PREFACE.
At the close of the Deep-sea Dredging Expeditions which had been undertaken by the Admiralty at the instance of the Council of the Royal Society during the years 1868, 1869, and 1870, it was thought right that those who had been entrusted with their scientific direction should, in addition to their official reports, lay before the general public some account of their proceedings with the objects;—first, of showing, if possible, that the value of the additions which had been made to human knowledge justified the liberality of Government in acceding to the request of the Council of the Royal Society, and placing means at their disposal to carry out the desired researches; and, secondly, of giving such a popular outline of the remarkable results of our work as might stimulate general interest, and induce those who have the proclivities and the opportunity, to penetrate farther into the new and strange region on whose borders we have had the good fortune to have been among the first to encroach.
