fortunately 
a  comparatively  dehcate  organism,  and  cannot  live  for 
long  in  pure  sea-water. 

Oyster-cultiu'e  is  pursued  in  Holland  on  much  the  same 
lines  as  in  France,  with  somewhat  less  elaboration,  and 
without  the  differentiation  between  the  collecting  and 
rearing  and  the  later  stages  of  cultivation  seen  at  Arcachon 
and  Marennes.  In  a  Dutch  oyster-farm,  as  at  lerseke  or 
at  Bergen-op-zoom,  or  elsewhere  on  the  Scheldt,  we  may 
see  spat  collection  by  means  of  tiles,  and  also  the  distribution 
of  cockle-shells  to  form  a  ''  cultch,"  the  rearing  of  young 
oysters  in  ambulances,  their  further  cultivation  in  the  later 
years  of  their  life  in  ponds,  which  can  be  filled  and  emptied 
from  canals  with  sluices  ;  and  in  some  cases  young  oysters 
shipped  from  Arcachon  are  relaid  and  fattened  in  Holland, 
and  even  on  some  parts  of  the  English  coast,  in  place  of 
going  to  the  "claires"  of  Marennes  and  Brittany. 

Oyster -culture  in  the  Mediterranean,  where  there  is  little 
or  no  tide,  is  carried  on  in  the  Bay  of  Spezia  and  elsewhere 
by  means  of  poles  stuck  in  the  sea-bottom  in  shallow  water 
connected  by  a  network  of  coarse  twisted  ropes,  in  the 
interstices  of  which  the  oysters  are  attached  so  that  they 
hang  in  great  vertical  strings  in  the  water.  This  is  merely 
a  device  for  accumulating  as  large  a  number  of  oysters  as 
possible  in  a  given  area  of  water,  and  also  to  render  them 
easily  accessible,  so  that  a  man  going  round  the  poles  in  a 


286     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

boat  can  haul  up  rope  after  rope  and  pick  oJS  such  oysters 
as  he  desires  for  the  market.  They  are  said  to  grow  large 
with  extreme  rapidity,  thus  hanging  freely  in  the  water. 
The  spat  is  collected  on  fascines  sunk  in  deeper  water  at 
the  mouth  of  the  bay,  and  transferred,  when  of  sufficient  size, 
to  the  ropes  inshore.  There  are  other  similar  methods  of 
cultivation  at  Taranto,  Lake  Fusaro,  and  elsewhere  in  the 
south  of  Italy,  where  this  form  of  aquiculture  has  been 
practised  continuously  since  the  time  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
when  it  is  said  to  have  been  started  by  Sergius  Orata,  called 
by  Cicero  *'  Luxuriorum  Magister."  The  methods  which 
Coste  introduced  to  revive  the  depleted  oyster-beds  of 
France  in  the  middle  of  last  century  were  based  upon  what 
he  had  seen  in  the  south  of  Italy.  Plate  XXVI,  Fig.  2, 
illustrates  the  method  of  cultivation  seen  in  the  Bay  of  Spezia. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  give  further  examples  from  the  south 
of  Europe,  but  the  following  shows  a  different  form  of 
aquiculture,  in  which  oceanographic  knowledge  in  regard  to 
temperatures  and  salinities  of  the  water  plays  a  part. 

There  are  some  remarkable  salt-water  ponds  on  the  west 
coast  of  Norway  where  oysters  are  grown  with  great  success. 
Such  a  pond,  for  example,  is  found  at  Espevig,  and  the  follow- 
ing particulars  are  taken  from  the  account  given  by  Herman 
Friele  to  the  International  Fishery  Congress  at  Bergen  in 
1898.  This  pond  is  separated  from  the  fjord  outside  by  a 
low  sandy  barrier  about  5  feet  above  high-water  mark. 
It  is  only  at  a  high  spring  tide  or  during  an  inshore  gale 
that  the  waves  pass  over  this  barrier  and  renew  the  salt 
water  in  the  pond.  The  pond  is  also  supplied  with  fresh 
water  from  a  small  stream,  and  normally  the  surface  layer 
of  the  water  is  completely  fresh.  At  a  depth  of  3  to  5  feet, 
however,  it  is  as  salt  as  the  fjord  outside.  The  temperature 
of  the  deeper  Salter  water  is  very  high — about  28°  C.  (82°  F.) 
• — and  abundance  of  organisms,  both  animals  and  plants, 
are  found  growing  on  the  rocky  sides,  while  the  muddy 
bottom  is  covered  with  large  clusters  of  oysters.     Professor 


PLATE  XXVI. 


[Photo  by  A.  Scott. 
Fig.    1. — Part  of  a  Mussel  Skear  in  Morecambe  Bav. 


Fig.   2. — Oyster  Culture  in  the  Bay  of  Spezia. 

(From  sketch  by  the  Author  \i\  1894.) 


AQUICULTURE  287 

Helland's  explanation  of  the  high  temperature  of  the  Salter 
deeper  water  in  the  pond  is  that  the  layer  of  fresh  water 
on  the  surface  forms  a  cover,  preventing  the  deeper  water 
below  from  coming  to  the  surface  and  losing  its  heat.  So 
he  considers  that  the  heat  of  the  lower  water  layers,  derived 
from  the  sun,  constantly  accumulates  throughout  the  sum- 
mer. From  his  observations  he  shows  that  only  a  few  days 
of  sunshine  are  necessary  to  make  a  considerable  difference 
in  the  temperature  ;  he  has  observed  a  rise  of  two  degrees  in 
one  day.  The  ponds  may  be  regarded  as  hot  beds  for  oyster- 
growth.  The  rocky  sides  are  covered  with  masses  of  old 
oysters,  which  are  left  undisturbed  as  a  breeding  stock,  while 
from  wires  stretched  across  the  pond  and  supported  at 
intervals  by  empty  barrels  are  hung  bundles  of  birch  branches 
or  fascines  to  serve  as  collectors  of  the  spat.  About  3,000 
of  these  collectors  are  placed  in  the  pond  in  early  summer, 
and  the  spat  settles  upon  them  between  June  and  September ; 
but  the  collectors  are  left  in  position  until  the  following 
April,  when  the  young  oysters  are  removed  with  shears  and 
sent  either  to  another  pond,  where  they  are  laid  out  in 
galvanized  wire  ambulances,  or  to  the  oyster  company's 
grounds  on  the  shore  near  Stavanger. 

An  average  harvest  from  the  Espevig  pond  is  about  one 
million  young  oysters,  and  it  is  said  that  in  some  years  the 
deposit  of  spat  may  be  so  large  that  one  can  hardly  put  a 
needle's  point  between  the  individual  young  oysters,  and 
the  whole  of  the  collector  looks  as  if  it  had  been  dipped 
in  mortar.  In  such  a  case,  however,  only  a  comparatively 
small  number  of  these  young  oysters  has  room  to  develop  ; 
the  rest  are  sacrificed  to  overcrowding,  but  this  loss  might 
be  reduced  by  some  alteration  in  the  collectors.  The  whole 
system  is  suggestive  of  possibiHties  in  scientific  aquiculture 
far  beyond  what  is  at  present  practised. 

The  American  oyster,  which  is  a  separate  species  (Ostrea 
virginiana),  is  cultivated  or  fished  at  many  places  on  the 
Atlantic  coast  from  New  England  down  to  Carolina,  and 


288     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

also  on  the  Pacific  at  San  Francisco  and  elsewhere.  In 
some  of  these  locaHties  the  beds  are  exposed  at  low  water, 
and  the  oysters  can  be  collected  by  hand.  Elsewhere  they 
are  always  submerged,  and  the  oysters  are  dredged  from 
the  bottom  or  fished  up  by  means  of  long  double  rakes  known 
as  tongs.  But  these  methods,  which  can  scarcely  be  called 
cultivation,  do  not  differ  materially  from  our  own  oyster- 
beds  and  layings  at  Whit  stable,  Colchester,  and  elsewhere 
on  the  English  coasts,  and  do  not  show  the  differentiation 
in  method  and  division  of  labour  which  have  been  success- 
fully evolved  by  the  French  ostreoculturists. 

Turning  now  to  mussel-culture,  this  also  is  seen  in  its 
most  elaborate  form  on  the  west  coast  of  France,  where  in 
the  great,  shallow,  muddy  bay  known  as  Anse  de  1' Aiguillon, 
a  remarkable  system  of  cultivation  on  stakes  connected 
by  wattling,  and  known  as  "  bouchots  a  monies,"  has  been 
carried  on  for  many  centuries.  It  was  established  by  an 
Irishman  called  Walton,  who  was  wrecked  there  in  1235 
from  a  small  vessel  containing  sheep.  He  was  the  only 
survivor,  but  managed  to  save  some  of  the  sheep,  which 
are  said  to  be  the  origin  of  some  highly  prized  flocks  still 
found  in  that  district.  Reduced  to  great  straits  to  make 
a  living,  this  man  is  said  to  have  woven  rough  nets  of  grass, 
which  he  spread  on  stakes  on  the  wide  expanse  of  mud  exposed 
in  the  bay  at  low  tide  in  order  to  capture  sea-fowl.  He 
noticed  that  his  nets  became  covered  with  young  mussels, 
which  were  thus  protected  from  being  buried  in  the  mud, 
grew  rapidly  in  size,  and  afforded  food  to  himseK  and  his 
neighbours.  This  suggested  the  planting  of  stakes  inter- 
laced with  twigs  to  afford  attachment  to  the  mussels,  and 
so  the  bouchot  system,  which  now  extends  for  miles,  and 
affords  a  flourishing  industry  to  various  villages,  such  as 
Esnandes  and  Charron,  became  established.  The  boucho- 
leurs  of  the  present  day  still  maintain  the  ancient  method 
of  planting  their  wattled  stakes  and  collecting  and  trans- 


AQUICULTURE 


289 


planting  their  mussels  from  place  to  place  at  different  seasons 
as  seems  best  for  the  growth  and  protection  of  the  shellfish, 
and  of  visiting  their  different  kinds  of  bouchots  at  low  tide 
in  curious  little  flat-bottomed  boats  known  as  "  aeons," 
which  can  be  propelled  over  the  soft  mud  (in  which  a  man 
would  sink)  by  means  of  one  foot  encased  in  a  large  sea-boot 
projecting  over  the  side  of  the  boat.  I  have  myseK  experi- 
enced this  curious  method  of  navigation  on  mud  during  a 


Fig.  19. — Bouchot  Mussel  Cultube  on  the  West  Coast  of  France. 


visit  to  the  bouchots,  and  I  give  here  a  reproduction  of  a 
rough  sketch  made  at  the  time  (Fig.  19). 

In  other  countries  where  there  are  no  locaHties  suitable 
for  this  bouchot  system  mussels  occur  in  beds,  or  "  scars," 
which,  like  the  oyster-beds,  are  in  some  cases  exposed  at  low 
tide,  while  in  others  they  are  wholly  submerged,  and  the 
mussels  have  to  be  obtained  by  dredges  or  other  implements 

u 


290     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

from  a  boat.  Such  beds,  under  some  circumstances,  are 
liable  to  become  overcrowded  to  such  an  extent  that  the 
individual  mussels  have  not  room  to  grow  to  their  full 
size,  and  so  become  stunted  or  misshapen.  In  these  cases 
great  benefit  to  the  fishery  results  from  thinning  out  and 
transplanting  to  other  suitable  but  less  densely  populated 
locaHties.  Plate  XXVI,  Fig.  1,  shows  an  overcrowded 
mussel-bed. 

The  shellfish  industries  of  the  west  coast  of  England 
are  of  considerable  importance,  both  as  food  and  bait. 
In  recent  years  the  returns  in  the  Lancashire  and  Western 
Sea-Fisheries  District  alone  amounted  to  about  two -fifths  of 
the  total  for  England  and  Wales,  and  the  value  to  the  fisher- 
men was  about  £40,000.  There  is  probably  no  area  of  land 
or  water  in  our  country  that  gives  such  a  high  return  in 
weight  of  food  per  acre  as  a  mussel-bed,  and  the  shellfish 
are  eminently  responsive  to  cultivation  and  susceptible  of 
improvement.  Here,  at  least,  if  not  yet  in  the  open  sea,  we 
may  have  an  aquiculture  comparable  to  agriculture  on  land. 

In  Morecambe  Bay,  some  years  ago,  the  local  sea-fisheries 
committee  made  a  notable  experiment  ^  in  order  to  show 
the  fishermen  what  could  be  done  in  this  direction,  by  judi- 
cious transplanting,  at  small  cost.  The  work  was  carried 
out  on  the  mussel-beds  at  Heysham,  in  Morecambe  Bay, 
probably  the  most  extensive  mussel-producing  grounds  on 
the  west  coast  of  England  (see  Plate  XXVI,  Fig.  1). 

In  1903  the  committee  gave  a  grant  of  £50  to  be  expended 
on  labour  in  transplanting  overcrowded  and  stunted  mussels, 
which  had  ceased  to  grow,  to  neighbouring  areas  not  so 
thickly  populated.  The  result  was  most  striking.  At  the 
end  of  a  few  months  the  old  starved,  undersized  mussels — 
"  blue-nebs,"  as  the  fishermen  called  them — had  grown 
I  inch  or  more,  and  had  reached  the  legal  selHng  size. 
The  animals  inside  the  shell  were  in  fine  condition,  and  these 

^  For  the  full  details,  see  the  article  by  Scott  and  Baxter  in  the 
Lancashire  Sea- Fisheries  Laboratory  Report  for  1905. 


PLATE  XXVII. 


[Photo  by  A.  ScoxT. 


Transplanted  Mussels  in  Morecambe  Bay, 

showing  the  origmal  size  of  the  "  blue  neb  "  and  the  large  expanse  of 
smooth  black  new  growth  ;    natural  size. 


AQUICULTURE  291 

mussels  found  a  ready  market  at  a  good  price.  Shellfish 
which  in  their  original  condition  could  never  have  been  of 
any  use  as  food,  had  been  turned  into  a  valuable  commodity 
at  comparatively  httle  labour  and  expense.  The  money 
value  to  the  fishermen  of  these  mussels  that  had  been  trans- 
planted for  £50  was  estimated  to  have  been  at  least  £500. 
In  1904,  again,  a  grant  of  £50  resulted  in  the  transplanting 
of  some  boat-loads  of  undersized  mussels,  which  were  sold 
later  on  at  a  profit  of  over  £500. 

In  the  following  year  (1905)  a  grant  of  £75  resulted  in 
the  sale  of  the  transplanted  mussels  some  months  later  for 
£579.  On  that  occasion  over  240  tons  of  the  undersized 
mussels  had  been  transplanted  in  six  days'  work.  It  was 
found  that  on  the  average  the  transplanting  increased  the 
bulk  of  the  mussels  about  2  J  times,  and  the  increase  in  length 
to  the  original  shell  was  in  some  cases  well  over  an  inch 
(see  Plate  XXVII). 

These  experiments,  on  the  industrial  scale,  were  not 
carried  further.  The  Lancashire  committee  only  desired 
to  show  what  could  be  done  and  how  to  do  it,  and  had  no 
intention  of  running  a  commercial  concern  ;  but  the  results 
are  very  suggestive  and  encouraging  as  to  what  might  be 
done  in  the  further  cultivation  of  our  barren  shores. 

An  interesting  appHcation  of  scientific  methods  to  the 
improvement  of  a  shellfish  industry  has  been  in  practice 
for  some  years  at  Conway,  in  North  Wales.  The  extensive 
mussel-beds  in  the  estuary  are  badly  polluted  by  sewage, 
and  have  been  under  investigation  by  the  scientific  staff  of 
the  Lancashire  and  Western  Sea-Fisheries  Committee  since 
1904.  Dr.  James  Johnstone  showed,  as  the  result  of  many 
experiments,  that  the  polluted  mussels,  when  relaid  in  clean 
sea-water,  were  able  to  purify  themselves  by  ehminating 
from  90  to  95  per  cent,  of  the  sewage  bacteria  in  two  to  three 
days.  He  also  found  that  the  mussels  can  live  in  water 
containing  up  to  five  parts  per  million  of  chlorine,  while  the 
sewage  bacteria  are  sterilized  by  one  part  of  chlorine  per 


292     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

million,  and  this  obvious  method  of  treating  polluted  shell- 
fish was  suggested  to  the  authorities. 

