1-10 The late Professor Edward Forbes. 



taken, and so fully accomplished) while he was demonstrating 

 the essential nature and attributes of those almost crystalline 

 creations from the " blue profound," of which he was himself 

 the prime expositor, the interest of his most original descrip- 

 tions was almost as it were submerged in admiration of the 

 beautifully graceful forms which seemed to arise as if by 

 magic from beneath his long and delicate fingers, and how a 

 murmur of applause was not refrained from by his grateful 

 and admiring audience, — spectators, rather they might then 

 be called. 



In April 1841, he accepted an invitation from his friend, 

 Captain Graves, who commanded the surveying squadron in the 

 Mediterranean, to join the " Beacon," in the capacity of natu- 

 ralist, holding a nominal appointment from the Admiralty, 

 which gave him position but no pay. He continued in the ex- 

 ploration of the Archipelago and of the coasts of Asia Minor, 

 with ample and most valuable results.* The Beacon having 

 visited the coast of Lycia in the beginning of 1842, for the 

 purpose of conveying away the remarkable remains of antiquity 

 discovered at Xanthus by Sir Charles Fellows, her crew were 

 employed there in making excavations among the ruins, and 

 preparing for the removal of the marbles ; for which task, how- 

 ever, she proved unfitted. She therefore went back to Malta 

 for the necessary requirements ; and being expected to return 

 to Lycia, Mr Edward Forbes and Lieutenant Spratt (having 

 been previously joined by the Bev. Mr Daniel, an accomplished 



* The following are a few of the important papers, the materials for which 

 were acquired about this time. " On two remarkable Marine Invertebrata in- 

 habiting the uEgean Sea" — Rep. Brit. Assoc, 1841. " On the species Nesera 

 (Gray) inhabiting the iEgean Sea" — Proceedings Zool. Soc, xi., p. 75. "On 

 the Radiata of the Eastern Mediterranean"— Linn. Trans., xix., p. 143. " Re- 

 port on the Mollusca and Radiata of the JEgean Sea, and on their distribution, 

 considered as bearing on Geology" — Rep. Brit. Assoc, 1843. " On a Collection 

 of Tertiary Fossils from Malta and Gozo" — Proceedings of Geol. Soc, iv., p. 231. 

 '• On the Fossils collected by Lieutenant Spratt in the Fresh-water Tertiary 

 Formation of the Gulf of Smyrna" — Journ. Geol. Soc, i., p. 162. " On the 

 Geology of Lycia" — lb., ii., p. 8. " On the Fossils collected by Lieutenant 

 Spratt in the Islands of Samos and Euboea" — lb., i ii., p. 73. " On a Remark- 

 able Phenomenon presented by the Fossils in the Fresh-water Tertiary of the 

 Island of Cos"— Rep. Brit. Assoc, 1845. 



