THE NA' ax. HISTORY OP THE EUROPEAN SEAS. * THIS is
the second volume of a useful series on the " Outlines of the Natural History of Europe," commenced in 1802 by the issue of a work entitled The Vegetation of Europe, by the late Pro- fessor Henfrey. The present volume, begun by the late Edward. Forbes, was expeoted in the following year, but the pressure of official duties, as well as the hope of extending his knowledge of marine zoology, induced' the author to' defer its completion, and. when death cut' short his promising career, scarcely half his task;
had been accomplished. That portion of it, however, which had prepared for publication, extending to.126 pages, was eon,- sidered by those most competent to judge of its merits, to- be too valuable to be lost sight of and Mr. Robert Godwin-Austen, the intimate friend' of Forbes, has now, in the double capacity of editor and author,. carried on the work,. and completed the history
according. to the original. plan. No was better fitted than Edward Forbes to generalize on such an, extensive subject as marine zoology. It was the natural' bentof his mind to grapple- with a subject in its entireness—to regard it not only in its pre- sent aspect, but also. in its relation to• thepast; so that every animal he examinedhadi a. meaning andeigni canoe, in the wide view he took of natural history, far beyond that of mere speckle distinctness: This mode of looking at the variety of strange creatures he- met with, although productive of most valuable results; must have- sometimes. interfered with their careful' examination, and this will no doubt account fer the want of minute aocuraoy we oeeasionally find in his description of species. His varied researches in natural history and geology were in-- dustriously continued: during many years- of his lite, and the unusual 6111rtnnities- he met with for exploring-the European seas affb ' him.the means-ecompfninghoth their ineductions and the geological- character of their boundaries. He was thus' enabled to' take a' oomprehensive view of the distribution of marine life, and to- form- some opinion of'the' extent. to- which the more recent changes-in--the outline of coasts - hadaffected the diffh-- sion of specific forma: The division of the European seas into provinces, or centres or
zoological s; was first. proposed by Milne-Edwards when he was engag in the study of the Crustacea, but' no one has since given-greater' attention to- thiir system' of grouping than Forbes,
and the present' work- ispartienliirly interesting ftom embody- ing his latest views- of the general' application of'the idea, We here find. the line or seas, extending from. the Arctic circle to the Caspian, divided' into six, provinces, each of them more or less peculiar in the character of its animals: The author's definition of a province may be-best given in his own words.
" A province, as. understood in the following ohapters," he says, " is an area within wine& there. is, evidence. of the speoial manifestations of the Creative Power ; that'is to say, within, whiob there have been called into being, the originals, or protoplasts of annuals or, plants. These may become. mixed up with emigrants from other provinces, even exceeding in their numbers the aborigines, so to call them, of'the region to which they have migrated. The distinguishing of the aboriginal from the invading. popula- tion, and the determination of the causes, whioh.have produeedand directed the invasion, are among the iirobleme-which the investigator of the distribu- tion of animated creatures, has to endeavour to solve."
Beginning with-the Aretio provinoe„ which comprises the great Polar basin, we find: the powerful agency of cold, as well as the large proportion.of fresh-water at the surface, materially restrict,- ing the number of. oharacteristie species,. so that the peculiarities of, this division. are most prominently exhibited within a short distance of the surface.. But an examination of the depths. of the Arctic seas-brings to light the remarkable circumstance of an-in-- creasing temperature as we descend, accompanied by an abundant. variety of. life. This is explained by the deep course of the warm. Atlantic currents bringing with them numerous. southern- species,. whose appearance in the surface waters of the inhospitable north. would, be quickly followed- by their destruction ; thus even within, the Arctic circle, these wanderers- from.warmer latitudes are pro-. vide& with a suitable. habitation.. A curious fact is mentioned. relating to the starfishes of the north, which we commend to the: attention of some of our. theorizing geologists. The beautiful,. crinoid, or stone-lily as, it is- called from its elegant.form,—in reality a star-fish at. the end of a long jointed stem,—is found.in such myriads in. some of the. ancient strata. of. Britain-as-to be. quite oharacteristio of them,, and their abundance has been gene-- rally regarded: as. supporting. the notion of the prevalence of a, warm climate in this island at the. period when these animals: existed; Yet where. do we find their representatives at the pre- sent day ?. The. Cernatuke or feather-stars, true erinaids early stages of their- growth, are found only in limited numbers la • The Natural History of tke Burooean. Seas, Dy the late Professor Edward' Forbes, F.R.S. lice. Edited and continued by Robert Uodwin•Austen, MIL& Fab.- lished by Van Voorst. the warm and temperate parts of the European seas, and it is only within the Arctic province that they may be said to abound. It is stated that in moderately deep water near Spitzbergen, the dredge is hauled up frequently filled with their bodies, " to the exclusion of all other creatures." "This," as the author observes, "is a fact of no small significance," and shows how necessary is a know- ledge of our present fauna to enable us to understand the past history of the earth. The "Boreal" province, including the west coast of Norway and the Shetlands, has many characters remind- ing us of the Arctic regions, but it gradually merges into the " Celtic," or that of our own islands. Many circumstances in connexion with the Celtic area combine to render it particularly
interesting, and we will here let the author speak for himself.
