ABSTRACT
THE unanimity felt by scientists in their approval of the voyage of the Challenger did not long outlast her return. Warned by the fate of scientific collections made on previous voyages, Sir James Clark Ross's to name only one, Wyville Thomson had stipulated before the Challenger set sail that the material which they collected should become government property and that funds should be provided on their return for the publication of the results. He also secured an understanding that this should be done under his personal direction. During the voyage he formulated the details of the arrangement in a letter to the Admiralty. When the Challenger returned he was to take charge of work on the material they had collected and edit the report with a five-year grant from the Treasury to cover the cost of staff and expenses. The scientific staff of the expedition should be retained until March 1877 to help with sorting the collections of marine fauna but after that he would carry on with Murray and Frederick Pearcey, his assistant during the voyage, and a secretary. The work was to be done in Edinburgh but ultimately the specimens would be sent to the British Museum.1' 2
The British Museum hotly contested this arrangement when it became known and attempted to get hold of the entire collection on the expedition's return. Wyville Thomson managed to frustrate their design, with some influential aid, notably from Hooker, now President of the Royal Society, and Huxley, who as Secretary was responsible for much of the background work both before and after the voyage, and the original terms of the arrangement were preserved.3 The terrestrial items went to the British Museum but the marine collections stayed in Edinburgh, where they had been sent at intervals during the voyage. The Challenger Commission was set up to administer them with Wyville Thomson as Director. The Treasury made a grant of ^25,000 to cover the salaries of the per-
manent staff and the expenses of scientists working on the collections. The reports were to be published by the Stationery Office.