The  regulation  of  the  beds,  however,  eventually  passed  into 
the  hands  of  the  Conway  Corporation,  and  they,  under  the 
supervision  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture  and  Fisheries, 
erected  special  purification  tanks  and  water-circulating 
apparatus,  and  introduced  the  method  of  treating  the  mussels 
by  sea- water  containing  a  trace  of  chlorine.  Thus  successive 
consignments  of  polluted  mussels  brought  by  the  fishermen 
are  passed  through  the  chlorinated  sea-water  before  being 
sent  to  market.  In  a  country  such  as  ours,  where  the  estuaries 
and  the  more  densely  populated  shores,  where  shellfish  are 
grown  and  eaten,  are  liable  to  become  increasingly  infected 
with  sewage  organisms,  it  is  obviously  most  important  that 
scientific  methods  of  both  cultivation  and  purification  of  all 
kinds  of  edible  shellfish  should  be  adopted  without  delay. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
THE   SEA-FISHERIES 

Our  food  from  the  sea  is  in  the  main  obtained  from  the 
great  commercial  sea-fisheries,  the  discussion  of  which  in 
their  scientific  aspects  is  a  very  large  subject,  obviously  only 
to  be  outhned,  with  a  few  examples  of  different  methods  of 
investigation,  within  the  limits  of  a  single  chapter.  It  is 
scarcely  necessary  to  emphasize  the  vital  importance  of  the 
sea-fisheries  which  supply  our  markets.  The  harvest  from 
the  sea  was  never  of  more  importance  to  the  nation  than  it 
is  now,  and  it  probably  will  become  of  still  greater  importance 
in  future  years.  The  sooner  all  classes  of  the  population 
learn  to  appreciate  the  value  of  fish  as  a  highly  nutritious 
food,  the  better  it  will  be  for  the  welfare  of  the  community, 
and  the  greater  will  be  the  encouragement  to  those  concerned 
in  the  industry  to  use  their  best  endeavours  both  to  increase 
the  supply  and  to  make  the  best  possible  use  of  it  by  preserv- 
ing the  produce,  so  that  nothing  caught  be  allowed  to  go  to 
waste.  There  is  still  much  to  be  done  in  the  two  directions 
(1)  of  exploiting  local  and  periodic  coastal  fisheries  and 
discovering  the  best  methods  of  making  available  for  future 
use  what  cannot  be  consumed  at  the  moment ;  and  (2)  of 
educating  the  public  to  overcome  prejudice  and  make  a 
fuller  and  more  systematic  use  of  unaccustomed  but 
excellent  fish  food — such  as,  for  example,  the  summer- 
caught  rich-in-fat  herring  cured  in  brine  as  a  winter  food. 

Most  people  have  very  little  idea  of  the  magnitude  of  our 
British  fisheries,  now  the  greatest  in  the  world,  of  the  rate 
at  which  they  were  increasing  of  recent  years — before  the 

293 


294     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

war — or  of  the  predominating  position  to  which  our  fishing - 
fleets  had  attained.  In  1914,  our  fisheries  made  up  nearly 
one-haLf  of  the  total  for  all  countries  of  North-West  Europe, 
and  nearly  70  per  cent,  of  the  North  Sea  fisheries  alone. 
The  total  produce  of  our  sea-fisheries  had  more  than  doubled 
in  the  previous  quarter  of  a  century,  and  the  average  of  the 
last  few  years  before  the  war  amounted  to  over  a  milhon 
tons  (about  23,500,000  cwts.),  bringing  in  about  £15,000,000 
when  landed,  and  to  be  valued  at  probably  three  times  as 
much,  say  nearly  fifty  millions  sterling,  by  the  time  it 
reached  the  consumers.  In  1922,  the  value  of  the  total 
fish  as  landed  was  about  £18,000,000. 

This  great  increase,  previous  to  1914,  in  the  amount  of 
fish  brought  to  the  markets,  had  been  due  to  improvements 
in  the  boats  and  in  the  methods  of  fishing,  and  to  an 
enormous  extension  of  the  fishing-grounds.  The  picturesque 
old  sailing  trawler  of  Brixham,  working  in  local  waters  with 
a  smaU  beam-trawl,  had  developed  into  the  large  but  ugly 
and  highly  efiicient  modern  steam-trawlers  equipped  with 
huge  otter-trawls,  and  making  lengthy  voyages  to  Iceland 
and  the  White  Sea  in  the  North,  or  the  Canaries  and  the 
coast  of  Morocco  to  the  south — conducting  their  operations, 
in  fact,  over  an  area  of  the  continental  shelf  occupying 
more  than  a  million  square  miles  and  down  to  depths  of 
over  200  fathoms. 

All  this  applies  to  the  time  before  the  war.  As  a  natural 
result  of  war  conditions,  and  the  economic  disturbances  that 
followed,  the  produce  of  the  sea-fisheries  dropped  to  less 
than  a  third  of  what  it  had  been — the  total  catch  during 
war-time  averaged  about  7,000,000  cwts.  per  annum.  Very 
many  millions  of  fish  were  therefore  left  uncaught  in  the 
sea  to  grow  and  propagate,  and  it  has  been  an  interesting 
speculation  and  investigation  ever  since  whether  or  not  this 
unforeseen  and  undesired  experiment  in  restriction  of  fishing, 
on  an  enormous  scale,  has  resulted  in  the  restocking  of 
depopulated  grounds,  such  as  parts  of  the  North  Sea.     That 


THE   SEA-FISHERIES  295 

has  probably  happened  to  some  extent.  Some  post-war 
statistics  show  an  increased  stock  on  the  ground  ;  but 
there  is  also  some  evidence  of  natural  fluctuations  in  the 
fish  population  which  may  give  rise  to  conflicting  evidence, 
and  so  obscure  the  results  of  protection.  The  matter 
cannot  yet  be  regarded  as  settled. 

The  true  fishes  (Pisces)  that  are  caught  by  the  fishermen 
and  sold  for  food  in  our  markets  belong  to  two  main  divisions 
— (1)  the  Elasmobranchs,  such  as  skates,  rays,  and  dogfish, 
with  a  cartilaginous  skeleton ;  and  (2)  the  Teleosts,  including 
all  the  ordinary  bony  fishes.  For  practical  purposes,  the 
bony  fishes  may  be  divided  into  the  "  round  "  and  the 
"  flat  "  flsh.  Round  fish  are  those — such  as  cod,  herring, 
and  salmon — where  the  body  is  more  or  less  circular  in 
cross-section,  while  flat  fish  include  the  equally  famifiar 
soles  and  plaice,  with  flattened  upper  and  lower  surfaces. 
Amongst  round  fishes  there  are  two  groups  of  primary 
importance,  those  related  to  the  cod  (Gadidse)  and  those 
of  the  herring  tribe  (Clupeidse).     The  former  include  : — 

Hake — a  southern  fish,  forming  the  greater  part  of  the 
catch  off  the  south  of  Ireland,  in  the  Bay  of 
Biscay,  and  southwards  to  Morocco. 

Haddock — a  northern  fish,  forming  nearly  half  the  total 
catch  from  the  North  Sea. 

Cod — a  northern  fish,  very  abundant  north  of  the  British 
area,  around  the  Faroes,  Iceland,  Norway,  etc. 

Whiting — abundant  in  the  North  Sea,  and  generally 
around  our  coast. 

Ling — a  northern  fish,  abundant  on  the  west  of  Ireland, 
Scotland,  and  farther  north. 

The  cod  is  probably  the  most  useful  of  fishes  to  man. 
All  parts  of  its  body  are  of  value.  In  addition  to  its  prime 
importance  as  a  food,  both  fresh  and  salted,  oil  is  extracted 
from  the  fiver,  the  head,  tongue,  and  sounds  also  form  a 
good  article  of  food,  the  offal  and  bones  are  ground  up  into 
manure  said  to  be  equal  to  guano,  the  roe  is  used  as  bait 


296 


FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 


in  the  sardine  fisheries  of  France,  and  from  the  swim-bladder 
isinglass  is  made. 

The  herring  family  (Clupeidae)  includes  the  sprat,  the 
pilchard  (the  young  of  which  is  so  familiar  in  the  preserved 
form  of  "  sardines  "),  the  anchovy,  and,  most  important  of 
all,  the  true  herring — that  wonderful  fish  which,  as  the 
mainstay  in  the  fourteenth  century  of  that  powerful  trading 
and  political  organization  the  Hanseatic  League,  and  after 
that  of  the  Dutch  commercial  and  naval  supremacy,  may  be 
said  to  have  played  its  part  in  determining  the  history  of 
nations  and  the  fate  of  empires.  All  these  Clupeoid  fishes 
are  noteworthy  for  the  relatively  large  amount  of  fat  they 
contain  in  the  form  of  minute  globules  of  oil  disseminated 
through  their  flesh,  while  the  cod  and  its  allies  are  almost 
destitute  of  fat.  The  herring,  however,  has  a  very  different 
amount  of  fat  in  its  composition  in  different  states  and  at 
different  times.  For  example,  the  winter  herring,  in  poor 
condition,  may  have  only  4  or  5  per  cent,  of  fat,  while  the 
spawning  summer  herring  may  have  from  30  to  40  per  cent. 
The  average  of  three  series  of  Manx  herrings  caught  in  the 
summer  of  1917  and  cured  in  brine  gave  the  following  analy- 
sis, ^  and  may  be  contrasted  with  the  composition  of  the  cod : — 


Herring. 

Cod. 

Fat 

Proteid  ..... 

Ash  {  +  salt)   .          .          . 
Water  (+  traces)     . 

22 

21 
9 

48 

0-3 

16-7 

1-3 

81-7 

Other  Manx  herrings,  however,  caught  in  September, 
1917,  cured  in  brine  and  analysed  in  winter,  gave  as  much 
as  32*72  per  cent,  of  oil  (fat). 

It  is  this  relatively  large  amount  of  easily  digestible  fat 

^  By  Professor  James  Johnstone  of  the  University  of  Liverpool 
(see,  for  further  details,  Lancashire  Sea-Fisheries  Laboratory  Report 
for  1917). 


THE   SEA-FISHERIES  297 

in  the  flesh  of  the  herring  that  gives  this  fish  its  special  value 
as  a  winter  food,  and  no  effort  should  be  spared  to  increase 
the  home  consumption  of  herrings.  They  are  probably  the 
cheapest  form  of  animal  food,  and  have  a  very  high  nutri- 
tional value.  Many  people  will  be  surprised  to  learn  that 
out  of  12,000,000  cwts.  of  herring  landed,  nearly  10,000,000 
cwts.  were  exported  annually  (90  per  cent,  in  1913)  before 
the  war.  The  total  catch  is  far  from  being  too  much  for 
the  needs  of  our  own  country.  Taking  three  herrings  to 
the  pound,  the  total  catch  in  the  United  Kingdom  before 
the  war  would  only  allow  two  herrings  a  week  to  each  adult 
individual  of  the  population. 

The  flat-fish  of  our  markets  (with  the  exception  of  skates 
and  rays,  which  are  a  totally  different  kind  of  fish,  and  are 
nearly  related  to  dogfishes  and  sharks)  belong  to  the  family 
Pleuronectidae,  the  members  of  which  undergo  a  remarkable 
transformation  in  their  early  life-history,  whereby  the 
bi-laterally  symmetrical  larva,  with  the  right  and  left  sides 
of  the  body  similar,  and  an  eye  on  each,  undergoes  in  its 
growth  a  torsion  of  the  head  and  some  other  parts,  a  flatten- 
ing of  the  body  from  side  to  side,  and  a  great  extension 
dorso-ventrally  so  as  to  be  converted  into  the  famiHar 
"  fluke  "  form,  with  the  upper  (usually  the  right)  side  of  the 
flat  body  pigmented  and  bearing  both  eyes,  and  the  lower 
blind  and  more  or  less  non-pigmented  or  white.  Our  best- 
known  marketable  Pleuronectids  are  : — 

Halibut — a  northern  fish,  of  large  size. 

Sole — commoner  in  the  south  down  to  Morocco ;  a  shallow- 
water  fish  common  in  the  Irish  Sea. 

Turhot — in  deeper  water ;  a  5^orth  Sea  fish,  but  not  very 
abundant. 

Brill — more  abundant  than  the  turbot,  especially  in  the 
south. 

Plaice — a  northern  form,  very  abundant  on  the  coasts  of 
Iceland  and  farther  north;  distributed  all  around 
our  coast,  and  important  as  a  food  of  the  people. 


298     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

Flounder — of  less  importance  ;  especially  abundant  in 
estuaries. 

It  is  in  connection  with  some  of  these  more  sedentary 
flat-fish  that  depletion  of  certain  fisheries  has  been  most 
clearly  estabHshed,  or,  to  put  it  more  cautiously,  that  it  is 
felt  that  there  may  be  risk  of  the  fishery  being  depleted 
on  certain  grounds.  The  more  widely  roaming  herring, 
mackerel,  cod,  and  haddock  are  probably  safe  from  man's 
ravages  ;  but  the  more  local,  bottom-haunting  sole  and 
plaice  are  less  independent  and  more  at  the  mercy  of  their 
immediate  environment,  including  the  fishing-fleet.  It  is 
therefore  in  connection  mainly  with  such  fish  that  attempts 
have  been  made  in  the  United  States  and  several  European 
countries  to  compensate  for  the  ravages  of  the  fisherman  by 
artificially  hatching  and  rearing  young  flat-fish  to  add  to  the 
stock  in  the  sea. 

One  of  the  most  important  and  practical  questions  in 
the  whole  range  of  marine  zoological  investigation  is — Can 
we  increase  the  yield  of  our  fisheries  by  cultivation  ?  We 
can  cultivate  shellfish,  such  as  oysters,  mussels,  and  cockles, 
on  the  seashore  with  much  profit.  Can  we  do  anything 
towards  farming  our  inshore  or  offshore  fishing  grounds  ? 
The  fisherman  at  present  is  a  hunter  of  the  fish.  Can  we 
reasonably  hope  to  make  him  in  time  a  farmer,  reaping  a 
harvest  that,  in  part  at  least,  he  has  sown  ?  These  are  the 
ideas  that  have  led  to  the  hatching,  rearing,  and  transplanting 
operations  which  are  carried  on  with  more  or  less  energy  in 
various  parts  of  the  world. 

It  is  by  no  means  easy  to  determine  whether  the  artificial 
hatching  of  sea-fish  has  as  yet  had  any  effect  upon  any  local 
fishery.  It  is  not  possible  to  mark  or  brand  your  larval 
fish  from  the  hatchery,  so  as  to  recognize  them  when  caught 
as  adults  ;  nor  is  it  practicable  to  devise  the  control  experi- 
ment of  both  adding  to  and  not  adding  to  the  same  fishery, 
or  two  exactly  similar  fisheries,  simultaneously,  so  as  to 
secure  comparable  results.     But  it  may  be  pointed  out  that 


THE   SEA-FISHERIES 


299 


much  help  may  have  been  given  to  a  depleted  fishery, 
although  no  effect  is  noticeable.  The  condition  of  the 
fishery  might  have  been  far  worse  had  no  artificial  help 
been  given. 

When  one  thinks  of  the  enormous  numbers  of  eggs  pro- 
duced naturally,  in  a  season,  by  most  of  our  common  fish, 
as  shown  in  the  following  list,  one  is  inclined  to  fear  that  the 
comparatively  small  number  of  millions,  or  even  of  hundreds 
and  thousands  of  millions,  of  young  fish  turned  out  from 
hatcheries,  will  be  of  little  avail,  and  may  amount  to  nothing 
more  than  the  proverbial  "  drop  in  the  bucket." 

The  average  number  of  eggs  spawned  by  a  single  female 
fish  in  the  course  of  one  season  is  : — 


Ling  . 

. 

.   20,000,000  to  30,000,000 

Tiirbot 

8,000,000  to  9,000,000 

Cod    . 

4,000,000  to  6,000,000 

Flounder 

1,000,000 

Sole    . 

600,000  to  700,000 

Mackerel 

600,000 

Haddock 

450,000 

Plaice 

300,000 

Herring 

J 

32,000 

X* <•    A  1           .ji             r         fT 

But  probably  a  truer  conception  of  the  state  of  affairs  is 
obtained  by  reflecting  that,  while  countless  milHons  are 
produced,  countless  milUons  also  perish  each  season  from 
natural  causes  (as  opposed  to  man's  operations) — that  is, 
from  their  natural  enemies  and  other  adverse  influences  in 
the  environment.  As  eggs,  as  embryos,  as  larvae,  and  as 
post-larval  young  fishes,  they  are  the  food  of  most  of  the 
larger  animals  around  them  in  the  sea.  Probably  only  a 
very  few  out  of  each  milhon  peach  maturity,  and  it  is  out 
of  that  scanty  remnant  that  the  fisherman  takes  his  toll, 
and  so  may  in  some  cases  "  overfish  "  a  limited  area  so  as 
to  reduce  the  population  below  its  power  of  recovery.  The 
enormous  numbers  produced  do  not,  then,  necessarily  mean 
an  enormous  rate  of  increase,  but  they  may  afford  man  his 
opportunity  to  step  in  and,  by  adding  some  milHons  from  his 


300  FOUNDERS   OF   OCEANOGRAPHY 

hatchery,  do  something  to  repair  the  damage  and  avert  or 
delay  the  destruction  of  a  local  fishery. 

