ABSTRACT

EARLY in the summer of 1871, in a lecture given at the Royal Institution, W. B. Carpenter called on Her Majesty's Government not to allow Britain's present lead in marine science to go by default.1 News had come from the United States of a projected cruise in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to be led jointly by Jean Louis Agassiz (1807-1873) and Count Pourtales.2 The Germans were planning an expedition in the Atlantic and Sweden had sent two ships to the Arctic. Nature commented that if an opportunity were not found for following up the discoveries already made it would be a blow to national prestige and unfair to the scientists whose efforts had given the country its commanding position.3