cUAP. I. ] INTRODUCTION. 5 
During about eighteen months he studied with the 
utmost care the conditions of the Aegean and its 
dredging operations at depths varying from 1 to 1380 
fathoms. In 18438 he communicated to the Cork 
meeting of the British Association an elaborate report 
on the Mollusca and Radiata of the digean Sea, and 
on their distribution considered as bearing on Geology.' 
Three years later, in 1846, he published in the first 
volume of the ‘ Memoirs of the Geological Survey of 
Great Britain,’ a most valuable memoir upon the 
Connection between the existing Fauna and Flora of 
the British Isles, and the geological Changes which 
have affected their Area, especially during the Epoch 
of the Northern Drift.’ In the year 1859 appeared 
the Natural History of the European Seas by the late 
Professor Edward Forbes, edited and continued by 
Robert Godwin Austen.’ In the first hundred pages 
of this little book, Forbes gives a general outline of 
some of the more important of his views with regard 
1 Report on the Mollusca and Radiata of the Avgean Sea, and on 
their Distribution, considered as bearing on Geology. By Edward 
Forbes, F.L.S., M.W.S., Professor of Botany in King’s College, London. 
(Report of the Thirteenth Meeting of the British Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science ; held at Cork in August 1843. London, 1844.) 
2 On the Connection between the Distribution of the existing Fauna 
and Flora of the British Isles and the geological Changes which have 
affected their Area, especially during the Epoch of the Northern Drift. 
By Edward Forbes, F.R.S., L.8., G.S., Professor of Botany at King’s 
College, London ; Palontologist to the Geological Survey of the 
United Kingdom. (Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, 
vol. i. London, 1846.) 
3 The Natural History of the European Seas, by the late Professor 
Edward Forbes, F.R.S., &c. Edited and continued by Robert Godwin 
Austen, F.RS8. London, 1859. 