It  may  be  pointed  out  further  that,  even  though  the  young 
fish,  such  as  plaice,  are  turned  out  to  sea  soon  after  being 
hatched,  say  about  the  time  of  the  absorption  of  the  food- 
yolk,  they  have  been  protected  from  their  natural  enemies 
during  some  three  or  four  weeks  at  least — about  half  the 
time  from  the  egg  to  the  metamorphosis — and  that,  moreover, 
is  the  period  when,  as  eggs,  embryos,  and  young  larvae,  they 
are  most  feeble  and  defenceless  and  most  in  need  of  artificial 
protection  (see  Plate  XXVIII). 

We  find  at  the  Port  Erin  hatchery  that,  although  the 
periods  of  embryonic  and  larval  life  vary  to  some  extent  — 
probably  with  the  temperature  of  the  sea-water — the  average 
times  are  as  follows,  in  the  case  of  the  plaice  : — • 

Embryo,  from  fertilization  of  egg  to  hatching,  in  February,  24  days. 

„  „  „  „  „         in  March,  22  days. 

in  April,  20  days. 
Larva,  from  hatching  to  absorption  of  yolk,  about  7  or  8  days. 
Post-larval,  absorption  of  yolk  to  metamorphosis,  28  to  40,   say 

34  days. 

The  most  significant  work,  and  interesting  experiments 
in  connection  with  artificial  operations,  have  been  carried 
out  by  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Fisheries  and  by  the 
Fishery  Board  for  Scotland.  One  example  may  be  given 
from  the  work  of  each  of  these  organizations.  It  has  been 
long  recognized  that  if  a  species  of  fish  could  be  introduced 
into  an  area  where  it  was  previously  unknown,  that  would 
be  satisfactory  evidence  of  the  success  of  artificial  operations, 
and  the  United  States  Bureau  has  shown  in  its  successive 
Annual  Reports  of  the  Commissioner  of  Fisheries  that  by 
collecting  and  hatching  the  eggs  of  the  shad  {Clupea  sapidis- 
sima)  on  the  Atlantic  coast  and  setting  the  larvae  free  in 
the  Pacific  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Sacramento  river, 
a  profitable  shad-fishery  has  been  estabhshed  on  the 
Californian  coast.     The  last  report  published  shows  that 


PLATE  XXVIII. 


Figs.  1  to  3. — Three  successive  stages  in  development  of  Plaice  larvae  in 

the  egg,  magnified. 


Fig.  4. — Plaice  larva  hatching  from  egg,  tail  first. 

[Photo  by  Dr.  F.  Ward. 


Fig.   5. — Plaice  Hatching-boxes  at  the  Port  Erin  Biological  Station. 


THE  SEA-FISHERIES  301 

in  1915,  the  latest  year  for  which  statistics  are  completed, 
the  Pacific  shad-fishery  yielded  over  7 J  millions  of  pounds, 
valued  at  over  75,000  dollars. 

In  addition,  extensive  operations  in  the  hatching  and 
setting  free  of  fry  are  conducted  on  the  Atlantic  coast. 
Over  52J  millions  of  shad-fry  from  the  hatcheries  were 
distributed  in  1918  in  the  Eastern  States.  In  the  Commis- 
sioner's report  for  1921  (published  in  1922)  it  is  stated  that 
the  two  hatcheries  then  working  were  distributing  all  their 
fry  locaUy  in  Maryland  and  North  Carohna,  and  the  report 
adds  :  "  In  view  of  the  conditions  that  exist  in  other  shad- 
streams  where  artificial  propagation  is  not  conducted,  it 
seems  but  just  to  assume  that  the  hatcheries  have  been  a 
factor  in  maintaining  the  shad- fisheries  in  their  vicinity." 

The  Fishery  Board  for  Scotland  carried  on  for  some  years 
an  interesting  experiment  in  adding  artificially  hatched 
plaice  larvae  to  a  circumscribed  sea -area  (Upper  Loch  Fyne) 
with  the  view  of  determining  whether  an  increase  was 
noticeable  in  the  number  of  young  fish  present.  Positive 
results  seem  to  have  been  obtained.  During  a  period  of 
six  years,  millions  of  larvae  were  hatched  at  Aberdeen  and 
deposited  in  Loch  Fyne,  and  during  the  next  six  years  none 
were  added ;  while  during  the  whole  period  of  twelve 
years  experimental  hauls  of  the  net  were  made  on  certain 
selected  beaches  where  the  young  metamorphosed  plaice 
congregate.  The  statistical  results  apparently  indicate  that 
during  the  years  when  larvae  were  added  the  number  of 
young  fish  caught,  per  hour  of  fishing,  was  more  than 
double  the  number  caught  in  the  succeeding  period  of  six 
years.  Or,  to  put  it  another  way,  the  figures  given  in  the 
report  show  that  the  addition  of  about  20  miUions  of  plaice 
larvae  a  year  doubled  the  number  of  young  metamorphosed 
fish  on  the  shallow  beaches  of  Loch  Fyne. 

It  has  sometimes  been  said  that  the  young  fish  turned  out 
from  hatcheries  may  possibly  be  weaklings,  which,  on  account 
of  having  been  reared  under  artificial  conditions,  may  die 


302     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY. 

in  their  early  youth,  perhaps  even  before  undergoing  meta- 
morphosis. Experience  shows  that  all  such  fears  are 
groundless.  In  the  hatchery  at  the  Port  Erin  Biological 
Station  young  plaice  have  been  reared  up  to  their  fourth 
year,  when  they  had  become  sexually  mature,  and  had, 
a  year  before,  in  their  turn  produced  spawn  for  the  hatchery. 
In  1917  there  were  three  generations  of  plaice  living  together 
in  the  institution — the  grandparent  spawners,  which  had 
been  originally  wild  fish ;  the  parents,  which  were  hatched 
in  the  spring  of  1914  and  were  then  spawning  (in  March,  1917) ; 
and  the  young  of  the  third  generation,  which  were  developing 
as  normal  larvse.  The  following  year  (March,  1918)  some  of 
the  fish  hatched  in  1914  had  again  produced  fertile  spawn 
— there  can  be  no  doubt  that  they  were  perfectly  normal 
healthy  fish. 

In  addition  to  such  operations  in  hatching  and  rearing, 
a  further  experiment  that  has  been  tried  with  the  object 
of  restocking  depleted  fisheries  is  the  transplanting  of  young 
fish  from  shallow  waters  where  they  are  present  in  great 
quantities  ("  nurseries  "),  and  perhaps  overcrowded,  to  other 
deeper  fishing-grounds  where  there  is  abundance  of  food 
and  where  growth  will  probably  be  more  rapid.  Professor 
Walter  Garstang  first  showed,  some  years  ago,  that  small 
plaice  caught  in  spring  on  the  Dutch  inshore  grounds  and 
transferred  to  the  richer  feeding-ground  of  the  Dogger  Bank, 
in  the  centre  of  the  North  Sea,  grew  very  much  more  quickly 
than  those  left  inshore.  The  following  statement  as  to  the 
result  of  this  experiment  is  quoted  from  a  recent  article  by 
Dr.  E.  J.  Allen  :— 

"  Plaice  7|  inches  long,  when  captured  in  April  on 
the  inshore  grounds,  were  on  the  average  13f  inches  long 
by  the  following  November  when  transplanted  to  the 
Dogger  Bank,  whereas  those  that  remained  on  the  inshore 
grounds  were  only  9-J  inches  long  at  the  same  date. 
Expressed  as  weights,  the  differences  are  still  more  striking. 
Fish  of  2  J  ounces  increased  in  seven  months  to  15  ounces 


THE   SEA-FISHERIES  303 

on  the  Dogger  Bank,  but  only  to  4J  ounces  on  the  inshore 
grounds. 

"  The  cost  of  catching  the  small  plaice  and  transporting 
them  to  the  feeding-grounds  is  not  excessive  if  large  numbers 
are  dealt  with,  and  an  experiment  on  a  commercial  scale 
would,  in  the  opinion  of  most  fishery  naturalists,  be  now 
fully  justified.  It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  for 
all  projects  which  aim  at  increasing  the  supply  of  marketable 
fishes  in  the  high  seas  international  co-operation  is  almost 
essential,  as  the  grounds  are  open  to  all  nations  and  all 
would  benefit  by  any  improvement  effected." 

Apart  from  these  and  many  other  experiments  in  practical 
fisheries  exploitation  and  cultivation — in  which  the  United 
States  of  America  certainly  led  the  way^modern  fisheries 
research  is  directed  towards  finding  out  the  conditions 
under  which  the  food-fishes  five,  feed,  migrate,  and  reproduce 
their  kind,  so  as  to  determine  the  possibilities  and  methods 
of  preserving  them  from  destruction,  increasing  their 
numbers,  and  even  eventually  of  predicting  when  and  where 
profitable  fisheries  may  take  place. 

And,  in  regard  to  all  these  characteristics — feeding, 
spawning,  etc. — a  special  study  has  to  be  made  of  each 
kind  of  fish.  Many  of  them  differ  very  notably.  To  take 
an  example  of  this  from  the  spawning  habits  and  the  early 
stages  of  life,  the  eggs  of  the  herring  are  laid  upon  stones 
and  sea-weeds  on  the  bottom  of  the  sea  in  shallow  water, 
and  there  they  remain  undergoing  their  embryonic  develop- 
ment until  the  young  herrings  are  hatched  out ;  but  this  is 
quite  exceptional  amongst  common  edible  fish.  Most  of 
the  others,  such  as  the  cod,  the  plaice,  and  all  their  relations, 
produce  eggs  that  float  and  remain  near  the  surface  of  the 
sea  throughout  their  further  development,  as  was  discovered 
in  1864  by  Professor  G.  0.  Sars  in  the  case  of  the  cod. 

The  various  kinds  of  edible  fish  are  caught,  some  by  hooks 
on  long  fines  (such  as  the  cod),  some  by  trains  or  long  lengths 
of  nets  (the  herring),  and  some  by  beam-  or  otter- trawls 


304     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

dragged  along  the  sea-bottom  (the  flat-fish).  The  methods 
of  fishing  vary  from  place  to  place  and  from  time  to  time 
throughout  the  year. 

Many  sea-fisheries  are  local  and  seasonal.  This  is  due  to 
the  movements  or  periodic  migrations  of  the  fish,  and  one 
of  the  most  important  practical  applications  of  oceanography 
is  to  determine  what  causes  these  migrations  in  each  parti- 
cular case — why  it  is  that  one  kind  of  fish  is  more  abundant 
in  one  locality  than  in  another,  why  the  fish  is  present  at 
one  season  and  absent  at  others,  or  is  more  plentiful  one  year 
so  as  to  give  rise  to  a  good  fishery.  We  are  beginning  to 
understand  some  of  the  causes  of  these  movements  of  fish 
and  the  variations  in  their  abundance,  but  much  has  still 
to  be  learned  in  regard  to  all. 

The  movements  may  be  classified  into  : — 

(1)  Those  caused  by   physical  characters  of   the   water 

(temperature,  salinity,  currents,  etc.). 

(2)  Those  due  to  feeding  needs. 

(3)  Those  explained  by  breeding  or  spawning  habits. 

As  examples  of  the  influence  of  the  environment,  we  may 
take  the  case  of  the  cod,  which  is  a  northern  or  cold  water 
fish,  so  in  Norway  it  constitutes  80  per  cent,  of  the  total 
fish-catch,  and  in  our  seas  it  is  a  winter  fishery  ;  while  its 
relation,  the  hake,  is  a  southern  fish,  frequenting  warmer 
water  and  making  up  65  per  cent,  of  the  catch  in  the  Bay 
of  Biscay.  The  case  of  the  haddock,  which  is  50  per  cent, 
of  the  total  catch  in  the  North  Sea  and  only  3  per  cent,  in 
Norwegian  seas,  has  been  explained  as  due  to  the  absence 
of  large  areas  of  soft  bottom  at  a  suitable  depth  for  that  fish 
on  the  coast  of  Norway. 

Nearly  fifty  years  ago,Moebius  and  Heincke  first  showed, 
from  their  investigations  of  1877  and  subsequent  years, 
that  in  the  case  of  the  Baltic  and  Kattegat  there  were  annual 
immigrations  of  northern  fishes  in  spring  and  of  southern 
fishes  in  autumn  ;  and  in  their  expedition  of  1890,  Otto 
Pettersson  and  Ekman  proved  that  these  seasonal  move- 


THE   SEA-FISHERIES  305 

ments  of  fish  from  outside  were  caused  by  an  inflow  of 
Atlantic  (Gulf  Stream)  water  in  autumn,  and  of  more 
northerly  waters  in  spring.  Since  then  it  has  been  estab- 
lished by  the  work  of  many  investigators  that  these  inflows 
of  outside  water  into  the  North  Sea  are  only  part  of  a  wider 
annual  periodicity  in  the  system  of  currents  of  the  North 
Atlantic.  In  summer  there  is  a  great  increase  in  the  amount 
of  GuK  Stream  water  flowing  over  the  Wyville  Thomson 
ridge  towards  the  Shetlands  and  the  North  Sea.  Below 
this  warmer  and  more  saline  water  lies  the  cold  Arctic  water 
of  the  Norwegian  Sea,  and  it  is  about  the  line  of  junction 
of  these  two  bodies  of  water,  at  about  100  fathoms  or  more, 
that  we  have  what  Sir  John  Murray  called  the  "  mud-line,'* 
where  detritus  accumulates  and  where  fishes  and  Crustacea 
(such  as  Calanus)  are  present  in  quantity.  This  region  is 
the  feeding-ground  of  the  cod  and  other  fishes,  and  the  site 
of  important  spring  and  summer  fisheries.  In  addition  to 
this  annual  periodicity,  which  floods  the  Norwegian  Channel 
and  North  Sea  with  Gulf  Stream  water.  Otto  Pettersson  has 
shown  that  there  is  also  a  secular  periodicity,  which  after 
an  interval  of  years  results  in  a  diminution  of  the  pulse  of 
the  Gulf  Stream,  so  that  for  some  months  the  inflow  of 
Atlantic  water  becomes  much  less,  and  as  a  result  there  is 
an  increased  flow  in  the  autumn  of  northern  water  into  the 
Norwegian  Channel,  etc.,  causing  changes  in  the  spawning 
of  the  herring  and  in  the  consequent  fisheries.  This  was 
notably  the  case,  for  example,  in  November  1893  (see  Otto 
Pettersson,  Ur  Svensha,  vii,  1922). 

Again,  take  the  case  of  an  interesting  oceanographic 
observation  which,  if  estabhshed^  may  be  found  to  explain 
the  variations  in  time  and  amount  of  important  fisheries. 
Otto  Pettersson  in  1910  discovered  by  his  observations  in 
the  Gullmar  Fjord  the  presence  of  periodic  submarine  waves 
of  deeper  Salter  water  in  the  Kattegat  and  the  fjords  of 
the  west  coast  of  Sweden,  which  draw  in  with  them  from  the 
Jutland  banks  vast  shoals  of  the  herrings  which  congregate 

X 


306     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

there  in  autumn.  The  deeper  layer  consists  of  "  bank- 
water  "  of  salinity  32  to  34  per  thousand,  and  as  this 
rolls  in  along  the  bottom  as  a  series  of  huge  undulations 
it  forces  out  the  overlying  fresher  water,  and  so  the  herrings 
living  in  the  bankwater  outside  are  sucked  into  the  Kattegat 
and  neighbouring  fjords  and  give  rise  to  important  local 
fisheries.  Pettersson  connects  the  crests  of  the  submarine 
waves  with  the  phases  of  the  moon.  Two  great  waves  of 
Salter  water  which  reached  up  to  the  surface  took  place 
in  November,  1910,  one  near  the  time  of  full  moon  and  the 
other  about  new  moon,  and  the  latter  was  at  the  time  when 
the  shoals  of  herring  appeared  inshore  and  provided  a 
profitable  fishery.  The  coincidence  of  the  oceanic  phenomena 
with  the  lunar  phases  is  not,  however,  very  exact,  and  doubts 
have  been  expressed  as  to  the  connection  ;  but  if  established, 
and  even  if  found  to  be  due  not  to  the  moon  but  to  prevalent 
winds  or  the  influence  of  ocean  currents,  this  would  be  a 
case  of  the  migration  of  fishes  depending  upon  mechanical 
causes. 

