Tip o’ the hat to Mike L for this sweet find. The manuscripts and plates from the Challenger expedition are available in their entirety online. This is a huge boon for ocean nerds, and I intend to spend considerable time going over it once I get the chance today. Even if you’re not particularly into reading old science texts, 19th century scientific drawings are awesome. If I had the money and knew where to look, you’d better believe I’d decorate my entire house with them. Below the jump are three plates from Zoology Report #6: Report on the Shore Fishes with some turn-of-the-century elasmobranchs and one seriously gnarly monkfish (not that all monkfish aren’t seriously gnarly).
All pictures from the Linked Index to the H.M.S Challenger Reports.