30 FOUNDERS OF OCEANOGRAPHY 



to divide the oceans into provinces on scientific grounds. 



There are many of his writings, and of his lectures, which 

 I have no space to refer to, though all have their points of 

 interest. Take this, for example : — In 1847, he writes to a 

 friend : " On Friday night I lectured at the Royal Institution. 

 The subject was the bearing of submarine researches and 

 distribution matters on the fishery question. I pitched into 

 Government mismanagement pretty strong, and made a fair 

 case of it. It seems to me that at a time when half the 

 country is starving we are utterly neglecting or grossly mis- 

 managing great sources of wealth and food. . . . Were I a 

 rich man, I would make the subject a hobby, for the good of 

 the country and for the better proving that the true interests 

 of Government are those linked with and inseparable from 

 Science." We must still cordially approve of these last 

 words, while recognizing that our Government Department 

 of Fisheries is now organized on better lines, and is itself 

 carrying on scientific work of national importance. 



I have laid more stress upon Forbes's theoretical papers 

 than upon his matter-of-fact descriptive works. Useful as 

 these latter are, indispensable to the systematic zoologist 

 and palaeontologist, works some of them, such as Forbes and 

 Hanley's British Mollusca (published in 4 vols, between 1848 

 and 1853), which will remain as classics for all time, still they 

 are books to consult rather than to read. On the other 

 hand, his theories — such as those on the distribution of 

 marine animals in the Mediterranean, and on the relations of 

 the British fauna and flora to the great Ice Age, even if in 

 some respects they are now regarded as erroneous or incom- 

 plete — have had a position and an influence in the history of 

 science, have been an inspiration to many both in his own 

 generation and since, and have led up to and guided the very 

 researches which have, in some cases, resulted in more correct 

 views. His theory of the " azoic zone " in the sea, that no 

 life existed below 300 fathoms, based upon his observations 

 in the Eastern Mediterranean, was justified by the facts 



