In the meantime Mr. Norman was appealing to him for specimens of the Echinoderms, as he was about to prepare a paper on the subject. “I want your aid,” he said; “I know you will kindly give it me. The Urothoes are extremely difficult, and I want specimens from as many parts of the coast as possible, of all varieties and sizes, and from all depths of water. Will you collect for me some from your neighbourhood, from young to the largest size of all you can meet with, keeping distinct those from the shore and those from the deep water? It is important that they should be well preserved. . . . Please get the specimens as soon as possible, and send them to me by rail.”
EDWARD’S INDUSTRY.
Edward obeyed the behests of his several correspondents. He searched the rock pools, fished with his bag-net along the shore, and found various new specimens, which he sent to his friends. But he could not find the Echinodermata in deep water, for he had no means of reaching them. He had no boat, no dredging apparatus. Perhaps his correspondents forgot—perhaps they never knew—that he was a poor hard-working man, labouring at his trade during the day, with only a few hours in the early morning and a few hours at night, which he was able to employ in their service.
Not only did he work for his correspondents so industriously, but he also worked for others to whom they referred him. Thus Mr. Norman desired him to send his Sponges to Mr. Bowerbank, and his Ascidians to Mr. Alder of Newcastle, who were engaged in working up these subjects. The investigators did not know—for none of them ever saw him—that Edward had the greatest difficulty in earning money enough to maintain his large family. Sometimes, in fact, he was on the brink of starvation. And yet he worked for his naturalist friends as willingly and as hardly, perhaps more hardly, than if he had been a gentleman of independent fortune.
MR. BATE’S EULOGIUMS.
When the History of the Sessile-eyed Crustacea came out, the assistance which had been rendered by Edward to Mr. Bate was fully and generously acknowledged. Let any one look over the book, and he will find of how much service Edward was to Mr. Bate while he was preparing the work for publication. Mr. Bate frequently speaks of Edward as “our valued, able, and close observer.” In addition to the references to Edward already mentioned, we may subjoin the following. In speaking of the Lysianassa longicornus, Mr. Bate says that it “has been forwarded to him by that obliging and indefatigable naturalist, Mr. Edward of Banff;” that his only specimen of Anonyx obesus has been sent to him by Mr. Edward; that the Phoxus Holbelli has been sent to him from Banff “by that indefatigable lover of nature, Mr. Edward;” that the species of Darwinia compressa was first taken by Mr. Edward at the entrance to the Moray Firth; that the first species of the Calliope Ossiani had been received from Mr. Edward, “from which specimen the original description in the catalogue in the British Museum has been drawn up.” Mr. Bate also stated that he only knew of the genus Eurisus through an imperfect specimen which had been taken by Mr. Edward in the Moray Firth, “the first and only British representative of the genus that we have seen.” So too with the genus Protomedia, of which “only two specimens were collected at Banff by Mr. Edward.” A moiety was obtained of the first species, which was called Protomedia hirsutimana. In the second case, the entire Crustacean was obtained, of which Mr. Bate made a drawing and description, and he named it Protomedia Whitei, “in compliment to Mr. Adam White, author of a popular history of the British Crustacea.” Only a single specimen of the Cratippus tenuipes was sent him by Mr. Edward, who knew nothing of its habits. Mr. Bate also stated that he “had only seen three specimens of the Phoxus fusticaudatus, which were discovered by his valued correspondent, Mr. Edward of Banff, attached to the brachiæ of the common Soldier Crab.”
EDWARD’S DISCOVERIES.
Besides these discoveries, Edward found an immense variety of Crustaceans of other orders in the Moray Firth, which had never been found before. Some of these were new to Britain, some of them new to science. But we will not bewilder the reader by introducing the jaw-breaking names of the newly-discovered Crustaceans. We have thought it right, however, to mention a few of those introduced in Messrs. Bate and Westwood’s History of the Sessile-eyed Crustacea, for the purpose of confirming the statements which we have made as to the indefatigable enthusiasm of Edward in the pursuit of Natural History. It must also be mentioned that the Sessile-eyed Crustacea constitute only a single order, and that on the one side of them there are the Stalk-eyed Crustacea and on the other the Entomostraceous Crustacea.
THE FLOATING MEDUSA.
There is one point, however, that must be referred to before we conclude this heavy chapter. The impression prevailed at one time that the Hyperiidæ were parasites of the Medusa or Jelly Fish. In 1862 Mr. Bate acknowledged the receipt of a Crustacean, which he denominated Hyperia medusarum. He said, “If I am correct, this is the first time that I have known it as British.” In a subsequent letter (23d December 1863), Mr. Bate said, “It is an interesting circumstance that you should have found the Hyperia and Lestrigonus free on the shore; inasmuch as they have previously only been known as inhabitants of the floating Medusa. I wish you would direct your attention further to the subject. . . . Hunt and be successful.”