A  correlation  seems  to  be  established  between  the  Cornish 
pilchard  fisheries  and  periodic  variations  in  the  physical 
characters  (probably  the  saHnity)  of  the  water  in  the 
English  Channel,  and  between  Dutch  anchovies  and  the 
temperature  the  previous  year  ;  also  between  the  prevalence 
of  coastal  water  and  the  Norwegian  fisheries.  The  summer 
catches  of  mackerel  on  the  south  coast  have  been  shown  to 
vary  with  the  amount  of  sunshine  earlier  in  the  year — the 
connecting  link  being  probably  the  large  Copepod  Calanus, 
upon  which  we  know  the  mackerel  feeds.  The  herring,  again, 
in  our  summer  fisheries  is  apparently  affected  in  its  move- 
ments by  the  temperature  of  the  water,  the  catches  being 
heavier  in  seasons  when  the  water  is  colder,  up  to  a  limit, 
for  the  shoals  break  up  and  the  fishery  comes  to  an  end 
when  the  temperature  falls  below  54*5°  F. 

The  characteristics  of  the  environment  affect  not  merely 
the  movements,  but  also  the  nourishment  and  growth  of 


THE   SEA-FISHERIES  307 

the  fish.  In  an  assemblage  of  fish  caught  together  in  the 
trawl,  we  generally  find  fish  of  several  different  ages,  and 
are  able  from  the  sizes  to  separate  them  into  age -groups. 
It  is  believed  that  we  can  also  determine  exactly  the  age 
of  many  of  the  bony  fish  by  examining  the  otoliths,  or  the 
scales,  where  the  successive  annual  rings  of  growth  show 
more  rapid  increase  in  summer  and  much  less  in  winter  ; 
and  even  the  growth  in  different  summers  is  found  to  vary 
according  to  the  temperature.  It  is  curious  to  think  we 
may  be  able  to  pronounce  upon  the  cUmate  of  past  years 
by  examining  with  a  microscope  the  scales  of  a  fish  caught 
to-day. 

Amongst  examples  of  movements  due  to  spawning  needs, 
an  extraordinary  case  is  that  of  the  common  eels,  which  live 
in  fresh-water  streams  and  lakes  and  other  shallow  fresh 
waters  for  years  without  breeding,  and  then  towards  the 
end  of  their  lives  change  their  appearance  (acquiring  a 
silvery  sheen  and  large  eyes),  and,  giving  up  all  their  previous 
habits,  migrate  to  the  deep  sea  and  spawn  in  mid- Atlantic, 
west  of  the  Azores,  beyond  the  2,000-fathom  line.  From 
there  the  leptocephalus-larvse  are  carried  by  the  Gulf 
Stream  drift  to  the  coasts  of  North- West  Europe,  taking 
three  years  to  the  journey,  and  as  elvers  they  migrate  up 
the  rivers  to  people  the  inland  waters,  where  no  sexually 
mature  individuals,  no  eggs,  and  no  larvae  have  ever  been 
found.  The  herring  furnishes  another  good  example  of 
spawning  migrations,  and  comes  into  shallow  water  at 
various  points  on  our  coast  and  in  the  Baltic,  etc.,  to  deposit 
its  eggs  on  suitable  ground. 

Feeding  migrations  or  movements  may  be  local  and  small 
in  amount  and  more  or  less  irregular,  as  when  a  shoal  of 
plaice  invade  a  bed  of  young  mussels  and  move  off  again 
when  they  have  exhausted  the  food  ;  or  may  be  greater 
in  amount,  and  periodic,  as  in  the  case  of  the  mackerel 
and  the  herring  following  their  planktonic  food. 

Scientific  investigations  bearing  on  sea-fisheries  questions 


308     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

have  hitherto  dealt  with  the  fish  as  they  live  in  the  sea — their 
structure  and  habits,  their  reproduction  and  life-history, 
their  food  and  general  relations  to  their  environment — 
with  the  object  of  discovering  the  best  means  of  conserving 
the  fisheries  or  even  of  increasing  the  supply  of  fish.  But 
it  is  now  coming  to  be  recognized  that  there  is  need  also  of 
biologico- chemical  investigations  on  the  fish  after  they  are 
caught,  on  the  post-mortem  changes  that  they  undergo  in 
different  circumstances,  and  on  how  best  to  preserve  them 
with  their  nutrient  and  other  desirable  qualities  unimpaired 
until  they  are  put  on  the  market  and  used  as  food. 

Such  investigations  will  teach  us  how  best  to  deal  with 
the  occasional,  unexpected,  superabundant  catches  which 
glut  the  markets,  and  may  even  result  in  much  good  food 
being  wasted  as  field-manure.  But  they  will  also  lead  to 
a  more  equitable  distribution  and  a  more  profitable  use  of 
the  periodic  profusion  of  such  local  fisheries  as  those  of 
herrings,  mackerel  and  sprats.  The  best  use,  economically, 
that  can  be  made,  for  example,  of  the  summer  herring  fishery 
in  the  Irish  Sea,  or  in  the  Hebrides,  is  to  cure  in  various 
ways  (kippering,  salting,  etc.)  the  great  bulk  of  the  catch. 
Distribution  can  thus  be  controlled,  consumption  can  be 
spread  over  a  longer  period,  the  product  may  be  improved 
as  a  food  and  local  industries  are  established.  As  Dr.  James 
Johnstone  has  pointed  out,  "  A  clamant  need  of  the  present 
time,  and  indeed  of  normal  times,  is  the  curing  of  summer- 
caught  herrings  for  consumption  in  winter,  when  fat- 
rich  foods  are  more  useful  than  in  the  warmer  months."  ^ 

A  minor,  but  still  quite  typical,  example  of  such  occasional 
or  even  periodic  glut  of  fishes,  difficult  to  deal  with  and 
leading  to  waste  of  good  food,  is  the  winter  sprat  fishery  in 
Morecambe  Bay.  During  the  height  of  a  recent  fishery 
fully  seventy  tons  of  fish  were  landed  each  day,  and  the 
value  to  the  fishermen  of  such  a  catch  was  over  £300.  A 
ton  of  sprats  contains,  on  the  average,  130,000  fish.  In  a 
^  Lancashire  Sea-Fisheries  Laboratory  Report  for  1916,  p.  23. 


THE   SEA-FISHERIES  309 

day's  fishing,  therefore,  nine  millions  of  sprats  may  be 
captured,  and  this  goes  on  day  after  day  without  making 
any  appreciable  difference  to  the  abundance  of  the  fish. 
The  question  has  naturally  occurred  in  connection  with 
this  and  other  similar  fisheries  elsewhere,  whether  it  would 
not  be  desirable,  with  a  view  to  a  more  perfect  distribution 
and  more  economic  utilization  of  this  food  product,  to 
establish  curing  or  canning  industries  for  the  purpose  of 
converting  the  temporary  superabundance  of  the  fresh 
perishable  fish  into  a  more  permanent  and  highly  nutritious 
article  of  diet.  It  is  satisfactory  to  know  that  the  matter 
is  now  being  investigated  from  both  the  scientific  and  the 
commercial  points  of  view  and  that  experiments  are  being 
made  which  it  is  hoped  will  lead  to  such  preservation 
industries  being  established. 

The  United  States  Bureau  of  Fisheries  with  its  very 
extensive  organization  and  ample  resources  sets  an  example 
to  the  civilized  world  in  the  promotion  and  utilization  of 
their  important  fisheries — both  marine  and  fresh- water. 
Their  experts  seem  to  be  equally  successful  in  devising  new 
methods  and  in  conducting  an  active  propaganda.  The 
establishment  of  a  new  fishery,  the  provision  of  the  necessary 
markets  and  the  all-important  demand  on  the  part  of  the 
public  are  promoted  simultaneously.  The  method  seems 
to  be  to  boom  one  fish  at  a  time  :  in  1916  it  was  the  tile-fish, 
and  in  1917  the  dog-fish  under  a  new  name.  Our  European 
food-fishes  have  been  known  to  the  public  for  centuries, 
and  their  names,  such  as  herring,  cod  and  plaice,  are  very 
old  ;  but  the  "  tile-fish  "  is  new  to  the  markets  and  the 
name  is  a  recent  invention.  When,  as  the  result  of  scientific 
exploration,  the  fish  was  found  fn  quantity  and  introduced 
to  the  fishermen  and  the  public,  and  it  became  necessary 
to  find  a  name  shorter  than  the  zoological  designation 
Lopholatilus   chamceleonticeps ,  the  terminal  part  ("  tile  ")  ^ 

^  And  possibly  also  because  of  the  tile-like  markings  on  the 
head. 


310     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

of  the  generic  title  was  taken  and  is  now  firmly  established 
in  common  use.  When  the  fishery  had  been  in  existence 
for  twelve  months  (1916)  the  known  catch  amounted  to 
upwards  of  10,250,000  pounds,  valued  at  more  than 
$400,000.  During  the  fiscal  year  1917  the  tile-fish  landed 
reached  11,641,500  pounds,  and  the  receipts  of  the  fishermen 
exceeded  $477,730. 

Having  established  this  fishery,  the  Bureau  then  entered 
on  a  campaign  to  convert  one  of  the  most  destructive  and 
neglected  fishes  of  the  Atlantic  coast,  the  spiny  dog-fish, 
into  a  valuable  asset ;  and  the  first  step  taken  was  to  suggest 
a  change  in  the  name  of  the  fish  for  trade  purposes.  We 
are  told  that  people  in  all  parts  of  the  country  will  eat 
*'  cat-fish,"  but  are  prejudiced  against  "  dog-fish,"  so  the 
Bureau  altered  the  name  of  the  latter  to  "  gray-fish,"  which 
"  is  descriptive,  not  pre-occupied,  and  altogether  unobjec- 
tionable."    (Commissioner's  Report  for  1917.) 

There  was  apparently  at  first  much  prejudice  and  opposition 
to  be  overcome,  but  the  Commissioner  tells  us  that  "  an 
early  feature  of  the  campaign  was  the  complete  change  in 
the  fishermen's  attitude  after  they  had  become  fully  in- 
formed as  to  the  Bureau's  plans  ;  and  the  autumn  of  1916 
witnessed  the  extraordinary  sight  of  New  England  fishermen 
going  out  specially  for  gray-fish  and  selling  their  catch  at 
remunerative  prices  for  food."  It  soon  became  evident 
that  the  demand  far  surpassed  the  supply.  The  canned 
fish  met  with  a  ready  sale,  and  were  soon  all  disposed  of 
as  "  the  goods  proved  to  be  not  only  one  of  the  best  canned 
products  on  the  market,  but  also  one  of  the  most  economical 
to  the  consumer,  who  could  buy  at  retail  for  10  cents  a  can 
containing  14  ounces  net  weight  of  fish. ' '  Again — ' '  Although 
the  canned  product  had  been  known  to  the  trade  and  public 
only  since  October,  in  April,  1917,  it  was  known  to  be  handled 
by  dealers  in  128  cities  and  towns  in  New  York  and  Pennsyl- 
vania alone,  and  by  May  the  fish  was  on  sale  by  retailer^ 
in  30  states  and  the  Pistrict  of  Columbia." 


THE  SEA-FISHERIES    "  311 

Many  other  instances  of  the  energetic  and  successful 
exploitation  of  American  fisheries — in  the  interests  both  of 
the  fishermen  and  the  pubUc — might  be  given,  but  these 
two  examples,  both  bearing  newly-coined  names  which 
have  rapidly  become  famiUar  to  the  pubHc,  must  sufiice. 

Thus  we  have  seen  that  sea-fisheries  investigation  and 
promotion  may  be  approached  from  many  points  of  view, 
and  with  the  great  advances  that  have  been  made  of  recent 
years,  the  aspects  and  prospects  of  successful  sea-fisheries 
research  have  undergone  changes  which  encourage  the  hope 
that  a  combination  of  the  work  now  carried  on  by  hydro- 
graphers  and  biologists  in  most  civilized  countries  on  funda- 
mental problems  of  the  ocean  may  result  in  a  more  rational 
exploitation  and  administration  of  the  fishing  industries. 

Edward  Forbes  long  ago  (1847)  denounced  Government 
apathy  and  strongly  urged  that  such  scientific  fisheries 
work  should  be  undertaken  "  for  the  good  of  the  country 
and  for  the  better  proving  that  the  true  interests  of  Govern- 
ment are  those  Unked  with  and  inseparable  from  Science." 
All  will  most  cordially  approve  of  these  last  words,  while 
recognizing  that  our  Government  Department  of  Fisheries 
is  now  being  organized  on  better  lines,  is  itseK  carrying 
on  scientific  work  of  national  importance,  and  is,  I  am  happy 
to  think,  in  complete  sympathy  with  the  work  of  independent 
scientific  investigators  of  the  sea  and  desirous  of  closer 
co-operation  with  university  laboratories  and  biological 
stations. 


CHAPTER  XVII 
FOOD-MATTERS  IN  THE   SEA 

We  arrive  finally  at  these  very  fundamental  questions  : 
What  is  the  manner  of  nutrition  of  all  Hving  organisms  of 
the  oceans  ?  and  What  are  the  ultimate  food-matters  in  the 
water  ? 

It  will  be  agreed  that  the  food  of  the  economic  animals 
in  the  sea/ such  as  fishes,  shell-fish  and  crustaceans,  must 
always  be  of  interest  and  importance  to  man,  and  it  is 
commonly  supposed  that  the  larger  marine  animals  feed 
upon  the  smaller  and  simpler  until  organisms  of  microscopic 
size  are  reached,  which  in  their  turn  are  nourished  upon 
inorganic  substances  dissolved  in  the  sea -water.  It  has 
frequently  been  pointed  out  that,  in  addition  to  the  great 
feeding -grounds  on  the  sea -bottom  where  molluscs  and 
worms  and  zoophytes  abound,  the  plankton  (small  floating 
organisms  of  many  kinds,  both  plants  and  animals)  which 
is  abundant  in  most  seas  at  nearly  all  times  must  be  a 
valuable  constituent  of  the  food  both  of  young  fishes  of 
various  kinds  and  also  of  adult  pelagic  or  migratory  fishes 
such  as  the  herring  and  the  mackerel.  Of  the  innumerable 
organisms  in  the  plankton,  two  groups  are  of  primary 
importance  in  this  connection :  viz.  (1)  the  Copepod 
Crustacea,  small  animals  on  the  average  perhaps  a  tenth 
of  an  inch  in  length,  forming  an  excellent  food  like  lobsters 
or  shrimps,  and  sometimes  present  in  summer  in  great 
abundance  locally  so  as  to  constitute  shoals  upon  which 
mackerel,  herring  and  other  fishes  are  known  to  feed  ;   and 

312 


FOOD-MATTERS  IN  THE  SEA  313 

(2)  the  Diatoms/  minute  miicellular  plants  with  siliceous 
coverings,  much  smaller  than  the  Copepoda  and  of  a  totally 
different  nature,  and  probably  not  so  suitable  for  food  in 
the  case  of  a  higher  animal  such  as  a  fish,  but  available 
as  good  vegetable  food  for  many  lower  invertebrate  animals. 
The  Copepoda  (being  animals)  feed  upon  the  Diatoms  and 
other  allied  minute  organisms.  The  Diatoms,  being  plants, 
are,  however,  able  to  nourish  themselves  and  build  up  their 
bodies  from  the  carbon-dioxide  and  the  soluble  salts  and 
other  substances  dissolved  in  sea-water.  Diatoms  are  there- 
fore one  of  the  producing  groups  in  the  sea,  being  able  to  pro- 
duce or  build  organic  matters  such  as  starch  and  protoplasm 
from  inorganic  materials  ;  while  Copepoda  are  consumers^ 
as  they  require  and  use  up  already  formed  organic  matter 
(such  as  the  Diatoms)  for  their  nutriment.  Bacteria 
(plants  without  chlorophyll)  in  the  sea  are  intermediate  in 
this  respect.  They  no  doubt  require  organic  food,  but 
probably  obtain  it  from  dissolved  organic  matter  derived 
from  sewage  and  the  washings  of  the  land,  and  from  any 
decomposing  animal  or  vegetable  matters  in  the  sea,  and 
other  products  of  the  metabolism  of  higher  organisms. 
Such  dissolved  organic  matter  must  vary  in  amount  very 
greatly  in  different  places  and  in  different  circumstances, 
and  although  constantly  renewed  it  is  also  constantly  being 
used  up  or  broken  down  by  bacterial  action  into  inorganic 
matters.  It  is  quite  reasonable  to  suppose  that  many 
minute  and  simple  organisms  in  the  sea  which  have  no 
mouth  or  other  mechanism  for  taking  in  solid  food,  may  be 
able  to  obtain  nutriment  from  the  dissolved  organic  matter 
in  the  water.  It  may  therefore  be  said  that  the  sea  is  to 
some  slight  extent  a  nutritive  medium,  as  was  pointed  out 
long  ago  by  Dr.  W.  B.  Carpenter  ;  but  very  different  views 
have  been  expressed  of  late  years  as  to  the  amount  of  such 
possible  source  of  nutriment  in  the  form  of  dissolved  organic 

^  There  are  other  still  smaller  organisms  in  sea-water,  but  the 
Diatoms  may  be  taken  as  a  type  of  aU  the  micro-phyto-plankton. 


