endless dishes and wines, and formality of the "big-wigs." "Before the conclusion of the meeting," says Dr. Bennett, "these dinners became so famous, that the tenement could scarcely hold the guests, and it was resolved to continue them wherever afterwards the Association should meet." The sign of the tavern furnished a name for the guests. They styled themselves "Red Lions ;" and in proof of their Leonine relationship, made it a point of always signifying their approval and assent by growls and roars more or less audible, and, where greater energy was needed, by a vigorous flourishing of their coat-tails. In these manifestations it is needless to say that the voice of Edward Forbes rang out above the rest, and his rampant coat-tail served as a model to the younger lions. He was wont, too, to delight the company by chanting in his own peculiar intonation songs composed for the occasion, the subjects being usually taken from some branch of science, and treated with that humour and grotesqueness in which he so much delighted.'-Life, pp. 247, 248.

But whilst thus occupied with pursuits so congenial to him, anxiety about the future hung heavily on poor Forbes's breast. He had hitherto been sustained by an annual allowance from his father; but the latter was not a rich man, and, consequently, he had a right to expect that his son should somehow win the means of sustaining himself. Forbes knew this to be the feeling; and conscious that he had broken down at the portal of two professions, he felt corresponding disquiet that no openings presented themselves in the direction of his tastes. His secret hope was that he should one day occupy Jamieson's chair of natural history at Edinburgh. Partly to obtain fluency of expression in reference to this ulterior object, and partly to mend his resources, he resolved to deliver popular lectures in various places; but these did not succeed. Lectures by a lord, and lectures by a man somewhat needy, however learned, are very different things. At the same time he published another of those early papers that foreshadowed future generalizations. It was 'on the Association of Mollusca on the British Coast considered with reference to Pleistocene Geology.' It had long been known that the earth was capable of being divided into zones of vegetation, both horizontally and vertically. On ascending from the tropical shore to high mountains in the same latitude, we first cross low lands covered with palms and bananas, bounded by ranges of figs and tree ferns. Above these are laurels and myrtles, and other evergreen woody trees. higher we have the representatives of our own forest trees, the beeches and oaks, which shed their leaves every year. Continuing the ascent, we successively arrive at regions characterized by pines and rhododendrons; and, lastly, on approaching the line of perpetual snow, all these disappear, and nothing

Still

remains but Alpine plants, such as gentians, saxifrage, grasses, mosses, and lichens, the scant representatives of the palm forests at the mountain's foot. Every visitor to the Alps or the Pyrenees will be familiar with these transitions; but here the starting-point is from the evergreens of Italy, the tropical palms and tree ferns being of course absent. As he ascended the mountain slopes, the traveller could not fail to note how the vines and mulberries, the chestnuts and walnuts gave place to harder forest trees;-these again to the pines, which were outflanked at the upper margin by the Alpine rhododendron ; whilst on the wild treeless wastes of the Reffelberg, or of the Splugen, nothing remained but the dwarfed Alpine herbage.

If on leaving the equator the same traveller proceeds towards either pole, without leaving the sea-level, he will find that the zones of latitude which he must cross virtually correspond with zones of height. As he gradually advances to colder climes, he will find that the palms of the tropics make way for the laurels and olives of Italy and Spain. These are displaced, further north, by the forest oaks, ashes, and beeches of Central Europe. He will next arrive at the pine-forests of Scotland and Norway. The marshes of Lapland will display little beyond birches and willows; and beyond these is a wide arctic zone, as devoid of trees as an Alpine crag.

Up to the time when Forbes commenced his labours with the dredge, little or no attention had been paid to the distribution of marine objects; but he soon arrived at the conclusion that the depths of the sea were as capable of being divided into zones of animal and vegetable life as the land; and, in the memoir just referred to, he divided the coast area of Britain into four such zones. The first included all between high and low water mark. The second reached from the low water line to a depth of seven to ten fathoms, and was characterized by the prevalence of the floating tangle, whose thick pulpy stems, and broad, olive-coloured fronds, are so well known to sea-side visitors. Thirdly, he recognised the region of flexible corallines, ranging from a depth of fifteen to one of thirty fathoms; and, lastly, that of corals, or polype animals, having a calcareous instead of a horny skeleton, and which reached a depth of sixty fathoms. At a later period he worked out this idea, when, after dredging the Ægean Sea, his stock of facts was largely multiplied. But, as his wont was, Forbes applied even his more limited and earlier measure of knowledge to geological phenomena. He cared little for mere detached facts of science. He perpetually sought to place each one in its proper co-relation, and to make it throw light on topics that were previously obscure. Thus he made his submarine studies illustrate the

probable conditions under which strata had been accumulated in the sea.

con

Through the years 1839 and 1840, there were glimmering prospects of an opening at St. Andrew's. The establishment of a chair of Natural History at that university was templated; but the scheme came to nothing. Everything calculated to be remunerative seemed to vanish as he approached; but, in the spring of 1841, a new, though not a pecuniarily advantageous, opportunity for extending his practical knowledge presented itself,-one of melancholy interest, since, whilst it led to a large increase of reputation, it sowed the seeds of the disease which eventually terminated his life. Captain Graves, of the surveying squadron in the Mediterranean, was about to return to his station as commander of the 'Beacon' surveying ship, and was anxious to be accompanied by some naturalist who could avail himself of the advantages of the survey. Edward Forbes eagerly embraced the opportunity, and speeded to Malta, where the 'Beacon' only waited for his arrival to commence operations. In the latter part of April he dipped his dredge for the first time in Mediterranean waters.

