XVIU MEMOIR OF THE LATE 



the Beacon, then laid up at Malta, ])aid a visit to Belfast. Acting in 

 conformity with that devotion to science by which he had been ever dis- 

 tinguished. Captain Graves took measures to obtain from the Admiralty, 

 for Mr. Edward Forbes — the late (alas ! that we should have to speak of 

 him as the late) eminent Professor of Natural History in the University 

 of Edinburgh — the honorary appointment of Naturalist to his vessel, then 

 about to proceed to thfe ^gean. A survey of the Island of Candia was 

 at that time in contemplation. On his arrival in Belfast, Captain Graves 

 kindly invited Mr. Thompson to join the party, and succeeded in in- 

 ducing him to do so, as a most welcome guest. 



In consequence of these arrangements, Mr. Thompson and Mr. Forbes 

 left London together on the 2nd of April, 1841, and proceeded by Paris 

 and Marseilles to Malta, where the Beacon then was. On the 21st of 

 April they embarked, reached Navarino on the 28th, and anchored at 

 S}Ta on 6th of May. Leaving the vessel there. Captain Graves and Mr. 

 Thompson, on the 11th of May, embarked in the French steamer Sesos- 

 tris, for Smyrna and Constantinople. On their return, a few days were 

 spent by the three friends together in the Beacon, and in short excur- 

 sions connected with the surveying work that was in progress. Mr. 

 Thompson then started on his return homcAvards, accompanied by ]\Ir. 

 Wilkinson, son of the British Consul at Syra. They reached Athens on 

 the 12th of June, Trieste on the 18th, Venice on the 30th. Thence Mr. 

 Thompson's route was by Milan, Constance, Strasburg, Manheim, Co- 

 logne, and Antwerp, reaching London on the 19th of July, after an ab- 

 sence of about three and a half months. 



The first fruit of this voyage was a paper published in the Annals of 

 Natural History, and afterwai'ds reprinted in the Appendix to the Birds of 

 Ireland. It was entitled, " Notice of Migratory Birds which alighted on, 

 or were seen from, H.M.S. Beacon, Captain Graves, on the passage from 

 Malta to the Morea, at the end of April, 1841." It enumerates twenty- 

 three species, seen under those circumstances, and is valuable because of 

 the critical knowledge and accuracy of the observer, and its bearing on a 

 question of popular interest, which cannot be better stated than in the 

 words Mr. Thoiupson has himself employed. "Persons even of educa- 

 tion," says he, " still exist who are incredulous respecting the fact that 

 many species which in summer frequent the British Islands, winter south 

 of the Mediterranean, and cross that sea annually on their northern 

 migration in the spring ; but surely the fact of twenty-three of them 

 having been seen crossing the Mediterranean during several successive 

 days in spring, and all flying northward, should be a conclusive proof; in 

 addition to which it may be stated, that migratory species only were ob- 

 served." 



During this tour a journal had been regulai'ly kept by Mr. Thompson. 

 It is much fuller and more carefully written than the journal of 1826. 

 Fifteen years had passed since his former visit to the continent, and had 

 brought with them the ordinary amount of change. On a part of the 

 route traverse'd in either going or returning, steam had been at work, and 

 old modes of conveyance had been superseded. Some of the scenery had 

 been modified in its character ; " formal " vineyards had replaced on 

 the banks of the Rhine much of its natural planting ; and wood had been 

 cleared away even in the proximity of the ruined castles. " Thus," he 

 remarks, " are they divested for the sake of gain of their richest charm. 

 Were Byron now to write of them he could not say with truth, * Where 

 ruin greenly dwells,' though when I was last here, the expression was 



