The fauna of the deep sea

by Sydney J. Hickson

In the following years, 1868 and 1869, the expeditions were more successful, and many important new forms were found in water down to 500 fathoms. Perhaps the most interesting result obtained was the discovery of Bourguetticrinus of D’Orbigny; it may even be the species named by him which occurs fossil in a recent formation in Guadeloupe.

By this time the interest of scientific men was thoroughly excited over the many problems connected with this new field of work. The prospect of obtaining a large number of new and extremely curious animals, the faint hope that living Trilobites, Cystids, and other extinct forms might be discovered, and lastly the desire to handle and investigate great masses of pure protoplasm in the form of the famous but unfortunately non-existent Bathybius, induced some men of wealth and leisure to spend their time in deep-sea dredging, and stimulated the governments of some civilised countries to lend their aid in the support of expeditions for the deep-sea survey.

Mr. Marshall Hall’s yacht, the ‘Norma,’ was employed for some time in this work, and an extensive collection of deep-sea animals was made. About the same time Professor L. Agassiz was busy on board the American ship, the ‘Hassler,’ in continuing the work of Count Pourtales, and later on the Germans fitted out the ‘Gazelle,’ and the French the still more famous ‘Travailleur’ and ‘Talisman’ expeditions. Nor must we omit to mention in this connection the cruise of the Italian vessel, the ‘Vittor Pessani,’ nor those of the British surveying vessels, the ‘Knight Errant’ and the ‘Triton,’ and the American vessels, ‘The Blake’ and the ‘Fish Hawk.’

But of all these expeditions, by far the most complete in all the details of equipment, and the arrangements made for the publication of the results, was the expedition fitted out in 1873 by the British Government. The voyage of H.M.S. ‘Challenger’ is so familiar to all who take an interest in the progress of scientific discovery, that it is not necessary to do more than make a passing mention of it in this place. The excellent books that were written by Wyville Thomson, by Moseley, and by other members of the staff, have made the general reader familiar with the narrative of that remarkable cruise and the most striking of the many scientific discoveries that were made; while the numerous large monographs that have been published during the past fourteen years give opportunities to the naturalist of obtaining all the requisite information concerning the detailed results of the expedition.

The expenditure of the large sum of money upon this expedition and the publication of its reports has been abundantly justified. The information obtained by the ‘Challenger’ will be for many years to come the nucleus of our knowledge of the deep-sea fauna, the centre around which all new facts will cluster, and the guide for further investigations.

To say that the ‘Challenger’ accomplished all that was expected or required would be to over-estimate the value of this great expedition, but nevertheless it is difficult for us, even now, thoroughly to grasp the importance of the results obtained or to analyse and classify the numerous and very remarkable facts that were gained during her four years’ cruise.

It is, of course, impossible, in a few lines, to give a summary of the more important of the Natural History results of the ‘Challenger’ expedition. Besides proving the existence of a fauna in the sea at all depths and in all regions, the expedition further proved that the abysmal fauna, taken as a whole, does not possess characters similar to those of the fauna of any of the secondary or even tertiary rocks. A few forms, it is true, known to us up to that time only as fossils, were found to be still living in the great depths, but a large majority of the animals of these regions were found to be new and specially modified forms of the families and genera inhabiting shallow waters of modern times. No Trilobites, no Blastoids, no Cystoids, no new Ganoids, and scarcely any deep-sea Elasmobranchs were brought to light, but the fauna was found to consist mainly of Teleosteans, Crustacea, Cœlentera, and other creatures unlike anything known to have existed in Palæozoic times, specially modified in structure for their life in the great depths of the ocean.

In 1876 the S.S. ‘Vöringin’ was chartered by the Norwegian Government and was dispatched to investigate the tract of ocean lying between Norway, the Faeroe islands, Jan Mayen, and Spitzbergen. The investigations extended over three years, the vessel returning to Bergen in the winter months.

The civilian staff of the ‘Vöringin’ included Professors H. Mohn, Danielssen, and G. O. Sars, and the expedition was successful in obtaining a large number of animals from deep water by means of the dredge and tangles and by the trawl.

The results of this expedition have been published in a series of large quarto volumes under the general title of the Norske Nord-havns Expedition.