, 1881-03-19

naturalist ,retlringY The longest life, the
hardest voyages, the most endless collec.
tons will not satiate the curiosity of q
conchologist about the colours, let alone
the convolutions and the texture, of his
brilliant ~favourites. No forester knows or
will know all the trees of the forest, or, if
he does, will know enough Of their growth,
structure, and climatic conditions of repro
duction. to be satisfied with himself. No
ornithOlogist ever boasts even to himself
that his knowledge of his kingdom, with
it's wonderfully separate subjects, so un-
like all other living things in the grand
condition of their lives, is more than frag.
mentary, or insusceptible of increase. He
has never examined all the eagles eyes. or
the angles at which the ~humming-bird'S
feathers lie and therefore flash so unac-
countably. Who knows all about lions, or
can prove whether or no the wild beasts
rage is an evolution from hereditary hum
ger continued through agesY Mr.. Buck
land attended to fish principally, fish from
sharks to minnows, and collected, it is
said, five thousand specimens, and was
always hurrying about, inspecting, or re-
ceiving, or writing about new fishes; but
if he had lived q thousand years, he would
not nave exhausted his pursuit. There
would have been still much to know about
varieties of gills, and fins. and scales. and
more about the fish which could or could
not be cultivated; and when that had
been done, there would remain the mex
haustible and bewildering subject of the
comparative intellectual capacity'o o. differ
ent fishes. Do carp know their friends, or
not A pursuit always so fresh, always
so inexhaustible, and always so full OF
results is one high condition of happiness;
and it has occasionally, and might have
o~ftener, this addition that the naturalist
may live by it. Happy the man who III
earning his living is in his groove of work,
who feels that his faculties are not twisted
or repressed by his daily labour, and has
in his hardest toll pleasure; but what IS
his happiness to the naturaliStS who earns
his income in his play? Imagine the
street-boy TO whom hopscotch brings a
reputable and sufficient subsistence, and
yet who can never be tired of hopscotch F!
Mr.. Buckland, curious in fish, u fond OF
open air, and of travelling about. and OF
fdgetting in briny places, was set to in
spect fisheries, and instruct fishermen, and
write about fish in Land and Water, and
tell mankind generally anything it might
want TO know about fishes. and all the
while was adding to his WI store and the
worlds store of knowledge OF a subject
which he justly thought great. and got by
doing all that an excellent income. What
wonder that he was happy and cheerful,
and given to jocularities, sometimes very
clever, sometimes only whimsical, ocoa-
sionally a little foolish; and had IN him a
most attractive element of childlikeness,
which oven secluded fishermen, jealous OF
the Government chaps". and halt-dread.
ing either interference or fines, found 1T
impossible to resist? They 'cottoned' to
him always, like dogs to a fearless child.
Mr.. Buckland could have induced Irish
fishermen to fish without bOunties, a feat
supposed impossible and the magnet In
him was the naturalist's magnet, Audi.
bon's, or Whites, or Waterton's magnet,
the charm of a nature full of the content
which springs from harmony between lnte-
rest and occupation. The man is fortunate
who lives in the open air and amid natural
heauties. but the naturalist is never out OF
them he is lucky who adds aught to the
knowledge of his fellow-man, but the
naturalist cannot stir without making an
addition to it he is most fayoured whose
occupation forces him to think OF greater
things than itself, who, like the astr0no.
mer. must. in order to learn, for ever LOOK
unwards.-and where is the naturalist
without ever present piety of some kind
II is very comic to hear that Mr.. auckland
rejected Evolution, because "my father
was Dean of Westminster; l was bred IN
the principles of Church and State, and l
will never admit itn; but the thought which
nrompted that half-humor0us, half-serious
r. 80 9th waa not comic at all.