On some Oceanographic Problems

I am very glad to embrace the opportunity of addressing the Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, many of whose members have contributed much to our knowledge of Oceanography. For instance, your President, Lord Kelvin, besides his researches on the tides, is well known to practical seamen from his excellent compasses and sounding machines; your Secretary, Prof. Tait, is well known from his researches on the pressure errors of deep-sea thermometers; Dr Alexander Buchan has a world-wide reputation in the department of oceanic meteorology; the late Prof. Dittmar was a great authority on the chemistry of sea water. It is enough to say that Sir Wyville Thomson, Mr J. Y. Buchanan, and Sir John Murray, were members of the “Challenger” Expedition, which has given the world such valuable information about the depths of the sea.Of course, it is not with the intention of giving to such scientific authorities a lesson that I address the Society, but if you represent scientists, I represent the seamen, and it is useful from time to time to have a talk between these two classes of men. Every scientific study should be started by the scientist, but the sooner they can associate ordinary practical men with the work the better it will be. We practical seamen are more numerous than scientists; we constantly navigate the sea, and we have more opportunities of making contributions to science than they have. Certainly, they can make their observations in a more exact way than we can, but the laws of nature—particularly those concerning Oceanography—are so imperfectly known, that there is very much to be done even by the rough hands of the ordinary seamen.