Our space will not allow us to dwell on the details of the voyage: momentous it was to Forbes both as a man and as a philosopher. The perseverance with which he explored the depths of the Ægean told that his was a labour of love. Many creatures that he had only seen dried and mummified in museums at home, he now watched in their native haunts. By working his dredge in deeper waters than it had been previously used in, he brought to light living species that were either new, or only known in a fossil state, and supposed to be extinct. He devoted the first three months of 1842 to traversing Lycia, along with Lieutenant Spratt and the Rev. Mr. Daniel. Here, though his main object was the study of the plants and animals of the region, the catholicity of his intellect constantly manifested itself:-now tracing out ruins, and clearing away tombs; now copying Greek inscriptions: at one time sketching a picturesque group of peasants; at another prescribing for their ailments. Nothing came amiss to him; he had a head and a heart that responded to every demand.

On rejoining the 'Beacon,' after this Lycian campaign, he found intelligence awaiting him of the most painful kind. We have already referred to his pecuniary dependence upon his father; but the latter had, unhappily, been overtaken by reverses of fortune, and all poor Forbes's resources were cut off at a stroke. To so affectionate a son, the family calamities were alone sufficient to paralyse his energies; but when, in

addition, there was the increased uncertainty of his own future life, we must marvel at the energy he was enabled to display. He was saved from immediate difficulties by an announcement that the British Association for the Advancement of Science had voted him a sum of money to aid him in his Ægean researches: and a gleam of hope also shone on the future. The death of the late Professor Don had created a vacancy in the chair of Botany in King's College, London, and influential friends were exerting themselves to obtain him the appointment. The council of the British Association also proposed aiding him to explore the Red Sea, as he had already done the Ægean, to obtain materials for comparing the fauna and flora of these neighbouring but separate basins; and at one time he had resolved to do so, but all these plans were set aside by an unexpected blow. Whilst sailing from Rhodes in a little native caïque to rejoin the 'Beacon,' he was struck down by fever.

'For eight miserable days he lay in the bottom of the boat, without medical advice or comfort of any kind, beyond what his fellow traveller (Lieutenant Spratt) could improvise from the scanty resources of a caïque. It seemed well-nigh a hopeless case. Day after day rolled wearily away, and still no progress could be made. The patient grew weaker as the voyage lengthened, and his friend, in an agony of suspense, watched in vain for a breeze. At last, on the ninth day, came the breeze so ardently prayed for, and the vessel gained the port of Syra, where, by good chance, the "Isabella " happened to be at the time. After some delay, permission was obtained to put that vessel in quarantine, and Forbes was removed on board. Skilful medical treatment, and the kind attention of his old friends, all down to the youngest sailor only too anxious to please him, speedily restored the invalid to health. He used to say, however, that had he remained two days longer in the caïque, he should never have left it alive.'-Life, p. 308.

He gradually recovered much of his strength, and resumed his work; but the fever left seeds of disease which eventually closed his career. Meanwhile he returned to his pursuits, and still contemplated hauling his dredge through the Red Sea; but various circumstances kept him in a state of uncertainty respecting his future movements; and at the end of September, 1842, a letter from one of his friends, urging his immediate return, to secure the chair at King's College, led him to embark in the 'Iberia,' and he reached the Thames, October 28th.

His appointment to the Botanical Professorship at King's College had been made previous to his arrival, and he at once entered upon its duties; but he soon found that it failed to

supply the pecuniary resources he had hoped for; its emoluments, from various reasons, being considerably below £100 a year. Fortunately he also obtained the secretaryship of the Geological Society of London, with a salary of £150 a year; so that all immediate anxiety about funds was removed. But to poor Forbes, with his vast but unarranged stores of new material, this was done at a terrible cost. Incessantly craving leisure to reduce and publish his observations, he could find none. His two offices engrossed all his time. He was unquestionably well and usefully occupied; but it was in a new field, into which he had no desire to enter, and to which he deemed himself uncalled. Hence he chafed, and beat the bars of his cage. The government even awarded him a sum of £500 to aid him in publishing his Ægean discoveries; but, from the same cause, he could never avail himself of it. At length another and apparently more promising opening offered itself.

*

It will be known to most of our readers that in connexion with the national trigonometrical survey of our islands that has long been in progress, a staff of geologists are at work, laying down on the national map the geological structure of the country. In 1835, the late Sir Henry Delabeche, then the director of this geological survey, induced the Chancellor of the Exchequer to authorize the formation of a national collection of all things bearing upon practical and economic geology. From very small beginnings, the young institution grew up into the noble proportions of the Museum of Economic Geology, now in Jermyn Street. Such a collection necessarily comprehended a large number of fossil remains, and necessarily required a good palæontologist to superintend their arrangement. Besides, the surveyors working in the field constantly needed some one to whom they could refer doubtful specimens, and whom they could summon to their aid in solving problems more than usually dependent upon the interpretation of fossil remains. Of course, whoever occupied the post, had to spend his winters in London, and much of his summers in the country, wherever the staff happened to be working. To this office Edward Forbes was appointed in October, 1846, resigning those he previously held at King's College and the Geological Society; and he fondly hoped that more of the coveted leisure was now within his grasp; but he was again disappointed. The duties of his post demanded most of his time, and he again chafed. The fact was, that both by nature and education he was unfitted for routine and clerkly work. His was a powerful but not an

* Lord Monteagle, then Mr. Spring Rice.