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Professor Edward Forbes.

Edward Forbes was born at Douglas, in 1815, and was consequently but thirty-nine at his death, His mother was the heiress of Corvallo and Bullabog, near Ballangh, He was of a stock not only adventurous, but speculative, on the male side. In the wreck of the family estates, which had become involved previous to his succession to them, he only succeeded in saving a portion—that above alluded to. The old parish church is close at hand, a mile at least from the village, but is now a disused and picturesque edifice; the surrounding enclosure contains one of the Runic memorial stones so general in the island; but a more interesting stone, at least to the naturalist, many be seen in the otherwise uninteresting modern church, a tablet raised in 1858, principally through the aid, we believe, of Sir R. I. Murchison and other scientific friends, to the memory of the professor, the inscription ending so—

His mother was a native of Ballangh,
Here he spent many of his boyish days,
And on the sea-coast of this parish
He commenced his system of dredging.

His bust is also placed in the Court House at Peel.

He went up to London, when a young man, with the determination to become an artist, but his friends saw reasons to dissuade him from such a career, and, by so doing, the world may, perhaps, have lost a clever caricaturist, but probably not a painter, His tastes next led him to turn to geology and natural history; but at that time natural science was considered only as an appanage of, or a relaxation in the study of medicine, and, therefore, he had to go through the curriculum of the latter profession, which, however, he had little taste for. In producing his geological and zoological bias it is probable that his residence in Manx-land, and the natural features of that country, had an influence; and to these features we may further advert taking them in connection with himself. For move, perhaps, than any other man be made the natural history of his native island his study, though our late friend, Mr. Cumming, did much.

As regards his geological bias—the southern four-fifths, at the least, of the island are composed of metamorphic and Cambrian slates and other succeeding palæozoic rocks, and are more or less mountainous: the northern and lessor portion is of a very different formation—boulder clays and drifts resting on a foundation which is nowhere visible, and of problematic nature. The surface here is mostly a sandy plain, with an occasional bog or curragh marked by a curious and luxuriant vegetation; in some places, however, the sand forms many rounded hills, and, besides, many ancient mounds and other earth or stone works mark the surface. Thus, on the estate we have especially alluded to is an antiquity combining the stone circle with the earthen barrow—a mound of earth with its periphery supported by large quartz stones. The glacial deposits are found high up amongst the hills, and at a lower level, as displayed along the sea-cliffs, there are truly wonderful accumulations of gravel and fragments of rocks, without any stratified arrangement; larger boulders, too, are washed out of the clays in the valleys, or by