In presenting to the National Geographic Society this first annual
summary of work accomplished in the domain of the Geography of the Sea,
I find it impossible satisfactorily to limit the range of subjects that
may be assigned to it. The great ocean is so large a factor in the
operations of Nature, that the attempt to describe one of its features
speedily involves the consideration of others lying more or less in
that shadowy region which may be claimed with equal force by other
sections of the Society. It is to be understood, therefore, that the
following account merely touches upon several of the characteristics of
the oceanic waters, and is not in any sense an attempt to treat them
all.
This being the first report to the Society it has been thought
advisable to give a brief outline of the progress made in our knowledge
of the sea since 1749, when Ellis reported depths of 650 and 891
fathoms off the north-west coast of Africa. Even at that time an
apparatus was employed to lift water from different depths in order to
ascertain its temperature. It does not appear that this achievement
gave impetus to further efforts in this direction, for, except some
comparatively small depths and a few temperatures recorded by Cook and
Forster in their voyage around the world in 1772-75, and in 1773 by
Phipps in the Arctic, at the close of the last century there was but
little known of the physical conditions of the sea.
At the beginning of the present century, however, more activity was
shown by several governments, and expeditions sent out by France,
England and Russia, in various directions, began to lay the foundation
of the science of Oceanography.
Exploration of little known regions was the main purpose of most of
these expeditions, but attention was paid also to the observation and
investigation of oceanic conditions, so that accounts of soundings,
temperatures of sea water at various depths, its salinity and specific
gravity, the drift of currents, etc., form part of their records.
The first to give us a glimpse of the character of the bottom at great
depths was Sir John Ross, the famous Arctic explorer. While sounding in
Ponds Inlet, Baffin Bay, in 1819, by means of an ingeniously
constructed contrivance called a deep sea clam, he succeeded in
detaching and bringing up portions of the bottom from depths as great
as 1,000 fathoms. The fact that this mud contained living organisms was
the first proof of life at depths where it was thought impossible for
it to exist. The truth of this discovery, however, was not generally
accepted, many eminent men of science on both sides of the Atlantic
contending for and against it, and the question was not finally settled
until long afterward, in 1860, when, by the raising of a broken
telegraph cable in the Mediterranean, unimpeachable evidence of the
existence of life at the greatest depths in that sea was obtained. The
science, however, remained in its infancy until about 1850, when Maury
originated his system of collecting observations from all parts of the
globe, and by his indomitable energy aroused the interest of the whole
civilized world in the investigation of the physical phenomena of the
sea.
Through Maury's efforts the United States Government issued an
invitation for a maritime conference, which was held in Brussels in
1853 and attended by representatives of the governments of Belgium,
Denmark, France, Great Britain, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia,
Sweden and the United States. The main object of the conference, to
devise a uniform system of meteorological observations and records, was
accomplished. According to the agreement, ships' logs were to have
columns for recording observations of the following subjects: latitude,
longitude, magnetic variation, direction and velocity of currents,
direction and force of wind, serenity of the sky, fog, rain, snow and
hail, state of the sea, specific gravity and temperature of the water
at the surface and at different depths. It was also proposed that
deep-sea soundings should be taken on all favorable occasions, and that
all other phenomena, such as hurricanes, typhoons, tornadoes,
waterspouts, whirlwinds, tide-rips, red fog, showers of dust, shooting
stars, halos, rainbows, aurora borealis, meteors, etc., should be
carefully described, and tidal observations made when practicable.
The practical results of this conference were great. The systematic and
uniform collection of data by men of all nations is going on
uninterruptedly to-day, and is furnishing the means for the solution of
many of the problems relating to the Geography of the Sea.
An epoch in the progress of this science is marked by the appearance of
Maury's Wind and Current Charts, his Physical Geography of the Sea, and
his Sailing Directions, which contain the record of the first deep
soundings taken by United States vessels; and to the United States,
through Maury's efforts, belongs the honor of having inaugurated the
first regular cruise for the purpose of sounding in great depths.
