With the exception of that great Scottish navigator and explorer Sir James Clark Ross, who led the way to deep-sea exploration with efforts which Sir Joseph Hooker has described as almost incredible, and who was the first and only one for many a year to bring back examples of deep-sea animals from the Antarctic Regions, Polar explorers until quite recent years have not considered it an important part of their programme to investigate the physics and biology of Antarctic seas.
The Challenger, which was not an ice-protected ship, and which did not include Antarctic exploration as part of its programme, did, nevertheless, in 1874, cross the Antarctic Circle, and made one trawling in 1675 fathoms only slightly north of the Circle, and made other deep-sea investigations in relatively high latitudes. The Valdivia also carried out valuable oceanographical researches in similar latitudes a little further west than the Challenger. But of recent Antarctic expeditions the Belgica, Scotia, Gauss, Français, and Pourquoi-pas? are the only ones that have made oceanographical research a special aim. The Scotia, besides being strongly fortified to battle with ice, was better equipped as an oceanographical ship than any Antarctic ship has ever been, and was thus able to carry out most important investigations in very deep water in high latitudes.
