20 FOUNDERS OF OCEANOGRAPHY 



Edinburgh in 1851, recording that : " The animals, either 

 wholly new, or new to Britain, described in the following 

 communication, were taken during a yachting cruise with 

 our indefatigable friend, Mr. MacAndrew, among the 

 Hebrides, in the month of August, 1850." Amongst the 

 strange animals described and figured in this paper is the 

 remarkable Ascidian, Diazona violacea (the Syntethys 

 hebridica of Forbes and Goodsir), which, I may add, as an 

 example of the constancy and reliability of nature, was 

 dredged in quantity by myself nearly seventy years later in 

 the exact locality where it was first discovered by Forbes and 

 Goodsir. (See Plate III.) 



Returning to 1840, his age was now twenty-six, and this 

 was the year when he published his British Starfishes — the 

 first of his larger and more important works. It remained as 

 the standard work on the subject for many years, and is still 

 a classic. In addition to its solid science and its value as a 

 work of reference, there are scattered through it touches of 

 humour, and the artistic and sometimes quaintly comic 

 vignettes and tail-pieces, with which the author's pencil has 

 adorned the beginnings and ends of the sections, are a pleas- 

 ing feature of the work. Let me quote just one passage, his 

 description of the dredging of the Starfish, Luidia Jragilissima 

 (as it was appropriately named at that time) : — • 



" The first time I ever took one of these creatures I 

 succeeded in getting it into the boat entire. Never having 

 seen one before, and quite unconscious of its suicidal powers, 

 I spread it out on a rowing bench, the better to admire its 

 form and colours. On attempting to remove it for preserva- 

 tion, to my horror and disappointment I found only an 

 assemblage of rejected members. My conservative endea- 

 vours were all neutralized by its destructive exertions, and 

 it is now badly represented in my cabinet by an armless disk 

 and a diskless arm. Next time I went to dredge on the same 

 spot, determined not to be cheated out of a specimen in such 

 a way a second time, I brought with me a bucket of cold fresh 



