ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XXIX 



derms/ a delightful volume, cliarmino;ly illustrated by his own pencil 

 and from his own designs. There are many in this room who will 

 recognize in these illustrations the same ingenious and playful fancy, 

 and the same ready pencil which never allowed a sheet of pni)er to 

 lie unused before him, while he had a chance of transferring to it the 

 humorous and graceful forms which he realized without an effort, 

 and almost without a thought. In this same year he obtained the 

 appointment of naturaUst to H.M. surveying ship Beacon, Captain 

 Graves, then employed in completing the survey of the coast of 

 Asia Minor and the adjacent islands : an appointment more suited 

 to his tastes and to his talents could not have been devised. He had 

 here full })lay for the prosecution of his favourite pursuits of botan}^ 

 zoology, and geology. Already well acquainted with the flora and 

 fauna of the European Continent and their geographical distribution, 

 he had now an opportunity of tracing their further extension to tbe 

 East, and of examining the first appearance of that Oriental fades 

 which they put on in the eastern portions of the Mediterranean. 

 Nor was Edward Forbes the man to neglect such an opportunity. 

 During this and the following year he pursued his botanical and 

 zoological researches with unwearied energy, assisted by Captain 

 Graves, who omitted no opportunity of enabling his scientific friend 

 and companion to avail himself of every occasion for observation 

 which the service afforded. It was during his various excursions in 

 the Beacon and her boats that Edward Forbes followed out those 

 researches with the dredge, amongst the islands of the ^Egean Sea 

 and on the adjacent coast of Asia Minor, which alone would have 

 immortalized his name. At the same time he neglected no occasion 

 of studying the geology and botany of the regions wdiich he visited, 

 but the dredge and its results will ever remain the chief glory of 

 this expedition. The results of these researches were made known 

 to the public in the ' Report on the Mollusca and Radiata of the 

 j35gean Sea and on their distribution, considered as bearing on 

 Geology,' made to the British Association at their meeting at Cork 

 in 1843. From this report it appears that the data on which it was 

 founded were entirely derived from personal researches during a 

 voyage of eighteen months in the iEgean, w'hen but a few days 

 passed by without being devoted to natural history observations. 

 The calculations were based on more than 100 fully-recorded dredging 

 operations in various depths from 1 to 130 fathoms, and in many 

 localities from the shores of the Morea to those of Asia Minor. 

 And with that modesty which ever characterized Edward Forbes in 

 all his works, he adds, that the merit of the results is mainly due 

 to Captain Graves. The chief objects of the report, as stated by the 

 author, were, " to give an account of the distribution of the several 

 tribes of mollusca and radiata in the Eastern Mediterranean, ex- 

 hibiting their range in depth and the circumstances under which 

 they are found ; to inquire into the laws which appear to regulate 

 their distribution, and to show the bearings of the investigation on 

 the science of geology." 



I shall not attempt to give an analysis of this valuable report ; I 