"The Celtic province is the neutral ground of the European seas; it is the field upon which the creatures of the north and those of the south meet and intermingle. It has its own special inhabitants, the aborigines of the province, but these are far exceeded in numbers by the colonists who are diffused among them. It includes within its proper population the sur- vivors of an epoch when the seas of Europe were differently parcelled out than they are now. Here and there, these old people still retain limited tracks of the sea-bed, whilst the vast mass of the nations to which they originally belonged have retired far to the north, or west, or south, accord- ing to their tribe. These must not be confounded with the immigrants who have gradually made their way into the Celtic area during the ages that have past since its first constitution into a distinct province. They are like the Basques among the Spaniards, or the Cornish among Englishmen, relics of ancient possessors of the country whose epoch of dominance has ceased to be, but who still remain in fragmentary masses, as if to show what and where they once were. These varied natural history features,. combined in the Celtic province, render it of all European areas that interest, interesting to the zoologist and botanist ; from their abundance and interest, they invite the human inhabitants to the study of the living creatures gathered so pro- fusely around them : hence it is, that, in spite of all the discouragement just alluded to," (the neglect of natural history at the Universities,) "in no part of the world has marine natural history been so thoroughly pursued as in Britain."
The chapter on the Celtic province contains much valuable in- formation on the distribution of animal and vegetable life in zones or bands along our coasts. This is a subject within reach of any of our sea-side idlers. The author well says that " to watch the shore gradually uncovered by the retiring waters, is as if a great sheet of hieroglyphics—strange picture-writing—were being un- folded before us," and the interpretation of these mystic signs would be found a pleasant and profitable amusement by many a time-wearied visitor.
But we must pass on to the fourth great division, or " Lug- tanian " province. This is a well-marked area, ranging from the entrance of the English Channel as far south as the Canaries, but one whose invertebrate fauna is almost unknown to us except through the recent researches of our enterprising countryman, Mr. M'Andrew. Here again, natural history comes to the aid of geology. Dredging, in Vigo Bay, in almost the centre of the pe- culiar Lusitanian fauna, disclosed the unexpected presence of animals mainly belonging to the British or Celtic area. It was for a long time stoutly maintained by Forbes that the Spanish peninsula formerly extended far into the Atlantic, and was in contiguity, if not connexion with Ireland, and this idea was based on botanical and geological evidence. Now, the presence of a peculiarly Spanish flora only in the south of Ireland may be in- terpreted by that of an abundance of Irish testacea only on one particular part of the coast of Spain, and these two remarkable facts must be considered as strongly confirmatoryof Forbes's notion, even by those who once so vehemently opposed it. The extension of the coast of Spain in a westerly direction was hinted at more than twenty years ago by Mr. Lowe in his Synopsis of the Fishes of Madeira, when he remarks that, " instead of occupying a place, considered ichthyologically, corresponding with its latitude, Ma- deira seems to be intermediate between Great Britain and the Mediterranean." - The account of the Lusitanian province completes the portion of this book written by Edward Forbes, and with it closed the literary labours of his short but useful life. It would be no easy task for any one at the present day to finish a work begun by Forbes, but we have no reason to complain of Mr. Godwin-Austen, who now takes up the story, and gives us the natural history of the two remaining European provinces, comprised in the line of inland seas which extend from Gibraltar to the Caucasus. The Mediterranean and Caspian Seas, strictly speaking, do not deserve the rank of zoological provinces, inasmuch as the main features of their faunae are those of the Lusitanian area, but the varied composition of their waters and the geological character of their boundaries have so much influence on the conditions of animal life, that no one will regret the apace Mr. Godwin-Austen has devoted to their consideration. The editor, indeed, half apolo- gizes for the extent to which this " outline " of the zoology of the European seas has been carried ; but in these days of book- making we rarely find such a large proportion of original matter as is contained in the three hundred pages of this little volume. In the slight sketch we have given little has been said of the causes which affect the distribution of marine life. We must leave them to the reader, who will find much interesting informa- tion on the subject. The book is pleasantly written throughout, and now, when so many workers are in the field of natural his- tory, the student will find this a useful guide to point out to him where to work, and what to look for ; at the same time it will carry his thoughts back to ages long past, when the seas of Europe occupied far different areas from their present ones, and their inhabitants belonged to groups of which we have now but few and feeble representatives.
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