Beschreibung:

Challenger Expedition—Sir Charles Wyville Thomson and Sir John MurrayReport on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of the H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873-76, under the command of Captain George S. Nares and Captain Frank Tourle Thomson. London, Edinburgh, etc.: HMSO for Longman & Co. [and others], 1880-95
FIRST EDITION, 41 volumes bound in 50, 4to (320 x 250 mm.), over 3,280 plates, charts and maps, mostly lithographed, some tinted and hand-coloured, some double-page and folding, PRESENTATION INSCRIPTION IN NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE VOLUME ONE, PART 2: ("Mr Morrison Watson | With Mr John Murray's comp[liment]s"), original publisher's green cloth gilt, title-page of Physics and Chemistry vol.1 with closed tear at upper margin, Zoology vols 21 and 27 with scrapes to spines, hinges cracking in some volumes, top edges dust-soiled, sold not subject to return
A FINE SET OF THE OFFICIAL ACCOUNTS OF THE MOST IMPORTANT NINETEENTH-CENTURY CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE. HMS Challenger embarked from Portsmouth on 21 December 1872 under the direction of the Scottish professor Charles Wyville Thomson and his Canadian-born assistant and naturalist John Murray This was the first time that physicists, chemists and biologists collaborated with expert navigators to map the sea. During the four-year voyage they circumnavigated the globe, travelling 69,0000 nautical miles across the Atlantic, Pacific and Antarctic oceans. They sounded the ocean bottom to a depth of 26,850 feet, discovered 715 new genera and 4,717 new species of ocean life forms, including many deep-sea specimens. Among their discoveries were many of the fish and marine creatures thought at that time to be of legend. The Challenger collection is one of the largest in London's Natural History Museum, where numerous specimens remain on display.
HMS Challenger was a three-masted square-rigged wooden corvette and the first vessel specifically equipped for general oceanographic research. All but two of her seventeen guns had been removed to make way for purpose-built scientific laboratories and workrooms. Storage space for all the trawls and dredges was also necessary, together with space for the anticipated sample collection. The expedition’s mission was to gather detailed and consistent observations of various oceanographic phenomena across as much of the ocean as possible. Over the course of their voyage the ship stopped and collected data and samples at 362 stations scattered over 14 million square miles of ocean floor. Much of what was discovered about world ocean biogeography for the next seventy-five years stemmed from analyses of collections made on this journey.
This fifty volume, 29,500-page report took twenty-three years to compile and publish. It includes many observations of other natural history subjects including faunae of the countries visited. The following is a selection of some of the papers included in the volumes: Birds, by P.L. Sclater, with 30 hand-coloured plates; Bones of Cetacea, by W. Turner, with 3 plates; Collections of Eggs described by P.L. Sclater; Essay on the Green Turtle by W.K. Parker, with 13 plates; Essay on Shore Fishes, with 32 plates and Deep Sea Fishes, with 73 plates, both by A. Gunther; Deep-Sea Fauna of New Zealand, by A. Hamilton.
C. Wyville Thomson led the expedition but died of exhaustion from the journey; the preparation of the reports had to be supervised by Sir John Murray Numerous parts were published later as extracts from the original edition. a desirable set of this monument to seafaring naturalists, now difficult to obtain complete.
The bound volumes comprise:
Zoology: Vol.1. Title-page dated 1880; Vol.2. Title-page dated 1881; Vol.3. Title-page dated 1881; Vol.4. Title-page dated 1882; Vol.5 Title-page dated 1882; Vol.6. Title-page dated 1882; Vol.7. Title-page dated 1883; Vol.8. Title-page dated 1883; Vol.9, Text. Title-page dated 1884; Vol.9, Plates. Title-page dated 1884; Vol.10. Title-page dated 1884; Vol.11. Title-page dated 1884; Vol.12. Title-page dated 1885; Vol.13. Title-page dated 1885; Vol.14. Title-page dated 1886; Vol.15. Title-page dated 1886; Vol.16. Title-page dated 1886; Vol.17. Title-page dated 1886; Vol. 18, Part 1. Title-page dated 1887; Vol. 18, Part 2. Title-page dated 1887; Vol. 18, Plates. Title-page dated 1887; Vol. 19. Title-page dated 1887; Vol. 20. Title-page dated 1887; Vol. 21, Text. Title-page dated 1887; Vol.21, Plates. Title-page dated 1887; Vol.22. Title-page dated 1887; Vol.23. Title-page dated 1888; Vol.24, Text. Title-page dated 1888. Vol.24, Plates. Title-page dated 1888; Vol.25. Title-page dated 1888; Vol.26. Title-page dated 1888; Vol.27. Title-page dated 1888; Vol.28. Title-page dated 1888; Vol.29, Text first half. Title-page dated 1888; Vol.29, Text second half. Title-page dated 1888; Vol.29, Plates. Title-page dated 1888; Vol.30, Text. Title-page dated 1889; Vol.30, Plates. Title-page dated 1889; Vol.31. Title-page dated 1889; Vol.32. Title-page dated 1889. Botany: Vol.1. Title-page dated 1885; Vol.2. Title-page dated 1886. Physics and Chemistry: Vol.1. Title-page dated 1884; Vol.2. Title-page dated 1889. Deep Sea Deposits: Title-page dated 1891. Narrative of the Cruise: Vol.1, Part 1. Title-page dated 1885; Vol.1, Part 2. Title-page dated 1882; Vol.2. Title-page dated 1882. Summary of Results with Appendices: Vol.1. Title-page dated 1895; Vol.2. Title-page dated 1895.
PROVENANCE:Zoology; Physics and Chemistry; Deep Sea Deposits; Summary of Results with Appendices: Reed Reference Library, Yorkshire Philosophical Society, nineteenth-century bookplates, library stamps, and printed shelfmarks and circular labels with "RR" initials on spines; Narrative of the Cruise: nineteenth-century bookplates of "University of Liverpool, Departmental Library of Anatomy. Presented by Professor Paterson"; Botany, Vol.1: Conservatoire Botanique, Geneva: library stamp; deaccession label to front pastedown "Doublet extrait des Bibliotheques Boissier et de Candolle lors de leur fusion"
LITERATURE:BM(NH) 11:716; Nissen BBI 2381; Nissen ZBI 4554; Spence 1198; Wood, p.596