THE EUROPEAN SEAS. 



287 



At this period there was no passage from the Ger- 

 man Ocean into the English Channel. 



The curves of equal winter and summer tempe- 

 ratures are distinguished in the engraving, and three 

 of each set are coloured ; the numbers affixed indi- 

 cate degrees of Fahrenheit's scale. 



Such is our brief " outline " of the Zoology of 

 the European Seas ; it must be considered as an 

 attempt to present only a general view of the local 

 character, mutual relations, and distribution of the 

 forms of life which tenant the North Atlantic. 



The professed Naturalist may perhaps deem our 

 volume to be disproportionate to its subject — and it 

 will disappoint such as may look into it for a reper- 

 tory of all the forms of our European Seas ; but it 

 was not to supply such a want as this that the vo- 

 lume was designed. Viewed as a first attempt, the 

 plan and method of treatment adopted in the earlier 

 portion of the work seem amply sufficient : no 

 one knew better than the late Ed. Forbes that 

 " in the great and wide sea are things creeping in- 

 numerable, both great and small," and no one better 

 than he could have treated of them fully, had he 

 been so disposed ; but that was not his object here. 



In Ed. Forbes the Natural History of the 

 " world of waters " experienced its greatest loss : 

 there were his higher investigations and indirectly 

 his personal influence : to associate with him was 



