ARRIVAL OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1763, 30 March 1874, Page 2

ARRIVAL OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER.

[Melbourne argcjs.] H.M.S.S. Challenger which has arrived in port is the same vessel which did duty on the Australian station some years ago • as.the commodore's flagship. Since leaving these waters she has been re-commis-sioned, and her cruise on the present occasion is of an entirely peaceful character. Her Armstrongs and rifled shunts and other implements of war have disap- ' ,'peared, and are replaced by a formidable array of instruments devoted entirely to the furtherance of science, while i all round tho ship , there are apartments fitted up for naturalists, chemists, photographists, and others of whom the rjavy . list makes no mention. The Challenger, it will be recollected, is in command of 1 : Captain G. S. Nares, left England on a voyage of scientific discovery and for deep sea exploration purposes in 1872. (She ; was fitted out with all the best means land Appliances for the accomplishment of these, and the direction of the scientific portion of the expedition was entrusted to Profeiwor W. Thompson, who has associated with him Mr J. Wild as artist and secretary 5 Messrs H. N. Moseley, John Murray, and Dr R. Von W. Suhm, naturalists ; and Mr John Young Buchanan, as chemist and physicist. These gentlemen were selected for the expedition from their attainments in the departments .Assigned, them, and so far as the expedition has progressed, they appear to have been indefatigible and painstaking in their research. During the time she has

■ jbeen, afloat on this cruise, the Challenger has thrice crossed the Atlantic, and has ' • touched at numerous places to make observations. She left Bahia for the Cape of Good Hope on September 25, 1873, and arrived, en October 28, remaining there „...; until. December 17» when she-sailed for . Kerguelen Island, where three weeks were occupied in a careful examination of the island for the purpose of selecting a suitable «ta for an observatory station for v the Transit of Venus. expedition. It was '"' ' during thi«« period that the Challenger left A box at Christmas Harbor/ intended, for the membeis of the astronomical expedition, and which box was seeu there by the German frigate Arcona, which ar- . rived here- bn Sunday. The various creeks and harbors round the island were surveyed, and. an elaborate chart of the/ position of the island rand its , surroundings is now being prepared on :! board the Challenger. Nearly the whole of the names of the ship's company have , .been used in naming the ; various poin ts, bays, creeks, eminences^ &c, of the island. This chart will be a valuable , acquisition to navigators. The island is \covered with' a species of vegetation (sailed Kergnelen cabbage, and this plant js .eaten by the wild ducks, which abound tfier'e in thousands, and are said to be re-

tnarkaMy good eating. Specimens of the ~.~— plant-ftro-ofl board, and will be left here v; fpr the inspectioflL #f Baron von Mueller. The Challenger also went to. Heard or JMacDonald;. Island, and crossed the ,antarctic circle on February 16. Search waft '• also ' niafle for ! Wilkes' Termination jLand, but without success, for when

within 15 miles of its assigned position the ship's progress was stopped by packice, and Captain Nnres then shaped a course for Port Phillip. The instruments and appliances on board used in prosecuting the various researches and recording them would form quite an inventory, and the specimens of animate and inanimate nature fished up from the dark but not unfathomed caves of ocean would atock a museum. Trawling was carried on, and fish got at a depth of 3875 fathoms. A general peculiarity of the fish found at great depths was that they were black, and their eyes projecting or starting out of their head. Seen through the microscope, some of the specimens of the marine animalculw brought up on the sounding line are wonderously quaint and beautiful. The Admiralty worm, named from the well defined representations of anchors on its skin, is one of these. The Manilla glass-rope sponge has also a singular appearance when viewed through the magnifying leiis. On board there is also a large and very fine collection of photographs of all the places and objects of interest which have been come across during the cruise. The Challenger will remain here until Saturday, the 28th inst, and will then proceed to Sydney, between which port and New Zealand she will strike a line for scientific observation. Several of the officers on board have been on the Australian station in one or other of Her Majesty's vessels. Captain Nares was here so far back as 1852, in the Havana. One of the lieutenants on board, Lord George Campbell, is a son of the Duke of Argyle.