Under the instructions of Maury the U. S. brig Dolphin, commanded by
Lieutenant Lee, and subsequently by Lieutenant Berryman, was detailed
in 1851-3 to search for reported dangers in the Atlantic, and to sound
regularly at intervals of 200 miles going and returning. The Dolphin
was provided with Midshipman Brooke's sounding apparatus and with it
succeeded in obtaining specimens of the bottom from depths of 2,000
fathoms. About the same period the U. S. ships Albany, Plymouth,
Congress, John Adams, Susquehanna, St. Louis and Saranac also made
soundings in various localities, and to the U. S. S. Portsmouth, in
1853, belongs the honor of having reported the first really deep-sea
sounding obtained in the Pacific, 2,850 fathoms, in about 39° 40' N.,
and 139° 26' W.
The practicability of this work was thus fully demonstrated, and,
although some of the earlier results, through defective appliances and
lack of experience, were not entirely trustworthy, its character and
success will always be a tribute to American enterprise and ingenuity.
With the advent of the submarine telegraph the investigation of the
depth and configuration of the ocean bed became of vital importance,
and the work of sounding for that purpose was taken up with activity;
one of the first voyages in the interest of these projects was that of
the U. S. S. Arctic, under the command of Lieut. O. H. Berryman, in
1856, between St. Johns, Newfoundland, and Valentia, Ireland.
The civil war naturally put a stop to these operations by United States
ships. The U. S. schooner Fenimore Cooper was about the last engaged in
this work, sounding in 1858-59 in the Pacific to 3,400 fathoms, and
also reporting a sounding of 900 fathoms only ¾ of a mile west of
Gaspar Rico Reef, in about 14° 41' N. and 168° 56' E.
The work so well begun by the Americans was quickly taken up by other
governments, and we find from that time to the present, the records of
a large number of expeditions for diverse scientific observations in
all parts of the world. Continued improvements in the appliances and
instruments have made the results more precise than was possible in the
earlier times, and, as the data accumulate, the bathymetric charts of
the oceans are becoming more accurate. Not until this work is much
further advanced, however, shall we be able to arrive at an estimate of
the depths and weights of the oceans at all comparable to our knowledge
of the heights and weights of the various great land masses above sea
level.
Other important results of these expeditions have been the verification
of many reported elevations of the ocean bed formerly considered
doubtful, the discovery of new ones, and proof of the non-existence of
others, which had been reported as dangers to navigation.
The Geography of the Sea reached a decidedly more advanced stage by the
inception of several great scientific expeditions, of which that of the
Lightning, in 1868, to the Hebrides and Faroe Islands, under the
superintendence of Professors Carpenter and Wyville Thompson, was the
forerunner. This was followed by the three years' cruise of the
Challenger (Br.) in 1873-75, the Tuscarora (Am.) in 1874, and the
Gazelle (Ger.) in 1875, by those despatched under the authority of the
U. S. Coast Survey and of the U. S. Fish Commission, and others of
lesser importance, sent out under the auspices of European governments,
and by private individuals. All of these have contributed in an eminent
degree to the progress of the science by giving us a better
understanding of the physical and biological conditions of the sea at
all depths. Special mention must be made of the splendid work that is
being done continually by the expeditions sent out by the U. S. Fish
Commission. This branch of the United States service, originally
established for the investigation of the causes of the decrease in the
supply of useful food fishes and of the various factors entering into
that problem, in pursuance of these objects has been prosecuting a
detailed inquiry, embracing deep-sea soundings and dredging,
observation of temperatures at different depths, transparency, density
and chemical composition of sea-water, investigation of surface and
under currents, etc.; in other words, making a complete exploration of
the physical, natural and economic features of the sea, besides
collecting a large number of specimens of natural history. The
expeditions sent out by this Commission have brought to light from the
deep beds of the ocean an extraordinary variety of animal life,
previously unknown to science. Few vessels have furnished a greater
number of deep-sea soundings than the F. C. S. Albatross. This steamer
has explored fishing grounds on the east and west coasts of the
continent; and since the beginning of last year has made a cruise from
the North to the South Atlantic along the east coast of South America,
through Magellan Strait, and northward along the west coast to Panama
and the Galapagos Islands, and thence to San Francisco and Alaska; the
scenes of her latest operations have been the plateau between the
Alaskan coast and Unalaska and the banks off San Diego, California.
A large share in the progressive state of the science of the Geography
of the Sea must also be credited to the systematic collection of marine
observations by the Hydrographic Offices and other institutions all
over the world. This forms the stock from which, as I have already
indicated, must be drawn, through intelligent reduction and deduction,
a better knowledge of the intricate laws governing the various
phenomena of the sea and air.