The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-03-21

- the cargoes that tt z ships of the
.,. brought into port in all the
.tat ships have sailed, without
|. .ba strangest and most wonderful
largo OF the famous ship Chal-
In the year 1872 the Challenger
from. Sheerness in England without
20 and without destination. She
i nan-o'-war, square-rigged three
tor commanded by officers of the |
go, Navy. and having on board some !
Tho most eminent scientists of Great !
4 lain For nearly four years she sailed |
.aas II both hemispheres, from the
.c TO the Antarctic, infrequently
Thing land and yet constantly accu-
.,ting her strange cargo. She drag
=, the ocean with nets, not only for the
.isnarv fish Of the sea, but for the
u.rad forms of lesser life which feed
/, rs vast blue meadows; she let down
...5pss and sounding plummets into the
~, mysterious valleys of the sea bot
800. she explored all but limitless plains,
,.ssrt with black darkness, and cold,
md UtNtT-DLOhtl SIIClISC. III olhSlC
s-,dgings she brought up for the eyes of
man quantities of primeval ooze that
had required the slow accommodations Of
million centuries, perhaps, to deposit;
=. discovered submarine rivers, some Of
sem flowing outward from the land and
rising like a fountain from the ocean
o,tom; she learned of new and mighty
ssan currents, not the surface currents
Known 10 navigators, but those which
creep along the sea bottom, foot in
century, perhaps, carrying life-giving OK
yen to the creatures of the deep sea;
,be located stupendous mountain ranges
and volcanoes, with precipices and de-
fIfvities so awful that it is WELL perhaps,
mat they are hidden forever from the
eve of man. And as evidence of the al
nost inconceivable strangeness of the
bottom of the sea, she brought back
some of its denizens, both vegetable and
anmal-the appropriate creatures of cold
and darkness and the crowding presence
Of the seas--old, pulpy, warty fishes, some
blind some with eyes greatly developed,
some that peer their way about these
depths with lanterns, and a thousand
other forms of life equally strange. And
Of the thousands of specimens collected
lev had ever before been seen by the
eye of man.
1t is not often that a ship sails away
for a brief four years and brings back a
new science; but that was the accom-
plshment of the Challenger, and the SCI
ence thus founded is now known as
0ceanography. Not quite four years was
expended in exploration and observation;
but it required nearly five times as long
to place the results in orderly and COM
prehensive form before the world. 1t
was not until 1895 that the final volume
Of the great report of the expedition,
which might well have been called the
Book of Oceanography,' was published.
This report is not only one of the very
greatest of existing works of science, but
in mere material mass it is quite the big
gest book ever produced. 1t is published
in fifty royal octave volumes containing
1850 pages, 5000 plates, and a large num-
Der of maps and pictures. This stupen-
i0Us work, which will always remain
one OF the greatest monuments to Eng
Ish science, was under the direction, dur
ng the first few years after the return
q the Challenger of Sir Wyviile Thomp-
son, and, after his death, of Sir John
Murray. Eminent scientists in all parts
Of the world had part in making the
repOrts-Haeckel of Germany Agassiz OF
the United States, Renard of Belgium
and others equally celebrated. Since the
time of the Challenger there have beer
other deep-sea exploring expeditions, no.
tably those of Agassiz, and Of Chun OF
Germany, the report of whose voyage III
the Valdivia is just now. being publish
ed. All these explorations may be sale
10 have laid bare the floor of the sea
so that it is better known and more
carefully charted in many places thar
certain regions of the land. And yet thu
deep sea will ever be the home of mys
tery-an inexhaustible field for discovery
place where the human imagination
may run riot, and yet never reach tn,
limit of wonder.
For many years Sir John Murray, tn
director OF the Challenger work, has beel
the foremost authority in all question
pertaining to the new science. All tn
dredgings made by scientists the worl'
over, including those taken by the cabl
companies while making surveys of pro
posed cable routes, find their way, soon
or or later into his hands and are ex
amined at his laboratory. Tt was m
pleasure to spend some time recentt
with Sir John Murray at his home !
scotland. and to hear from him some &C
count Of the recent developments in tn
| knowledge Of the deep sea. During m
stay in Edinburgh Sir John Murray wa