Challenger Expedition

Challenger Expedition, a scientific exploring expedition sent out by the British Government, under the command of Captain Nares, in 1872. The results obtained by a previous expedition, equipped on a much smaller scale, of H.M.S. Porcupine, induced the Government to send out H.M.S. Cliallenger, a screw corvette, specially fitted with appliances for deep-sea dredging and other scientific purposes, and with a staff of scientific observers, on a cruise round the world. The ship was away four years; striking additions were made especially to our knowledge of the physical geography and geology of the ocean depths; and also to that of the botany and ethnography of many remote parts of the globe. A series of reports edited by Sir Wyville Thompson has been published by order of the Government, and the late Professor Moseley and others have dealt in a more popular manner with the cruise and its results.