Excerpt from The Year-Book of Facts in Science and Art, 1873: Exhibiting the Most Important Discoveries and Improvements of the Past Year in Mechanics and the Useful Arts; Natural Philosophy; Electricity; Chemistry; Zoology and Botany; Geology and Mineralogy; Meteorology and Astronomy It has been known for some time past that her Majesty's Government, following the example of Germany, the United States, and Austria, had consented to send out a scientific expedi tion to circumnavigate the globe. The scheme which has been adopted, and for the execution of which h.m.s. Challenger put to sea in November, is that of Dr. Carpenter, who laid it before Mr. Goschen, First Lord of the Admiralty, in June, 1871. He obtained for it a favourable response, which was communicated to the British Association at its meeting in Edin burgh; after which a formal application was made by the Royal Society. Its principal object is the extension to the three great oceanic basins of the earth - namely, the Atlantic, the Indian and Southern Ocean, and the Pacific - of those physical and biological explorations which Dr. Carpenter and Professor Wyville Thomson have commenced in the parts of the North Atlantic nearest Europe, and in a portion of the Mediterranean. It is desired, in the first place, to ascertain the physical con ditions of the deep in those great oceans; the movement, the temperature, and the composition of their waters, as well as to sound their depth in the second place, to learn all that can be discovered of the living animals they may contain; what they are and how they live; where they are located, by what laws their distribution is regulated; and what relation they bear to the fossil fauna of remote geological history. This magnificent task will require the services of the expedition during three or four years. It will reflect much honour upon the British Navy, and save the reputation of our country with intelligent foreigners, who may justly expect that the nation which has ships on every sea, and colonies in every clime, should spend a trifle from its enormous wealth for the advancement of science. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.