The instructions with
regard to this ran as follows:
"In the event of this country being involved in hostilities
during your absence, you will take care never to be surprised;
but you are to refrain from any act of aggression towards the
vessels or settlements of any nation with which we may be at war,
as expeditions employed on behalf of discovery and science have
always been considered by all civilised communities as acting
under a general safeguard."
The great scientific expeditions sent out in recent times by the
governments of Britain, Germany, and the United States, were fitted
with every convenience for the staff of naturalists, and the luxuries
and comforts of civilisation attended them round the world. The late
Professor Mosely, for instance, who was a naturalist on the English
_Challenger_ expedition, told the present writer of a pleasant way in
which a peculiarity of the deep sea was made to pay toll to the
comfort of those on board ship. The great ocean depths all over the
world, under the burning skies of the tropics, or below the arctic
ice-fields, are extremely cold, the water at the bottom always being
only a few degrees above freezing point. When the dredge brought up a
sample of the abysmal mud at a convenient time, it was used to ice the
wine for the officers' mess.
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