In his next letter Mr. Norman informs Edward that he is again going to Shetland on a dredging expedition with his friend Mr. Jeffreys. They are to go in a steamer, and “ought to do good work.” How Edward envied them—going dry-footed, well fed, well-clad, and in a steamer,—while he was working along shore, with no tools, but his hands and his bag-net.
Mr. Norman returned from Shetland in July, and immediately recommenced his correspondence with Edward. “One of your shrimps,” he said, “is _Caligus isonyx_, _new_ to our Fauna, and a very interesting one it is. The male is as yet unknown. I hope you may succeed in meeting with it.” Towards the end of the year Edward forwarded a number of species new to Britain,—amongst others _Eurycercus hamellatus_ (obtained from the stomach of the perch), _Chondracantha solex_, _Mysis mixta_, and others. In one bottle of Crustaceans _three new species_ were found. The zoologists were evidently in ecstasies. Mr. Norman exhibited the results of his researches at the next meeting of the British Association. In a letter, dated the 15th September 1863, he observed: “I enclose a list of _fifteen_ Moray Firth Amphipoda, which you have found, and which are unknown to me. If you now, or at any future time, should be able to favour me with specimens of any of them, I shall be extremely obliged.” The specimens were afterwards sent to Mr. Norman.
On the 6th of February 1864 Mr. Bate wrote to Edward: “You will be glad to learn that your little specimen is _Opis Essichtii_, and that it has not been found previously in Britain. I have reconsidered the little Hyperia, and think that you are right; your remarks convince me that my first opinion was the more correct. You will therefore call it _Hyperia Medusarum_.”
[Sidenote: _THE SESSILE-EYED CRUSTACEA._]
Mr. Bate was then publishing in parts his work on _The Sessile-eyed Crustacea_. He sent Edward the several parts as they appeared. About the beginning of 1855 Mr. Bate says: “You will soon get a new part of Crustacea, and then you will find that all my time and attention has been occupied with the Isopods. So _do_ try and look out for some of these, and leave the Amphipods alone for a little while.”
And again: “Please never apologise for writing to me about Natural History. We have now been such long correspondents, that unless I hear from you now and then, I begin to fancy myself forgotten. Your letters always give me pleasure. The crustacean that you speak of is a _Vibilia_, the _first_ taken in the British Islands. Please let me know its habitat, and as much of its habits as you can.”