xlvili REPORT — 1844. 



Government will be pleased to authorise the officers of the Ordnance depart- 

 ment to take immediate Pteps for contouring on the whole of the maps of Ire- 

 land, according to the specimen already executed for the county of Kilkenny." 

 (Signed by the Earl of Rosse, President : the Marquis of North- 

 ampton and John Taylor, Esq., Members of the Committee.) 



No direct reply has been received to this application ; but the Council has 

 learnt from other sources that the Contour Lines are to be inserted in the 

 Ordnance Maps. 



3. The General Committee assembled at Cork having passed a Resolution 

 to the effect that application be made to Her Majesty's Government to give 

 its aid in the publication of Professor Edward Forbes's researches in the 

 iEgean Sea, the Council has to report that the General Secretaries, accompanied 

 by Mr. Lyell, waited on Sir George Clerk, one of the Secretaries of the Trea- 

 sury.andpresentedaCopy of the Resolution passed by the General Committee, 

 accompanied by the following Memorial : — 



" Professor E. Forbes was engaged as naturalist in the ' Beacon ' surveying- 

 vessel, under the command of Captain Graves, employed in a Hydrographical 

 Survey of the Mediterranean, by direction of the British Government. While 

 thus engaged, he embraced every occasion of obtaining, by the dredge, exact 

 knowledge of the contents of the iEgean Sea, at all depths, ranging from the 

 surface to 230 fathoms : he studied the fauna and flora of the isles of the 

 Archipelago and the mountains of Lycia, and, by careful and copous notes and 

 drawings, he has preservedauthenticand complete accounts of the information 

 thus gathered. 



" During the survey of the submarine zoology of the ^gean, and in the ex- 

 amination of the coasts and interior country. Professor Forbes observed up- 

 wards of 150 species of animals which he regards as altogether new to science, 

 and a much larger number which have been previously unknown in these 

 localities. 



" Among many interesting results established by careful registration of the 

 circumstances under which the several races of plants and animals were dis- 

 covered in the Mgean, it appears that several distinct zones of depth are 

 naturally defined in the ^Egean Sea, by distinct and peculiar groups of plants 

 and animals ; that the lower we pass downward in this sea the more do the 

 organic forms resemble species which occur near the surface of the ocean in 

 arctic regions ; and that some species of Mollusca have been dredged alive 

 in the yEgean of which the remains only had been previously known in a fossil 

 state, and were thought to be extinct. 



" These and some other conclusions derived by Professor Forbes from his 

 researches, have an important bearing on the philosophy of natural history, 

 and on the establishment of general truths in geology. The announcement 

 of them in a report to the British Association has created great interest among 

 persons devoted to natural science ; and it appears desirable for the advance- 

 ment of knowledge that the data on which the conclusions rest should be 

 published in a complete form. This cannot be done upon the expectation of 

 remuneration through the ordinary channels of trade ; nor is it compatible 

 with the means or the course of proceeding of the Association to undertake 

 such a publication, though the sum of £100 was willingly devoted from their 

 funds to assist Professor Forbes in defraying the cost of the dredging opera- 

 tions, whose results are esteemed to be so valuable : except by aid from the 

 Government, theresults of Professor Forbes's labours can never be fully given 

 to the public. If published in detached fragments and at various times, they 

 will be almost inaccessible, except to a very small number of students; vthereas, , 