314     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

carbon  that  may  be  present,  and  estimates  have  varied 
from  less  than  one  to  over  ninety  milligrammes  per  litre  of 
sea-water. 

The  general  result  of  the  work  initiated  by  Hensen  and 
carried  out  by  the  Kiel  school  of  investigators  has  certainly 
been  to  emphasize  the  importance  of  the  plankton  as  supply- 
ing the  nutriment  that  is  necessary  for  the  existence  of 
other  marine  animals.  The  extreme  view  put  forward  by 
some  was  that  we  could  actually  estimate  from  a  few  small 
samples  the  total  amount  of  food  available  in  wide  oceanic 
areas,  and  therefore  the  number  of  fishes  or  other  animals 
that  could  be  supported. 

Possibly  as  a  reaction  against  the  views  of  the  Hensen 
school,  the  physiologist  Professor  August  Putter  of  Bonn, 
in  a  series  of  remarkable  papers  from  1907  to  1912,  attempted 
to  prove  that  the  plankton  in  the  sea  is  utterly  insufficient 
to  nourish  the  animals  which  are  supposed  to  feed  upon  it, 
and  that  not  only  simple  and  minute  organisms  but  also 
large  highly  organized  animals  with  a  well-developed 
alimentary  canal,  such  as  Crustacea,  Mollusca  and  even  true 
fishes,  could  and  do  obtain  most  of  their  nutriment  from 
the  dissolved  organic  matter  in  the  water.  He  holds  (1) 
that  the  mass  of  plankton  in  sea-water  is  much  too  small 
in  amount  to  meet  the  food  requirements  of  the  larger 
animals,  and  (2)  that  an  abundant  source  of  food  is  present 
in  the  form  of  the  dissolved  organic  compounds  in  the  water, 
and  that  it  is  on  these  that  the  sea-animals  are  nourished. 
This  view  was  referred  to,  briefly,  in  the  chapter  on  plankton  ; 
but,  though  very  improbable,  it  deals  with  such  important 
fundamental  matters  that  it  must  be  discussed  at  greater 
length  here. 

According  to  Piitter,  then,  the  living  plankton  is  of 
comparatively  slight  importance  as  a  food  material,  and 
many  animals  of  the  sea  are  nourished,  somewhat  Hke 
endoparasites  in  the  bodies  of  higher  animals,  by  the 
dissolved  organic  substances  resulting  from  the  decay  and 


FOOD-MATTERS  IN  THE  SEA  315 

metabolism  of  other  organisms — such  as  the  algae  of  the 
plankton,  and  the  other  larger  marine  algae.  Putter  based 
this  conclusion  upon  figures  which  he  published  showing 
that  there  was  a  surprisingly  large  amount  of  dissolved 
organic  carbon  in  the  sea-water  of  the  Bay  of  Naples, 
where  his  work  was  carried  out,  and  that  the  nutritive 
requirements  of  some  of  the  higher  marine  invertebrate 
animals  could  not  be  met  by  the  amount  of  lower  organisms 
(the  plankton)  contained  in  the  volume  of  water  available 
for  their  use. 

Taking  certain  common  marine  animals — he  calculated 
from  the  consumption  of  oxygen  the  minimal  value  of  the 
carbon  required  per  unit  of  time  for  an  animal  of  a  given 
body  weight,  then  taking  certain  figures  for  the  amount  of 
plankton  strained  from  a  given  volume  of  water  (by  Lohmann 
off  Syracuse,  during  December)  he  calculated  the  amount 
of  water  that  the  animal  in  question  would  require  to  strain 
in  order  to  obtain  the  required  carbon,  and  declared  it  to 
be  an  impossibly  large  amount.  For  example  :  In  the 
case  of  the  common  marine  sponge  Suberites  domuncula  at 
Naples,  he  calculated  that  with  a  body- weight  of  60  grammes 
(about  2  oz.)  it  required  0*9  milligrammes  of  carbon  per 
hour.  Taking  Lohmann' s  results  as  to  the  plankton  in  the 
Mediterranean  it  followed  that  the  sponge,  in  order  to 
obtain  that  amount  of  carbon  from  the  plankton,  would 
require  to  filter  242  litres  of  sea-water  per  hour — about 
4,000  times  its  own  volume.  This  amount  of  water  he 
showed  could  not  pass  in  the  time  through  the  openings  and 
water  passages  of  the  sponge.  On  the  other  hand,  he  finds 
that  the  sea-water  he  anatysed  contains  sufficient  of  the 
dissolved  organic -carbon  compounds  to  supply  the  needs 
of  the  sponge  from  an  amount  of  water  that  could  easily 
pass  through  the  sponge  cavities  in  an  hour.  He  obtained 
similar  conclusions  in  the  case  of  the  Holothurian  Cucumaria 
grubei,  and  subsequently  extended  his  investigations  to  an 
ascidian,  a  sea-anemone  and  a  fish,  with  like  results, 


316     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

Other  competent  observers,  however,  on  repeating  Putter's 
experiments,  have  arrived  at  very  different  conclusions. 
Thus  while  Putter  found  in  the  Bay  of  Naples  as  much  as 
65  to  92  milhgrammes  of  dissolved  organic  carbon  per  litre 
of  water,  Henze  in  his  investigation  found  only  from  6 
down  to  3  milligrammes,  and  even  less  in  some  samples  ; 
and  Raben,  with  better  methods,  found  at  Kiel,  where  the 
water  may  be  polluted,  an  average  of  about  12  milligrammes 
per  litre,  and  in  the  open  Baltic  only  3  milligrammes.  Even 
this,  however,  is  a  large  amount  of  carbon  compared  with  what 
Putter  and  others  state  can  be  supplied  by  the  plankton.  It 
must  be  remembered,  however,  that  all  methods  of  collecting 
the  smaller  but  immensely  abundant  organisms  of  the  plank- 
ton are  still  very  defective,  and  that  even  the  finest  silk 
nets,  with  which  most  of  the  data  have  been  obtained, 
allow  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  nanno-plankton  to 
escape.  But  other  estimates  of  the  quantities  of  plankton 
present  are  much  larger  than  those  made  use  of  by  Putter, 
and  we  know  that  localities  and  seasons  differ  greatly. 

Piitter's  other  figures,  in  regard  to  the  food-requirements 
of  various  animals,  and  therefore  the  volumes  of  water 
they  must  strain,  have  also  been  controverted,  and  some 
of  the  other  independent  estimates  of  the  food-requirements 
of  various  animals  that  have  been  made  are  as  follows  : 

Professor  E.  Prince  of  the  Canadian  Sea -fisheries  Depart- 
ment states  that  if  the  sponge  Suherites,  one  ounce  in 
weight,  had  such  requirements  that  would  mean  nearly 
1|  billions  of  a  Diatom  like  Skeletonema,  or  more  than  7 
biUions  of  Thalassiosira  daily  ;  that  similarly  a  Copepod 
(Calocalanus)  might  require  daily  9,750,000,000  Thalassi- 
osira ;  and  that  an  oyster  5  inches  long  would  consume 
tV  cub.  in.  of  solid  food  daily,  and  therefore  would  need  to 
filter  8  or  9  gallons  of  water,  nearly  2,000  times  its 
own  bulk.  Kishinouye  states  that  the  Japanese  Sardine 
would  require  to  swim  nine  miles  to  catch  the  f  gram  of 
food  needed  daily,  as  only  one  gram  of  Diatoms  and  other 


FOOD-MATTERS  IN  THE   SEA  317 

similar  organisms  is  contained  in  1,000  litres  of  the  water. 
But  Prof.  G.  H.  Parker  has  recently  shown  that  the  sponge 
Spinosella  at  Bermuda,  with  about  twenty  exhalant  openings 
can  strain  in  a  day  about  1,575  litres,  or  over  415  gallons 
of  sea-water. 

In  addition  to  the  plankton  and  the  nanno -plankton, 
Professor  Prince  draws  attention  to  the  "  Demerson," 
sinking  clouds  of  dead  plankton,  which  settle  on  the  botton 
as  a  colloidal  stratum,  recalling  the  now  discredited 
"  Bathybius  "  of  pre-"  Challenger  "  times.  This  demerson  is 
an  important  source  of  nutriment  for  animals  at  all  depths 
from  coast  to  abyss.  Petersen  and  others  have  also  recog- 
nized this  potential  food-matter  under  the  name  "  detritus." 

The  various  estimates  differ  widely.  It  is  probable  that 
different  animals  differ  in  their  food-requirements  according 
to  their  habits,  and  probably  localities  also  vary.  It  is 
evident  that  further  data  are  required,  as  the  calculations 
of  food  requirements  on  our  present  data  must  be  regarded 
as  of  very  doubtful  value.  The  food  requirements  cannot 
be  expected  to  be  proportional  to  the  animal's  weight,  as 
exoskeletal  and  some  other  structures  that  add  materially 
to  the  weight  are  not  active  in  metabolism.  Nor  can  the 
surface  area  be  taken  as  a  guide,  as  surfaces  vary  greatly 
in  absorbing  power. 

Professor  B.  Moore  and  several  other  bio-chemists,  in  a 
series  of  investigations  made  at  the  Port  Erin  Biological 
Station  from  1910  onwards,  have  shown  conclusively  that 
the  amount  of  dissolved  organic  carbon  present  in  the  sea- 
water  of  the  Irish  Sea  is  almost  negligible  (lying  well  below 
1  mgr.  per  litre  of  water),  and  that  Piitter's  figures  are  very 
incorrect ;  his  original  figure  of  sixty-five  having  been  brought 
down  by  Henze  and  Raben  to  six,  and  then  three,  and  now 
by  Moore  to  one,  which  is  within  the  limit  of  experimental 
error.  Moore  has  also  shown,  however,  that  the  amount 
of  plankton  normally  present  and  generally  distributed 
throughout  the  water,  avoiding  special  swarms,  is  insuffi- 


318  FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

cient  to  provide  food  for  the  larger  animals  if  these  merely 
filter  the  water  as  it  comes.  In  fact,  according  to  the 
latest  investigations,  the  organic  matter  in  solution  and  the 
generally  distributed  plankton  taken  together  do  not  seem 
sufficient  for  the  nutrition  of  actively  swimming  marine 
animals,  although  they  may  suffice  for  the  fixed  or  sedentary 
forms,  such  as  sponges,  ascidians  and  lamellibranch  moUuscs. 
Moore  estimates  that  the  sedentary  sponge  requires  to 
filter  only  fifteen  times  its  own  volume  per  hour,  while  the 
active  Crustacean  requires  250  times.  The  active  animals, 
however,  such  as  Crustacea  and  fishes,  probably  hunt  their 
food  and  follow  up  shoals  of  plankton  or  frequent  those 
zones  in  which  the  plankton  is  especially  abundant,  and  so 
are  able  to  obtain  a  great  deal  more  than  the  average  amount 
which  is  distributed  through  the  water  in  general  at  the  time. 
This  result  accords  well  with  our  many  observations  at 
Port  Erin  on  the  irregularity  in  the  distribution  of  the  plank- 
ton, and  the  corresponding  variations  in  the  occurrence  of 
the  migratory  fishes  which  may  be  regarded  as  following 
and  feeding  upon  the  swarms  of  planktonic  organisms. 

We  have,  moreover,  direct  evidence  that  the  larger  and 
more  active  members  of  the  plankton,  such  as  Copepoda, 
do  feed  upon  the  minute  algae  of  the  plankton.  W.  J. 
Dakin's  original  observations  made  at  Kiel  have  been 
corroborated  and  extended  by  Esterly  in  California,  who  has 
shown  conclusively  that  in  a  number  of  different  species  of 
Copepoda  he  examined,  particles  such  as  Diatoms  and  other 
minute  members  of  the  plankton  are  ingested  and  can  be 
traced  through  the  intestine.  Some  individual  Copepoda 
may  be  found  with  the  alimentary  canal  empty,  or  containing 
only  a  greenish  amorphous  mass,  but  that  may  well  be 
because  soft-bodied  organisms  have  been  eaten  and  have 
been  or  are  being  rapidly  digested.  Further  observations 
must,  however,  be  made  into  the  food  and  the  feeding  habits 
of  all  plankton  feeders  in  the  living  condition,  and  when 
actually  feeding.     I  may  add  that  during  the  last  twenty 


FOOD-MATTERS  IN  THE   SEA  319 

years  I  have  myself  examined  in  the  living  condition  about 
10,000  samples  of  freshly  caught  plankton,  and  I  have  no 
doubt  whatever,  from  what  I  have  seen,  that  the  Copepoda 
and  other  larger  and  more  active  animals  are  habitually 
feeding  upon  the  smaller  forms. 

Putting  aside  the  detritus  or  demerson,  and  other  plant 
and  animal  food  on  the  sea-bottom,  and  considering  only 
what  is  free  in  the  water,  as  yet  we  have  discovered  no  other 
more  abimdant  source  of  food  for  larger  marine  animals 
than  the  organisms  of  the  plankton,  and  if  this  is  really 
insufficient,  as  Piitter  and  others  have  tried  to  prove,  then 
we  have  here  one  of  the  most  important  problems  of  marine 
biology  still  unsolved,  and  one  which  requires  further 
research,  both  observational  and  experimental,  upon  the 
feeding  habits  of  many  common  animals — work  which  can 
only  be  carried  on  at  sea  or  in  the  laboratories  of  marine 
biological  stations. 

The  problem  is,  in  part,  a  bio -chemical  one  ;  and  that 
brings  us  to  Piitter's  further  assertion  that,  as  he  was  able 
to  keep  large  invertebrates  and  even  fish  in  water  containing 
no  obvious  or  particulate  food  during  long  periods  when  they 
were  daily  absorbing  oxygen  and  losing  carbon,  they  must 
have  been  living  on  dissolved  carbon  in  the  water.  This 
has  been  answered  by  Moore  and  his  fellow-workers  at 
Port  Erin,  who  have  conducted  a  long  series  of  experiments 
ranging  over  seven  months  (235  days)  on  the  nutrition  and 
metabolism  of  various  marine  animals,  during  which  they 
kept  such  large  animals  as  lobsters,  octopus  and  fish.  Each 
experiment  ran  for  a  long  period,  during  which  the  animals 
were  not  fed,  but  their  consumption  of  oxygen  and  output 
of  carbon-dioxide  was  determined  daily.  At  the  end  the 
animals  showed  no  serious  result  and  no  loss  in  weight. 
They  were  apparently  healthy  and  lively.  The  explanation 
was  found  to  be  that  the  loss  of  organic  matter  from  the 
tissues  is  made  good  or  replaced  by  an  equivalent  amount 
of  sea-water  taken  in.     The  proteins  of  the  animals'  tissues 


320     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

were  found  to  be  much  reduced,  and  the  loss  was  sufficient 
to  account  for  all  the  energy  required  for  the  metabolism  of 
the  fasting  animal. 

The  bearing  of  this  result  upon  Piitter's  views  is  that 
when  a  marine  animal  does  not  lose  weight  on  being  kept 
without  food,  it  need  not  be  supposed  that  it  is  obtaining 
carbon  from  hypothetical  dissolved  compounds  in  the  water, 
but  is  merely  replacing  the  loss  from  its  tissues  by  storing 
up  water.  It  is  evident,  however,  that  this  process  cannot 
go  on  indefinitely. 

Notwithstanding  Piitter's  statements,  which  have  under- 
gone so  many  corrections,  until  further  evidence  is  forth- 
coming we  may  continue  to  believe  that  aquatic  animals 
are  nourished  chiefly  by  particulate  food  taken  in  at  the 
mouth  and  digested  in  the  alimentary  canal. 

