MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. 65 
British naturalists are justly proud of the thorough 
manner in which the contents of the home seas have been 
made known by their distinguished predecessors ; and of these 
famous monographs, which will remain classics of science 
throughout all time, some of the chiefest glories both in text 
and plates are those bearing the honoured name of Edward 
Forbes. 
In 1841 came the great opportunity of his life to make 
marine investigations outside the British Seas. Captain Graves, 
then in command of H.M. Surveying Ship “ Beacon,” engaged 
on hydrographical work in the Hastern Mediterranean, offered 
Forbes the post of naturalist to the expedition, which was 
promptly accepted. The work so far as Forbes was concerned 
was partly on land and partly at sea, partly zoological and 
partly archeological. After some months of surveying and 
dredging amongst the Isles of Greece, the “ Beacon” was 
ordered to the coast of Lycia for the purpose of conveying 
to England the remarkable carved marbles and inscriptions 
discovered in the ruins of the ancient city of Xanthus by 
Sir Charles Fellows. For this task the vessel proved eventually 
to be quite unfitted, but it gave the opportunity for Forbes, 
along with Lieut. Spratt, to join the archaeologist, Mr. Daniell, 
in a series of important explorations in the interior of Lycia, 
in the course of which they determined the sites of no fewer 
than eighteen ancient cities previously unknown, and rescued 
many inscriptions and carvings from the ruins. They copied 
upwards of 200 Greek and 30 Lycian inscriptions, and Forbes 
and Spratt a few years later (1847) produced an interesting 
work in two volumes entitled “Travels in Lycia,” giving 
the story of their explorations. In addition to his share of 
the narrative and the archaeology, the chapters on the Natural 
History of Lycia and the neighbouring seas are clearly the 
work of Forbes. Mr. Daniell fell a victim to the malignant 
malarial fever of the country, and Forbes himself apparently 
