348 Scientific Travellers. 



XLIV. — Information respecting Scientific Travellers. 



LETTER FROM EDWARD FORBES, ESQ. 



London, Nov. 15, 1842. 

 Dear Sir, — When your announcement of my proposed Egyptian 

 movements came out in the ' Annals' on the 1st of November, I was 

 undergoing the miseries of quarantine on board the Iberia steamer 

 in Stangate Creek. Instead of leaving Smyrna for Alexandria I em- 

 barked for London on the 2nd of October, and after a slow and stormy 

 passage reached England by the end of the month. A steamer is 

 not the best conveyance for a naturalist ; its way is too speedy and 

 frothy for marine observations. During a few hours' stoppage at 

 Gibraltar, however, I had an excellent opportunity of drawing and 

 dissecting a beautiful Medusa of the genus Pelagia, one of the most 

 phosphorescent of the larger species. Gibraltar bay abounds in ma- 

 rine animals, and under more favourable circumstances I might have 

 reaped a rich harvest ; as it was, I only secured the Pelagia and a 

 number of specimens of the Salpa maxima. Almost every specimen 

 of the last-mentioned curious mollusk which floated by the ship was 

 deprived of the dark red visceral mass which is lodged in a cartila- 

 ginous ball at the posterior extremity. On examination I found the 

 test of such mutilated animals to be perforated above the site of the 

 viscera, and not long after saw the cause in a fierce attack on a 

 squadron of Salpa by an army of gulls, who ferociously imitated the 

 eagles which tormented Prometheus by picking out the livers of their 

 victims, untouching the less delicate parts of their bodies. Never- 

 theless the Salpce, de -liver ed from the grasp of the gulls, swam away 

 without livers and ovaries, with apparently as much vigour as before 

 their misfortune. 



Before leaving Smyrna I dredged the Gulf, with results of consi- 

 derable interest, and following in the footsteps of my friend Mr. 

 Strickland, examined the geology of that beautiful district. 



Though my personal researches in the JEgean. are over, yet, I 

 trust, natural history will gain much more from that quarter. I have 

 left an active staff of naturalists behind me in the officers of the sur- 

 vey, who are forming collections in all departments with great suc- 

 cess, under the auspices of the head of the survey, my most excellent 

 friend Capt. Graves, who will with the greatest delight assist in 

 every way in his power any British naturalist who may select the 

 Archipelago for the scene of his travels and studies. 



Ever, dear Sir, most sincerely, 



To Richard Taylor, Esq. Edward Forbes. 



MR. SCHOMBURGK. 



Letters have been received by the Geographical Society from Mr. 

 Schomburgk, by which it appears that he had explored the river Ta- 

 kutu to its source, in about 1° 45' N. lat. The Takutu is a tributary 

 of the RioBranco, into which it falls at San Joachim; and its source 

 is so far to the eastward, that Mr. Schomburgk procured bearings of 