The  further  and  final  contribution  that  Professor  Moore 
and  the  other  bio-chemists  at  Port  Erin  have  made  to  our 
knowledge  of  the  metabolism  of  the  sea  and  the  nutrition 
of  marine  animals,  is  that  the  green  plant  cell,  such  as  that 
of  the  phyto-plankton,  is  not  dependent  for  either  its  nitrogen 
or  its  carbon  upon  the  amount  that  may  be  present  in  the 
form  of  nitrogen  salts  and  as  carbon  dioxide  in  the  water. 
They  have  shown  in  recent  papers  before  the  Royal  Society  ^ 
that  elemental  nitrogen  can  be  obtained  from  the  air  through 
the  water,  and  the  very  small  quantities  of  nitrates,  nitrites 
and  ammonia  salts  may  remain  in  the  water  unconsumed. 

In  regard  to  the  carbon  supply  their  experiments  show 
that  the  bicarbonates  of  magnesium  and  calcium  can  be 
broken  up  and  used  by  the  green  plant  cell  in  its  nutrition, 
until  the  whole  stock  of  bicarbonates  in  the  water  has  been 
exhausted.  This  latest  result  cuts  at  the  root  not  only  of 
Piitter's  views  as  to  the  source  of  carbon,  but  also  of  the 
law  of  the  minimum  (so  far  as  regards  nitrogen),  as  expounded 
by  Brandt  and  others — to  the  effect  that  the  amount  of 

^  Proc.  Roy.  Soc,  B  91  and  92  (1920).  See  also  Moore's  book 
Biochemistry  (1921). 


FOOD-MATTERS  IN  THE   SEA  321 

possible  organic  life  in  the  sea  is  limited  by  the  quantity 
of  whatever  necessary  substance  is  present  in  minimal  amount 
— it  being  supposed,  for  example,  that  the  necessary 
nitrogen  has  to  be  obtained  from  the  small  quantities  present 
in  the  form  of  ammonia  salts,  nitrates  and  nitrites.  But 
these  recent  experiments  show  that,  to  quote  the  words  of 
Moore's  Royal  Society  paper  : — 

"  The  source  of  the  nitrogen  is  the  atmospheric  elemental 
nitrogen  dissolved  in  the  sea-water,  and  not  ammonia, 
nitrates  or  nitrites.  The  source  of  the  carbon  is  the  carbon 
dioxide  of  the  bicarbonates  of  calcium  and  magnesium 
dissolved  in  sea- water." 

This  reaction  is  so  large  in  amount  in  the  sea,  in  spring 
at  the  time  of  the  plankton  maximum,  that  if  it  takes  place 
to  the  same  extent  down  to  a  depth  of  100  metres,  then  the 
carbon  made  available  would  suffice  for  a  crop  of  phyto- 
plankton  amounting  to  at  least  ten  tons  of  moist  vegetation 
per  acre. 

In  the  application  of  oceanographic  investigations  to  sea- 
fisheries  problems,  one  ultimate  aim,  whether  frankly 
admitted  or  not,  must  be  to  obtain  some  kind  of  a  rough 
approximation  to  a  census  or  valuation  of  the  sea — of  the 
fishes  that  form  the  food  of  man,  of  the  lower  animals  of 
the  sea-bottom  on  which  many  of  the  fishes  feed,  and  of 
the  planktonic  contents  of  the  upper  waters  which  form 
the  ultimate  organized  food  of  the  sea — and  many  attempts 
have  been  made  in  different  ways  to  attain  the  desired 
end. 

Our  knowledge  of  the  number  of  animals  living  in  different 
regions  of  the  sea  is  for  the  most  part  relative  only.  We 
know  that  one  haul  of  the  dredge  is  larger  than  another,  or 
that  one  locahty  seems  richer  than  another,  but  we  have 
very  little  information  as  to  the  actual  numbers  of  any  kind 
of  animal  per  square  foot  or  per  acre  in  the  sea.  Hensen, 
as  we  have  seen,  attempted  to  estimate  the  number  of  food- 
fishes  in  the  North  Sea  from  the  number  of  their  eggs  caught 

Y 


322     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

in  a  comparatively  small  series  of  hauls  of  the  tow-net,  but 
the  data  were  probably  quite  insufficient  and  the  conclusions 
may  be  erroneous.  It  is  an  interesting  speculation  to  which 
we  cannot  attach  any  economic  importance.  His  own 
colleague,  Heincke,  says  of  it :  "  This  method  appears 
theoretically  feasible,  but  presents  in  practice  so  many 
serious  difficulties  that  no  positive  results  of  real  value  have 
as  yet  been  obtained." 

All  biologists  must  agree  that  to  determine  even  approxi- 
mately the  number  of  individuals  of  any  particular  species 
living  in  a  known  area  is  a  contribution  to  knowledge  which 
may  be  of  great  economic  value  in  the  case  of  the  edible 
fishes,  but  it  may  be  doubted  whether  Hensen's  methods, 
even  with  greatly  increased  data,  will  ever  give  us  the 
required  information.  Petersen's  method,  of  setting  free 
marked  plaice  and  then  assuming  that  the  proportion  of 
these  recaught  is  to  the  total  number  marked  as  the  fisher- 
men's catch  in  the  same  district  is  to  the  total  population, 
will  only  hold  good  in  circumscribed  areas  where  there 
is  practically  no  migration  and  where  the  fish  are  fairly 
evenly  distributed.  This  method  gives  us  what  has  been 
called  "  the  fishing  coefficient,"  applicable  to  the  North  Sea 
for  those  sizes  of  fish  which  are  caught  by  the  trawl. 
Heincke,^  from  an  actual  examination  of  samples  of  the 
stock  on  the  ground  obtained  by  experimental  trawHng 
("  the  catch  coefficient "),  supplemented  by  the  market 
returns  of  the  various  countries,  estimates  the  adult  plaice 
at  about  1,500  millions,  of  which  about  500  millions  are 
caught  or  destroyed  by  the  fishermen  annually. 

It  is  difficult  to  imagine  any  further  method  which  will 
enable  us  to  estimate  any  such  case  as,  say,  the  number  of 
plaice  in  the  North  Sea,  where  the  individuals  are  so  far 
beyond  our  direct  observation  and  are  liable  to  change  their 
positions  at  any  moment.     But  a  beginning  can  be  made 

1  F.  Heincke,  Cons.  Per.  Internat.  Explor.  de  la  Mer,  "  Investiga- 
tions on  the  Plaice,"  Copenhagen,  1913. 


FOOD-MATTERS  IN  THE   SEA  323 

on  more  accessible  ground  with  more  sedentary  animals, 
and  Dr.  C.  G.  Joh.  Petersen,  of  the  Danish  Biological  Station, 
has  for  some  years  been  pm^suing  the  subject  in  a  series  of 
interesting  reports  on  the  "  Evaluation  of  the  Sea."  ^ 
He  uses  a  bottom-sampler,  or  grab,  which  can  be  lowered 
down  open  and  then  closed  on  the  bottom  so  as  to  bring 
up  a  sample  square  foot  or  square  metre  (or  in  deep  water 
one-tenth  of  a  square  metre)  of  the  sand  or  mud  and  its 
inhabitants.  With  this  apparatus,  modified  in  size  and 
weight  for  different  depths  and  bottoms,  Petersen  and  his 
fellow-workers  have  made  a  very  thorough  examination 
of  the  Danish  waters,  and  especially  of  the  Kattegat  and 
the  Limfjord,  have  described  a  series  of  "  animal  communi- 
ties "  characteristic  of  different  zones  and  regions  of  shallow 
water,  and  have  arrived  at  certain  numerical  results  as  to 
the  quantity  of  animals  in  the  Kattegat  expressed  in  tons 
— such  as  5,000  tons  of  plaice  requiring  as  food  50,000  tons 
of  "  useful  animals  "  (moUusca  and  polychset  worms),  and 
25,000  tons  of  starfish  using  up  200,000  tons  of  useful  animals 
which  might  otherwise  serve  as  food  for  fishes,  and  the 
dependence  of  all  these  animals  directly  or  indirectly  upon 
the  great  Beds  of  Zostera,  which  make  up  24,000,000  tons  in 
the  Kattegat.  Such  estimates  are  obviously  of  great  biologi- 
cal interest,  and,  even  if  only  rough  approximations,  are  a 
valuable  contribution  to  oik  understanding  of  the  meta- 
bolism of  the  sea  and  of  the  possibiHty  of  increasing  the  yield 
of  local  fisheries. 

But  on  studying  these  Danish  results  in  the  light  of 
what  we  know  of  our  own  marine  fauna,  although  none  of 
our  seas  have  been  examined  in  the  same  detail  by  the 
bottom-sampler  method,  it  seems  probable  that  the  animal 
communities  as  defined  by  Petersen  are  not  exactly  appli- 
cable on  our  coasts,  and  that  the  estimates  of  relative  and 
absolute  abundance  may  be  very  different  in  different  seas 

1  See  Reports  of  the  Danish  Biological  Station,  and  especially  the 
Report  for  1918,  "  The  Sea  Bottom  and  its  Production  of  Fish  Food." 

Y* 


324     FOUNDEHS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

under  different  conditions.  The  work  will  have  to  be  done 
in  each  great  area,  such  as  the  North  Sea,  the  English 
Channel,  and  the  Irish  Sea,  independently.  This  is  a  necessary 
investigation,  both  biological  and  physical,  which  lies  before 
the  oceanographers  of  the  future,  upon  the  results  of  which 
the  future  preservation  and  further  cultivation  of  our  national 
sea-fisheries  may  depend. 

It  has  been  shown  by  Johnstone  and  others  that  the 
common  edible  animals  of  the  shore  may  exist  in  such 
abundance  that  an  area  of  the  sea  may  be  more  productive 
of  food  for  man  than  a  similar  area  of  pastm'e  or  crops 
on  land.  A  Lancashire  mussel-bed  has  been  shown  to  have 
as  many  as  16,000  young  mussels  per  square  foot,  and  it  is 
estimated  that  in  the  shallow  waters  of  Liverpool  Bay  there 
are  from  20  to  200  animals  of  sizes  varying  from  an 
amphipod  to  a  plaice  on  each  square  metre  of  the  bottom. 
Shelf ord,  in  America,  states  that  4  square  feet  of  the  sea  will 
support  one  human  life. 

From  these  and  similar  data  which  can  be  readily  obtained, 
it  is  not  difficult  to  calculate  totals  by  estimating  the 
number  of  square  yards  in  areas  of  similar  character  between 
tide-marks  or  in  shallow  water.  And  from  weighings  of 
samples  some  approximation  to  the  number  of  tons  of 
available  food  may  be  computed.  But  one  must  not  go 
too  far.  Let  all  the  figures  be  based  upon  actual  observa- 
tion. Imagination  is  necessary  in  science,  but  in  calculating 
a  population  of  even  a  very  limited  area  it  is  best  to  believe 
only  what  one  can  see  and  measure. 

Countings  and  weighings,  however,  do  not  give  us  all 
the  information  we  need.  It  is  something  to  know  even 
approximately  the  number  of  millions  of  animals  on  a  mile 
of  shore  and  the  number  of  millions  of  tons  of  possible  food 
in  a  sea-area,  but  that  is  not  sufficient.  All  food-fishes  are 
not  equally  nourishing  to  man,  and  all  plankton  and  bottom 
invertebrata  are  not  equally  nourishing  to  a  fish.  At  this 
point  the  biologist  requires  the  assistance  of  the  physiologist 


FOOD-MATTERS  IN  THE   SEA  325 

and  the  bio-chemist.  We  want  to  know  next  the  value  of 
our  food  matters  in  proteids,  carbohydrates,  and  fats,  and 
the  resulting  calories.  We  have  already  seen  how  markedly 
a  fat  summer  herring  differs  in  essential  constitution  from 
the  ordinary  white  fish,  such  as  the  cod,  which  is  almost 
destitute  of  fat. 

Professor  Brandt,  at  Kiel,  Professor  Benjamin  Moore,  at 
Port  Erin,  and  others,  have  similarly  shown  that  plankton 
gatherings  may  vary  greatly  in  their  nutrient  value  accord- 
ing as  they  are  composed  mainly  of  Diatoms,  of  Dinoflagel- 
lates,  or  of  Copepoda.  And,  no  doubt,  the  animals  of  the 
"  benthos,"  the  common  invertebrates  of  our  shores,  will 
show  similar  differences  in  analysis.^  It  is  obvious  that 
some  contain  more  solid  flesh,  others  more  water  in  their 
tissues,  others  more  calcareous  matter  in  the  exoskeleton, 
and  that  therefore,  weight  for  weight,  we  may  be  sure  that 
some  are  more  nutritious  than  the  others  ;  and  this  is 
probably  at  least  one  cause  of  that  preference  we  see  in 
some  of  our  bottom-feeding  fish  for  certain  kinds  of  food, 
such  as  polychaet  worms,  in  which  there  is  relatively  little 
waste,  and  thin-shelled  lamellibranch  molluscs,  such  as 
young  mussels,  which  have  a  highly  nutrient  body  in  a 
comparatively  thin  and  brittle  shell. 

Such  investigations  of  foods  and  their  values  seem  a  natural 
and  useful  extension  of  faunistic  work,  for  the  purpose  of 
obtaining  some  approximation  to  a  quantitative  estimate 
of  the  more  important  animals  of  our  shores  and  shallow 
water,  and  their  relative  values  as  either  the  immediate  or 
the  ultimate  food  of  marketable  fishes. 

Each  such  fish  has  its  "  food-chain  "  or  series  of  alter- 
native chains,  leading  back  from  the  food  of  man  to  the 

1  Moore  and  others  have  made  analyses  of  the  protein,  fat,  etc., 
m  the  soft  parts  of  Sponge,  Ascidian,  Aplysia,  Fusus,  Echinus,  and 
Cancer  at  Port  Erin,  and  find  considerable  differences — the  protein 
ranging,  for  example,  from  8  to  51  per  cent.,  and  the  fat  from  2  to 
14  per  cent,  (see  Bio-Chemical  Journ.,  vi,  p.  291). 


326     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

invertebrates  upon  which  it  preys  and  then  to  the  food  of 
these,  and  so  down  to  the  smallest  and  simplest  organisms 
in  the  sea,  and  each  such  chain  must  have  all  its  links  fully 
worked  out  as  to  seasonal  and  quantitative  occurrence  back 
to  the  Diatoms  and  Flagellates  which  depend  upon  physical 
conditions  and  take  us  beyond  the  range  of  biology — but 
not  beyond  that  of  oceanography.  The  Diatoms  and  the 
Flagellates  are  probably  more  important  than  the  more 
obvious  sea- weeds,  not  only  as  food,  but  also  in  supplying 
to  the  water  the  oxygen  necessary  for  the  respiration  of 
living  protoplasm.  In  addition  to  the  numbers  present 
at  any  time,  the  further  object  must  be  to  estimate  the  rate 
of  production  and  rate  of  destruction  of  all  organic  substances 
in  the  sea.  Lohmann  has  estimated  that  at  Kiel,  through- 
out the  year,  the  plants  make  up  56  per  cent,  and  the 
animals  44  per  cent,  of  the  plankton,  and  that  the  plants 
have  an  average  daily  accession  of  30  per  cent,  (in  volume) 
which  is  consumed  by  the  animals. 

To  attain  to  an  approximate  census  and  valuation  of  the 
sea — remote  though  it  may  seem — is  a  great  aim,  but  it  is 
not  sufficient.  We  want  not  only  to  record  and  to  count 
natural  objects,  but  also  to  understand  them.  We  require 
to  know  not  merely  what  an  organism  is — in  the  fullest 
detail  of  structure  and  development  and  affinities — and 
also  where  it  occurs— again  in  full  detail — and  in  what  abun- 
dance under  different  circumstances,  but  also  how  it  lives, 
and  what  all  its  relations  are  to  both  its  physical  and  its 
biological  environment,  and  that  is  where  the  physiologist, 
and  especially  the  bio-chemist,  can  help  us.  In  the  best 
interests  of  biological  progress  the  day  of  the  naturalist 
who  merely  collects,  the  day  of  the  anatomist  and  histologist 
who  merely  describe,  is  over,  and  the  future  is  with  the 
observer  and  the  experimenter  animated  by  a  divine  curio- 
sity to  enter  into  the  life  of  the  organism  and  understand 
how  it  lives  and  moves  and  has  its  being — ''  Felix  qui  potuit 
rerum  cognoscere  causas." 


