20O NATURAL HISTORY. 



Minor. A narrative of this, written in conjunction with 

 his friend and companion, Captain (then Lieutenant) 

 Spratt, was subsequently published under the title of 

 ' Travels in Lycia ' (1847 ). As regards the scientific results 

 of this expedition, by far the greatest interest attached to 

 the researches which Forbes at this time carried out as to 

 the distribution of the Shellfish and Radiate animals at 

 different depths in the sea. This had long been a 

 favourite subject with him, and he had previously begun to 

 divide the British seas into ' zones ' of different depths, 

 characterised by particular assemblages of animals. It 

 will, however, be best to defer consideration of this 

 subject till the completion of this brief sketch of Forbes's 

 life. 



At the close of the year 1842, Forbes returned to 

 England, when he found that he had been in his absence 

 appointed Professor of Botany in King's College, London. 

 This appointment he gladly accepted, as his father had 

 met with pecuniary losses, and was no longer in a position 

 to help him. Two or three months after his return, he 

 was also appointed Curator of the Museum of the Geo- 

 logical Society of London. He was thus plunged into 

 a constant whirl of work, principally of the thankless 

 official kind, and he found comparatively little time for 

 original research. Not only were his duties numerous and 

 trying; but the emoluments of his combined offices of 

 professor and curator did not bring him in much more 

 than about 200 per annum, and he was thus forced to 

 do literary work of the ' pot-boiling ' kind. 



In 1844, however, his position was somewhat ame- 

 liorated by his being appointed to the newly created post 