FOOD-MATTERS  IN  THE   SEA  327 

Thus  we  catch  glimpses — it  is  not  yet  a  finished  picture — 
of  the  endless  changes  of  the  ocean  ;  of  both  earth  and  air 
contributing  necessary  materials  to  the  water  so  that  those 
of  minimal  amount  never  become  exhausted  ;  of  the  fishes 
we  eat  feeding  upon  smaller  animals,  the  cod  on  the  hermit 
and  other  crabs,  the  plaice  on  cockles  and  mussels,  the 
herring  on  the  larger  Copepods  of  the  plankton,  and  these 
in  their  turn  on  microscopic  organisms  ;  of  the  carbon 
dioxide  and  the  silica  becoming  stored  up  in  winter  to  be 
used  by  the  phyto -plankton  which  has  been  called  into 
activity  by  the  increasing  radiant  energy  of  the  sunlight 
in  spring,  just  in  time  to  nourish  the  newly  hatched  post- 
larval  fishes  ;  of  the  zoo-plankton  that  follows,  feeding  on 
the  phyto -plankton  and  itself  falling  prey  to  the  migratory 
fishes  in  summer,  and  the  dead  remains  of  everjrthing  f aUing 
to  the  bottom  to  form  the  demerson  upon  which  hordes 
of  benthonic  animals  can  browse.  And  we  recognize  that 
all  are  links  in  a  series  of  interlacing  chains  where  nothing 
is  lost,  nothing  wasted,  substances  disappearing  only  to 
reappear  in  another  form  :  the  carbon  and  calcium  now  free 
in  the  water  as  dissociated  ions,  now  locked  up  in  the  shell 
of  a  mollusc,  buried  in  Globigerina  ooze  or  fossilized  as  a 
coral  reef  ;  the  silica  once  in  a  flint,  now  in  a  Radiolarian 
shell,  a  Sponge  spicule,  or  a  Diatom  frustule,  to  be  redissolved 
in  the  water  when  required  by  the  inexorable  laws  of  nature 
to  pass  to  another  phase  of  the  beneficent,  never-ending 
cycle  of  events  that  constitutes  the  metabolism  of  the 
oceans. 

The  appeal  which  such  researches  in  pure  science  make 
to  university  laboratories,  and  to  all  who  desire  to  advance 
knowledge,  ought  to  be  irresistible  ;  but  there  is  also  a 
wider  appeal,  on  economic  grounds,  not  to  the  scientific 
world  alone,  but  to  the  whole  population  of  these  islands, 
a  maritime  people  who  owe  everything  to  the  sea.  I  urge 
them  to  become  better  informed  in  regard  to  our  national 
sea-fisheries  and  take  a  more  enlightened  interest  in  the 


328     FOUNDERS  OF  OCEANOGRAPHY 

basal  principles  that  underlie  a  rational  regulation  and 
exploitation  of  these  important  industries.  National  effi- 
ciency depends  to  a  very  great  extent  upon  the  degree  in 
which  scientific  results  and  methods  are  appreciated  by 
the  people  and  scientific  investigation  is  promoted  by  the 
Government  and  other  administrative  authorities.  The 
principles  and  discoveries  of  science  apply  to  aquiculture 
no  less  than  to  agriculture.  To  increase  the  harvest  of 
the  sea  the  fisheries  must  be  continuously  investigated,  and 
such  cultivation  as  is  possible  must  be  applied,  and  all  this 
is  clearly  a  natural  application  of  the  biological  and  hydro- 
graphical  work  now  united  under  the  science  of  oceanography. 


May  I  hope  that  the  foregoing  chapters  have  given  the 
reader  an  impression  of  a  young  science-in-the-making, 
where  there  are  curious  facts  to  verify,  interesting  theories 
to  discuss  and  plenty  of  unsolved  problems  ? 

Mr.  J.  Y.  Buchanan  has  claimed  that  the  science  of  oceano- 
graphy was  born  at  sea  on  February  15,  1873,  at  the  first 
official  dredging  station  of  the  "  Challenger  "  expedition, 
when  everything  that  came  up  in  the  dredge  was  new  and 
led  to  fundamental  discoveries  as  to  the  deposits  forming 
on  the  floor  of  the  ocean.  That  was  exactly  half  a  century 
ago,  and  although  much  has  been  done  in  the  interval  by 
Government  expeditions  and  by  individual  explorers,  nothing 
so  comprehensive  as  the  voyage  of  the  "  Challenger,"  or 
yielding  such  a  body  of  scientific  results,  has  yet  been 
achieved. 

In  the  Presidential  Address  to  the  British  Association  at 
Cardiff,  in  1920,  the  question  was  asked,  "  Has  not  the  time 
come  for  anew '  Challenger '  expedition  ?  " — and  during  the 
succeeding  days  of  the  meeting  the  question  was  answered 
over  and  over  again  in  the  affirmative.  The  suggestion 
was  taken  up  with  such  enthusiasm  by  the  various  scientific 
sections  of  the  Association  that  the  Council  appointed  a 


FOOD-MATTERS  IN  THE  SEA  329 

special  committee  of  experts  to  draw  up  a  reasoned  report 
on  the  need  of  a  national  expedition  for  the  further  explora- 
tion of  the  oceans,  the  objects  to  be  attained,  and  the  probable 
cost.  The  memorandum  which  resulted  from  the  work  of 
this  committee  is  printed  here  (by  permission  of  the  British 
Association)  as  an  appendix,  in  the  hope  that  it  may  be  of 
interest  and  possibly  of  use  in  the  future  ;  but  in  the  mean- 
time the  project  remains  in  abeyance.  After  consultation 
with  high  authorities,  the  Council  of  the  Association,  in 
March,  1921,  reluctantly  decided  that,  although  not  aban- 
doned, the  matter  must  be  postponed  in  deference  to  the 
pressing  need  for  economy  in  national  expenditure. 
In  the  report  of  the  Council  for  1920-21  it  is  stated  : — 
"  The  scheme,  however,  is  retained  under  consideration, 
and  the  Council  hopes  that  the  expedition  is  only  postponed 
for  a  season,  and  that  the  interval  may  be  usefully  employed 
in  perfecting  plans  and  making  other  essential  preparations. 
"  Meanwhile  the  memorandum  has  been  communicated  to 
the  Cabinet  Secretariat  of  H.M.  Government,  the  Admiralty, 
and  the  Department  of  Scientific  and  Industrial  Research." 

It  must  suffice  to  add  that  all  the  sciences  concerned — 
Physics,  Chemistry,  Geology,  Zoology,  Botany,  Physiology, 
and  Geography — have  problems  for  the  oceanographer 
awaiting  solution,  a  number  of  the  investigations  proposed 
are  of  the  highest  direct  practical  importance,  and  there  are 
many  reasons  why  it  is  lu^gent  that  the  scheme  should  be 
revived  and  preparations  organized  with  as  little  delay  as 
possible.  In  view  of  our  maritime  position,  of  the  relations 
of  our  Empire  to  the  oceans,  of  the  pre-eminence  of  our  Navy, 
of  our  great  mercantile  marine,  and  of  our  sea-fisheries, 
Great  Britain  should  undoubtedly  lead  the  world  in  oceano- 
graphical  research. 


APPENDIX 

MEMORANDUM  ON   PROPOSED  NATIONAL   EXPEDI- 
TION FOR  THE  EXPLORATION  OF  THE  SEA  i 


Origin  of  Proposal 

At  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the  British  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science  in  August,  1920,  the  President,  Dr.  W.  A. 
Herdman,  F.R.S.,  Professor  of  Oceanography  in  the  University  of 
Liverpool,  dehvered  an  address  deaUng  with  some  of  the  problems 
of  oceanography,  and  suggested  that  the  time  had  come  for  a  new 
British  expedition  to  explore  the  great  oceans  of  the  globe.  This 
suggestion  was  afterwards  put  forward  more  definitely  and  with 
further  detail  in  the  discussion  "  On  the  Need  for  the  Scientific 
Investigation  of  the  Ocean  "  at  a  joint  meeting  of  the  Sections  of 
Zoology  and  Geography.  The  proposal  then  made  was,  in  brief, 
that  there  was  now  urgent  need  for  another  great  exploring 
expedition  like  that  of  the  "  Challenger  "  (1872-76),  national  in 
character,  world-wide  in  scope,  to  investigate  further  the  science 
of  the  sea,  in  all  departments,  by  modern  methods,  under  the  best 
expert  advice  and  control. 

Action  by  Committees  and  Council  of  the  Association 

This  proposal  was  received  with  such  favour  that  at  the  next 
meeting  of  the  Committee  of  Section  D  (Zoology)  a  resolution  was 
unanimously  passed  : — 

That  Section  D  is  profoundly  impressed  with  the  impor- 
tance of  urging  the  initiation  of  a  further  National  Expedi- 
tion for  the  Exploration  of  the  Ocean,  and  requests  the 

^  Reprinted,  by  permission,  from  the  Report  of  the  Council  of  the 
British  Association^  for  1 920-2  L 

331 


332  APPENDIX 

Council  of  the  British  Association  to  appoint  a  Committee 
to  take  the  necessary  steps  to  impress  this  need  upon  His 
Majesty's  Government  and  the  nation. 

This  resolution  was  supported  by  the  Committees  of  all  the 
other  Sections  of  the  Association  interested  in  such  an  explora- 
tion. The  Committee  of  Recommendations  and  the  General 
Committee  on  the  following  day  passed  a  resolution  "  pointing  out 
the  importance  of  urging  the  initiation  of  a  national  expedition 
for  the  exploration  of  the  ocean,  and  requesting  that  the  Council 
of  the  British  Association  should  take  the  necessary  steps  to 
impress  this  need  upon  His  Majesty's  Government  and  the  nation." 
The  Council  of  the  Association  thereupon  appointed  a  Committee, 
representative  of  all  the  departments  of  science  concerned,  to 
prepare  and  take  steps  for  the  presentation  of  the  present  state- 
ment ;  while,  following  upon  a  reference  from  the  Association, 
the  Council  of  the  Royal  Society  also  appointed  a  Committee  to 
confer  with  that  appointed  by  the  Council  of  the  Association. 

Many  men  of  science,  both  British  and  foreign,  wrote  expressing 
the  hope  that  the  cogent  scientific  reasons  for  the  expedition  may 
be  pressed  without  delay  upon  the  Government,  so  as  to  induce 
the  nation  to  undertake  this  great  enterprise. 

II 

"  Challenger  "  Expedition 

The  "  Challenger  "  expedition,  the  great  British  circumnaviga- 
ting and  deep-sea  exploring  expedition  under  Sir  George  Nares 
and  Sir  Wyville  Thomson  in  1872-76,  brought  back  collections 
and  results  unrivalled  either  before  or  since,  which  added 
enormously  to  our  scientific  and  practical  knowledge  of  the  oceans. 
Our  knowledge  of  the  science  of  the  sea,  however,  has  undergone 
great  changes  during  the  last  half-century.  Physics,  Chemistry, 
Geology,  Zoology,  Botany,  Physiology,  and  Geography  all  have 
problems  awaiting  solution,  ^  and  there  are  many  modern  methods 
of  investigation  of  the  ocean  depths  which  have  been  devised  or 
improved  since  the  days  of  the  "  Challenger."  All  civilized 
nations  of  the  world  have  contributed  by  means  of  expeditions 
during  the  last  quarter-century  to  the  advance  of  oceanography, 

^  See  schedule  appended  (p.  334,  for  a  summary  of  the  proposed 
investigations. 


APPENDIX  333 

and  it  is  remarkable  that  our  country,  considering  the  relations 
of  our  Empire  to  the  oceans,  has  done  comparatively  little.  In 
view  of  our  maritime  position,  of  the  pre-eminence  of  our  Navy, 
of  our  great  mercantile  marine,  and  of  our  sea-fisheries.  Great 
Britain  should  undoubtedly  lead  the  world  in  oceanographical 
research. 

Ill 

Scope  and  Period  of  Proposed  Expedition 

Such  an  expedition  as  is  contemplated  ought,  in  order  to  make 
worthy  contributions  to  science,  to  be  at  least  as  extensive  in  dura- 
tion and  as  comprehensive  in  scope  as  the  "  Challenger  "  expedi- 
tion. It  ought  to  explore  all  the  great  oceans  during  a  period  of 
three  or  four  years.  It  ought  to  be  prepared  to  estabUsh  landing 
parties  on  oceanic  islands,  coral  reefs,  and  other  places  where 
special  detailed  explorations  on  shore  or  in  shallow  water  are 
required.  Special  scientific  apparatus  may  have  to  be  devised, 
and  young  scientific  men  may  have  to  be  trained  to  fit  them  for 
the  work  of  such  an  expedition.  At  least  one  year,  therefore, 
would  have  to  be  devoted  to  the  work  of  preparation.  It  will  be 
apparent  from  the  Schedule  to  this  statement  that  a  number  of  the 
investigations  proposed  are  of  the  highest  direct  practical  import- 
ance, and  there  are  many  reasons  why  it  is  important  that  the 
scheme  should  be  initiated  and  preparations  organized  with  as 
little  delay  as  possible. 

Ship 

Preliminary  inquiries  lead  tentatively  to  the  belief  that  a  vessel 
of  the  mercantile  marine,  of  about  3,000  tons,  chartered  by  H.M. 
Government  for  the  occasion,  would  best  suit  the  general  purposes 
of  the  expedition  ;  with  the  possible  exception,  as  already  indi- 
cated, of  certain  investigations  which  might  be  carried  out 
independently  of  the  main  body. 

Scientific  Personnel 

It  is  estimated  that  the  scientific  staff  of  such  an  expedition 
should  consist  of  a  director  with  ten  or  twelve  assistants,  exclusive 
of  landing  parties  and  any  officers  of  the  Royal  Navy  who  might 
be  detailed  for  special  investigations  for  Admiralty  purposes. 

Cost 

While  it  is  difficult  under  present  conditions,  and  in  the  present 
preliminary  stage  of  inquiry  into  the  possibihty  and  scope  of  the 


334  APPENDIX 

expedition,  to  form  any  near  estimate  of  its  cost,  it  is  believed 
that  (apart  from  the  provision  of  the  ship,  which  it  is  hoped 
would  be  undertaken  by  the  Admiralty)  this  should  lie  between 
£200,000  and  £300,000,  with  a  bias  toward  the  higher  figure. 
It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  expenditure  would  be  spread  over 
a  number  of  years. 

Publication  of  Results 

In  this  connection  suitable  arrangements  for  the  adequate 
publication  of  the  results  of  the  expedition  must  be  borne  in  mind. 
The  working  out  and  publication  of  the  results  of  the  "  Challenger  " 
expedition  are  stated  to  have  cost  about  as  much  as  the  expedi- 
tion itself,  and  a  similar  expenditure  may  be  anticipated  in  the 
present  case. 

Preservation  of  Specimens 

The  natural  repository  of  type  specimens  collected  during  the 
expedition  would  be  the  British  Museum  (Natural  History 
Department),  while  duplicate  specimens  should  be  offered  to 
museums,  universities,  etc.,  in  various  parts  of  the  Empire. 

SCHEDULE 

Subjects  for  Investigation 

To  give  some  idea  of  the  amount  and  variety  of  scientific 
work  that  might  be  undertaken  by  such  an  expedition,  the  follow- 
ing may  be  mentioned  as  some  of  the  chief  recommendations 
which  have  been  received  from  representatives  of  the  various 
Sections  of  the  British  Association  concerned  : — 

(1)  In  the  departments  of  marine  biology  and  physiology 
extensive  investigations  are  required  of  fish  and  fisheries  in 
the  interest  of  food  supplies.  These  include  a  very  wide 
range  of  inquiry,  which  may  be  summarized  thus  :  the 
effects  of  temperature  and  other  conditions  on  the  distribu- 
tion and  life  of  organisms  ;  the  distribution  of  the  plankton 
(which  includes  organisms  of  first-rate  importance  as  food  for 
fishes  which  supply  food  for  man)  ;  ocean  currents  in  relation 
to  fisheries  (just  enough  is  known  as  to  the  influence  of  varia- 
tions in  the  great  oceanic  currents  upon  the  movements  and 
abundance  of  migi'atory  fishes  to  make  evident  the  need  for 
further  and  more  complete  investigation  of  the  subject) ; 


APPENDIX  335 

the  physiology  of  deep-sea  and  other  oceanic  animals  ;  the 
investigation  of  marine  algae,  both  coastal  and  planktonic  ; 
marine  bacteria ;  bio-chemical  investigation  of  the  meta- 
bohsm  of  the  sea  (this  is  perhaps  the  department  of  ocean- 
ography which  deals  with  the  most  fundamental  problems 
and  which  is  most  in  need  of  immediate  investigation) ;  the 
question  of  the  abundance  of  tropical  plankton  as  compared 
with  that  of  temperate  and  polar  seas,  the  distribution  and 
action  of  denitrifying  bacteria,  the  variations  of  the  plankton 
in  relation  to  environmental  conditions,  the  factors  which 
determine  uniformity  of  conditions  over  a  large  sea-area 
from  the  point  of  view  of  plankton  distribution,  the  supply 
of  the  necessary  minimal  substances  such  as  nitrogen,  silica, 
and  phosphorus  to  the  living  organisms,  and  the  determina- 
tion of  the  rate  of  production  and  rate  of  destruction 
of  all  organic  substances  in  the  sea — these  are  some  of  the 
fundamental  problems  of  the  metabolism  of  the  ocean  ; 
all  of  them  require  investigation,  and  bear,  directly  or 
indirectly,  upon  the  harvest  of  the  sea  for  man's  use,  just 
as  agricultural  researches  bear  upon  the  harvest  of  the 
land. 

(2)  In  the  appropriate  departments  of  chemistry  observa- 
tions are  required  on  the  temperatiu'e,  salinity,  and  chemistry 
of  sea-water,  the  hydrogen-ion  concentration,  and  the 
source  and  distribution  of  nitrogen  in  the  sea. 

(3)  In  the  department  of  physics  there  is  need  for  investi- 
gation of  meteorological  problems,  the  distribution  of 
oceanic  temperature,  atmospheric  electricity,  long-distance 
transmission  of  electro -magnetic  waves,  and  other  problems 
of  wireless  telegraphy  at  sea.  The  study  of  the  variation 
in  the  force  of  gravity  over  the  great  ocean  basins  is  also 
suggested,  and  bears  upon  the  problem  of  the  figure  of  the 
earth,  and  the  density  of  materials  of  which  it  is  composed. 
It  may  be  stated  here  that  such  an  investigation  might  need 
to  be  carried  out  on  a  larger  and  steadier  ship  than  that  which 
would  most  probably  be  detailed  for  the  expedition.  On 
the  other  hand,  there  is  no  reason  why  the  whole  of  the 
investigations  associated  with  the  expedition  should  be  con- 
fined to  a  single  vessel,  for  the  opportunity  might  be  made 
for  collateral  investigations  on  other  vessels  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  navigation.  Similarly,  the  investigation  of  the 
phenomena  of  tides,  one  of  the  most  urgent  on  the  physical 


336  APPENDIX 

side,  could  most  profitably  be  begun  in  shallow  seas,  and  not 
on  the  vessel  carrying  the  main  expedition  over  the  deep 
oceans. 

(4)  In  the  departments  of  geology  and  geography  there 
are  indicated  as  subjects  for  study  both  shallow  and  deep 
water  deposits,  and  the  various  methods  of  deposition  ; 
sediments  on  the  sea-bottom  in  relation  to  the  movement 
(rising  or  sinking)  of  adjacent  land  areas  (a  matter  which 
in  turn  bears  upon  the  encroachments  of  the  sea  upon  the 
land,  or  the  reverse) ;  borings  on  the  floor  of  the  sea  for  the 
extension  of  knowledge  of  the  rocks  composing  the  crust  of 
the  earth  ;  the  physical  conditions  of  oceanic  islands  ;  the 
growth  and  other  problems  of  coral  reefs  and  islands. 

(5)  In  the  department  of  anthropology  it  is  pointed  out 
that  the  opportunity  for  landing  parties  on  oceanic  islands 
(especially  in  the  Pacific)  would  give  occasion  for  obser- 
vations on  the  ethnography,  habits,  and  life  of  native 
populations  ;  any  medical  officer  attached  to  such  parties 
would  find  matter  for  study  in  the  physical  characters  and 
diseases  of  natives. 

It  is  not  suggested  that  the  foregoing  summary  by  any  means 
covers  a  complete  list  of  the  problems  of  the  ocean  requiring 
investigation,  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  that  these  need  aU  be 
undertaken  by  one  expedition  ;  but  they  are  sufficient  to  show 
that  there  is  still  much  to  be  found  out  in  all  branches  of  oceano- 
graphy, and  that  a  further  scientific  exploration  of  the  oceans 
will  add  to  knowledge  in  many  branches  of  science,  and  should 
also  aid  in  the  advancement  of  various  industries  based  upon 
marine  products  of  economic  importance. 

It  may  be  desirable  to  refer  to  the  relations  between  the  work 
of  such  an  expedition  as  is  here  proposed — work  which,  while 
temporary  in  character,  would  be  world-wide  in  scope — and  that 
carried  on  under  the  International  Council  for  the  Study  of  the 
Sea  in  the  North  Atlantic  and  adjoining  European  seas.  This 
latter  work,  while  restricted  in  scope,  is  permanent,  and  the 
proposed  oceanographic  expedition  covers  a  wider  range  in 
science,  and  would  offer  an  unsurpassable  opportunity  of 
qualifying  investigators  to  take  part  in  future  oceanographical 
and  fisheries  research  under  a  permanent  organization. 


INDEX 


JEgean  Sea,  Forbes  on,  23 
Agassiz,  Alexander,  107-118 

at  Colombo,  115 

coral  reefs,  114 

Cruises  of  the '' Blake,''   111 

expeditions,  117 

—  Louis,  99-107 

—  trawl,  108 
Alkalinity,  165,  277 
Allen,  Dr.  E.  J.,  254 
Amphipoda,  213 
Analysis  of  fish  foods,  325 
Antedon  rosaceus,  40 
Aquarium,  Naples,  141 
Aquiculture,  279 
Arcachon,  280 

Arctic  plankton,  258 
"  Ark,"  at  Granton,  85 
"Atlantic  Drift,"  177 
"Atlantis,"  Plato's,  3 
Atolls,  201 
Azoic  zone,  24,  37 

Bacillus  calcis,  185 

Bacteria,  213,  228,  259 

Ballaugh  bank,  21 

Barriers,  150 

"  Bathybius,"  61-68 

"  Beacon  "  expedition,  22 

Benthos,  194,  231 

Biddulphia,  235,  256 

Biological  Stations,  134 

Black  Sea,  157 

Boreal  "  outliers,"  28 

Bouchot  mussel  culture,  289 

Brandt,  Prof.,  259 

British   Association,    91,  328,  331— 

336 
Buchanan,    Mr.    J.    Y.,    121,    124, 

328 


Calanus  finmarchicus,  236,  258,  270, 

306 
Carbon-dioxide,  166,  266,  320 
Caribbean  Sea,  111 
Carpenter,  Dr.  W.  B.,  41,  313 
Celtic  province,  268 
Ceratium  tripos,  214 
ChcBteceras,  234 
Chcetopterus,  219 
Chalk,  196 

"  Challenger  "    expedition,    8,    45, 
56-68,  328,  332 

—  medal,  90 

—  office,  75,  85 

—  reports,  62,  79 
Challengerida,  163 
Christmas  Island,  73 
Cleve,  P.  T.,  244 
Cliona,  283 

Clione  limacina,  152 
Coccolithophorida,  188,  234,  269 
Cod  fisheries,  295 
Colour  of  the  sea,  162 
Columbus,  6 
Continental  shelf,  147 

—  slope,  147 
Continents,  197,  199 
Conway  experiments,  291 
Cook,  Captain  James,  7 
Copepoda,  220,  236,  248,  313,  318 
Coral  muds,  185 

—  reefs,  77,  201-211 
'  Coscinodiscus,  235 

Coste,  M.  P.,  283 
Currents,  171,  172,  259 
Cuttle-fishes,  121,  222 
Cypridina,  219 
Cypris  of  Balanus,  267 


Dahlgren,  Ulric,  219 


337 


338 


INDEX 


Daly,  R.  A.,  209 

Dana,  J.  D.,  203 

Darwin,  Charles,  203 

"  Deeps,"  146 

Demerson,  317 

Density,  158 

Depths  of  the  Sea,  41-44 

Diatom  ooze,  192 

Diatoms,  234,  248,  313 

Diazona  violacea,  20 

Dinoflagellata,  235,  248 

Discoveries,  dates  of,  7 

Dohrn,  Dr.  Anton,  135,  143 

Doliolum,  245 

Dredge,  9,  17 

Dredging  on  "Challenger,"  48 

Drew,  G.  H.,  185 

Dubois,  Prof.  R.,  219,  221,  227 

Eel,  migrations  of,  307 
Eggs  of  sea-fish,  299,  303 
Espevig,  oyster  ponds,  286 
Experimental  error,  250 

Factors  in  irregularity  of  plankton, 

258 
Faroe  Channel,  54,  83 
Fauna  and  flora,  British,  26 
Fish,  total  in  North  Sea,  238 
Fisheries  statistics,  294 
Fishery  Board  for  Scotland,  300 
Fishes,  luminous,  225 
Florida  reefs,  104,  113 
"  Food-chains  "  in  sea,  325 
Food  migrations,  307 
Forbes,  Edward,  9,  12-36 
Fowler,  Dr.  H.,  244 
Funafuti  expedition,  78,  207 
Funiculina  quadrangular  is,  207 

Gases  in  sea,  156 

Giard,  Prof.  A.,  213 

"  Glacial-control  "  theory,  209 

Globigerina  bulloides,  189,  190 

Globigerina  ooze,  189,  195 

Goodsir,  Prof.  John,  15 

Gran,  Prof.  H.  H.,  241 

Granton  Biological  Station,  86 

Gray -fish,  310 

Gulf  Stream,  172-178 

Guppy,  Dr.  H.  B.,  206 


Harvey,  E.  Newton,  219,  227 
Hatching  sea-fish,  298,  300 
Heincke,  Prof.,  322 
Hensen,  Prof.  V.,  231 
Herring,  296 

Hjort,  Dr.  Johan,  84,  94,  273 
Holoplankton,  232 
Homoiozoic  belts,  29,  35 
Hydrography,  145-169 

"  Implosion,"  160 

Institut  Oceanographique,  132 

Irish  Sea,  269 

Islands,  201 

Isotherms,  149 

Johnstone,  Prof.  J.,  291,  296,  324 

Kiel  planktologists,  232,  239,  253, 

255 
"  Knight-Errant  "  expedition,  55 
Kofoid,  Prof.  C.  A.,  118,  255 

Labrador  current,  176 

Lebour,  Dr.  Marie,  256,  271 

Light,  penetration  of,  162 

"  Lightning  "  expedition,  42 

Limfjord,  274 

Lo  Bianco,  Dr.  S.,  141 

Loch  Fyne,  300 

Luciferine    and      Luciferase,     221, 

227 
Luidia  fragilissima,  20 
Luminescence  in  the  sea,  212-230 

Mac  Andrew,  Robert,  19 
Magellan,  6 

Maury,  Captain  M.  F.,  173,  174 
Mayer,  Dr.  A.  G.,  115,  208 
"  Medusa,"  cruises  of,  86,  88 
Medusae,  215 
Meganyctiphanes,  221 
Meroplankton,  232 
Mesodinium  pulex,  243 
Mesoplankton,  108,  231 
Metabolism  of  the  ocean,  327 
—  rate  of,  260 

"  Michael  Sars  "  expedition,  94 
Migrations  of  fish,  304 
Millport  Biological  Station,  89 
MoUusca,  221 


INDEX 


339 


Monaco,  Prince  of,  119-133 

drift-floats,  126 

whaling,  122 

—  Museum,  128 

—  Publications,  120 

Moore,  Prof.  B.,  166,  276,  317,  320 

Morecambe  Bay,  290 

Moseley,  Prof.  H.  N.,  47 

Mud-line,  305 

Miiller,  O.  F.,  9 

Murray,  Sir  John,  10,  69-98,  183 

bipolarity,  82 

coral  reefs,  205 

Depths  of  the  Ocean,  95 

fresh-water  lochs,  87,  153 

letters  from,  80,  91 

The  Ocean,  81,  96 

Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology, 

103,  105,  110 
Mussel  culture,  288-292 

Nannoplankton,  242,  252 

"  Nansen  "  net,  233,  247 

Naples  Zoological  Station,  135 

Naturalists  on  exploring  ships,  8 

Nauplius  of  Balanus,  257 

Nekton,  231 

Neritic  deposits,  182,  184,  186,  195 

—  plankton,  231,  236,  269 
Newfoimdland  banks,  151,  174 
Newport  laboratory,  109 
Nitrogen,  320,  321 
Noctiluca  scintillans,  214,  235 

Ocean  basins,  197 
Oceanic  plankton,  231,  236,  269 
Oceanographers,  early,  2 
Oceanographic  Museum,  128 

—  research,  34 
Oceanography,  divisions  of,  1 

—  foundations  of,  1 
Oceans,  depths,  145,  146 

—  size  of,  145 

Off-shore    wind    and    temperature, 

154 
Oikopleura       ("  Appendicularia  "), 

237,  253 
Oozes,  deep-sea,  75 
Ophiacantha  spinulosa,  218 
Otoliths  and  age  of  fishes,  307 
Oyster-culture,  280-288 


Pelagia  noctiluca,  216 
Pelagic  deposits,  182,  187 
Penikese    Biological    Station,    106, 

109 
Pennatula  phosphorea,  216 
Peridinium,  243 
Petersen,  Dr.  C.  G.  Joh.,  274,  322, 

323 
Pettersson,  Dr.  Otto,  177,  305 
Pholas,  221 
Phosphorescence,  212 
Photic  zone,  162 
Photobacteria,  213 
Photospheres,  221 
Photosynthesis,  278 
Phytoplankton,  236,  263,  273 
Plaice  larva,  274 
Plankton,  164,  231-278 
—  expedition,  232,  243 
Planktonic  cycle,  264 
Pleurobrachia  pileus,  216 
Pliny,  4 

Polycystina  earth,  196 
'*  Porcupine  "  expedition,  42 
Port  Erin  Biological   Station,    36, 

302 
Portugal,  Prince  Henry  of,  5 
Pressure  and  depth,  159 
Prince,  Prof.  E.,  316 
"  Princesse  Alice  "  expeditions,  120 
Protophyta,  214 
Protozoa,  214 
Pseudomonas  calcis,  186 
Pteropod  ooze,  188 
Ptolemy,  5 

Purbeck  beds,  Forbes  on,  25 
Putter,  Prof.  A.,  275,  314 
Pyrocystis,  214 
Pyrosoma,  224 
Pytheas,  3 

Radiolaria,  196,  215 
Radiolarian  ooze,  192,  196 
iled  clay,  191 
Renard,  Prof.  (Abbd),  73 
Rhizosolenia,  235 

Sagitta,  236,  245,  250 
Salinity,  154,  168 
Salts  in  sea- water,  155 
Sargasso  Sea,  151,  157,  245 


340 


INDEX 


Sars,  G.  O.,  41,  303 

Sea-fisheries,  293-311 

Seiches,  171 

Sounding,  147 

Sperm-whales,  121 

Spezia,  bay  of,  286 

Sprat  fishery,  308 

Subjects  for  investigation,  334 

Submarine  deposits,  182-200 

Suess,  Prof.,  199 

Sunlight,  169,  266 

Syntethys  hebridica,  20 

Temora  longicornis,  269,  270 
Temperatures  of  the  sea,  148,  168 
Terrigenous  deposits,  182,  184 
Thaumatolampas,  223 
Thomson,  Sir  Wyville,  10,  87-56 

Depths  of  the  Sea,  41-44 

The  Atlantic,  61-54 

Tides,  167,  170 
Tile-fish,  178-181,  309 
Townsend,  Dr.  C.  H.,  181 
Transplanted  mussels,  290 
—  plaice,  302 


Trichodesmium,  234,  242 

•'  Triton  "  expedition,  65,  84 

Tropical  plankton,  258 

Ultimate  food  in  Sea,  312 

United  States  Coast  Survey,   103, 

107,  108 
Fisheries  Bureau,  181,  300, 

309 

Valuation  of  the  sea,  321,  326 
VerrUl,  Prof.,  180 
Vertical  currents,  260,  272 
—  hauls,  242,  246,  256 
Viscosity,  164 

Waves,  170 

Wegener's  hypothesis,  199 
Wind  on  lochs,  153 
Wyville-Thomson  Bidge,  83,  151 

Zoea  of  crab,  240 
Zoo -geologist,  Forbes  as  a,  25 
Zoo-plankton,  263 
Zostera  beds,  323 


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