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Gosse; even his passage from Philadelphia to Mobile, in the dirtiest of boats, with the most churlish of skippers, who hated him as a "Britisher," afforded him pleasure. When he entered the Gulf Stream, all discomforts were forgotten in the amusement of fishing up some of the gulf-weed, which was covered with all manner of small creatures. Many of these, he says in his diary, he preserved for a while in sea-water, to watch their motions and ways. This was probably the initial idea of the aquarium. In all his researches, Gosse preferred to investigate the prob. lem of life in the lower forms of creation, and to study the habits of living creatures -rather than to accumulate specimens for the closed cases of a museum.

The voyage in the dirty schooner had lasted four weeks, when, on turning a sandy cape covered with pine-trees, the city of Mobile came into sight. Here Gosse made the last entry in his diary, written while afloat; it is sad enough. He writes:

Drawing so near to the time on which hangs my fate, my means nearly exhausted, and uncertain what success I may meet with, I have been all day oppressed with that strange faintness, a sickness of heart, which always comes over me on the eve of any expected conjunction.

A fortunate accident, which reads al most like an incident in fiction, brought Gosse into communication with a fellow passenger on board the river steamer in which he embarked after leaving Mobile. This fellow passenger turned out to be the Honorable Chief-Justice Saffold, who was on his way to his estate at Dallas. Curiously enough, he was at the moment wanting a master for a school composed of his own sons, and the sons of some of his neighbor proprietors. Here was the very man he was seeking; Gosse had made a favorable impression on his chance acquaintance; the bargain was struck there and then, with the promptness peculiar to colonials. Within an hour, the steamer dropped Gosse and his luggage at the solitary landing-place -nearest to Dallas; the chief-justice had business further up the river, so he left the new schoolmaster to find his way as best he could to the village of Mount Pleasant. After some comical experiences, he found lodgings in this place but the schoolhouse, a rough shanty of unhem logs, was situated some way off in a romantic spot, a clearing in the forest with two noble oaks left for shade. The furniture was of split pine boards, unsawn and un

planed, and the boys were almost as rough as their surroundings; but they soon grew to be fond of their "strange, insect-col lecting, animal-loving master," and before long formed themselves into a volunteer corps of collectors.

To the naturalist himself, it was like a transformation scene to feel at rest, his daily bread assured, and to see himself surrounded by all the gorgeous luxuriance of a southern clime, after being so long a dweller in northern latitudes.

It is a curious fact, remarked by Gosse as well as others, that many wild animals forsake the interior recesses of the forest to approach the habitation of the guncarrier, man.

The writer has received personal assurance that the bears of the Tatra Mountains, in northern Hungary, will descend into the plain and cross the railway lines to feed in the fields of ripe maize. Their love of raspberries, too, is well known; on one occasion a bear intruded on a peasant woman, who was gathering this fruit on the slopes of the Tatra; she threw down the basket, and fled in haste; but bruin intended no personal violence, he made no attempt to follow her, but simply regaled himself with the contents of her basket.

In Alabama, Gosse remarked that squir rels mostly abounded on the confines of the cultivated districts. In that part of the world they are made into excellent pies; but they seemed willing to pay their tribute to the planter's table, as long as they could disport themselves in the cornfields. They carry on their depredations from the time the grain is forming in the sheath, till it is ripe to be housed - and they waste more than they eat.

While Philip Gosse was teaching the boys in the log-hut, and learning his own lessons from nature in the wilds- this squirrel nuisance became acute. The mischief they did to the crops was very serious indeed; and all efforts at keeping them under proved unavailing; there was, in short, a perfect plague of squirrels. At this juncture, a fellow from the North sent round an announcement that he would give a lecture on an infallible preventive to the depredations of the squirrels. Planters eagerly assembled from all sides, and though a considerable entrance-fee was charged, the room was crowded — Gosse being among the number. The lecturer, who had a plausible manner, occupied some time in describing the mischief wrought by the squirrels, and the difficulty of coping with them. It required no

lecturer to tell this to the unfortunate | trated him for the time; and his employers planters.

At last, he approached the real kernel of his oration. "You wish," he said, "to hear my infallible preventive, the absolute success of which I am able to guarantee. Gentlemen, I have observed that the squirrels invariably begin their attacks on the outside row of corn in the field. Omit the outside row, and they won't know where to begin!", The money was in his pocket; he bowed and vanished by the platform door; his horse was tied to a post, he leaped into the saddle and was seen no more in that credulous settlement. The act was one of extreme courage as well as impudence in that land of ready lynching; but after the first murmur of stupefaction and roar of anger, the disappointed audience dissolved into the most good-humored laughter at themselves.

taking advantage of his illness as an excuse, superseded him in his post. This does not give one a very pleasant idea of the Southern gentlemen " on whom the English lavished a good deal of sympathy in the late war.

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Philip Gosse now bade adieu to the New World, where his varied experiences had brought him little besides disappointment and failure. After a brief visit to Dorsetshire we find him, in the summer of 1839, in London, casting about for the means of subsistence. The sale of his natural history collections afforded him some aid; and fortunately he had preserved the manuscript of the "Canadian Naturalist." This was now his one and only chance; and after several vain atThe laughter and good humor evinced tempts at preaching for absent ministers, on this occasion was by no means the and teaching flower-painting to young characteristic of social life in Alabama, ladies, he resolved to show his manuscript as Gosse himself was destined to discover. to his cousin, Mr. Thomas Bell, whose Before long he was made to feel, in spite work on the "British Quadrupeds," in of the easy hospitality that had, so to 1837, had given him a considerable repuspeak, given him a free pass into their tation as a naturalist. Contrary to Gosse's midst, that if he did not in all things ac- expectations for he was utterly without cept their ways and their institutions, he hope or courage in this literary venture was but a stranger in the land a stranger his cousin was pleased with the work, and of suspicious political opinions,, who dared strongly recommended it to Mr. Van to be critical, and must be suppressed. Voorst, the scientific publisher. Even what they called his "British gentleman subsequently appointed a day brogue" was an offence, for the planters for Gosse to call upon him. spoke with another accent. He was frequently taunted with the prophecy, inMeanwhile [says his biographer] the shilsisted on with rancorous feeling, that lings, nursed as they might be, were slipping, "America would shortly whip the Brit- slipping away. The practice of going once a ish," and political discussion became im-doned, and instead of it, a herring was eaten day to a small eating-house had to be abanpossible. But the greatest discomfort of as slowly as possible in the dingy attic... his position arose from the horrors he was At last the day broke on which Mr. Van forced to witness in the punishments in- Voorst's answer was to be given, and with as flicted on the unhappy slaves; especially much of the gentleman about him as he could during the bustle of cotton-picking. The recover, the proud and starving author presoutherners were so jealous at that time of sented himself in Paternoster Row. He was any foreign strictures upon their "domes- no longer feeling any hope, but merely the tic institution," that Gosse had reason to extremity of dejection and disgust. The wish to be out again in the street with his miserable believe that his correspondence was ex-roll of manuscript in his hands, was the emoamined to ascertain if he touched upon the tion uppermost in his mind. The publisher question of slavery in his letters. In daily began slowly: "I like your book; I shall be life, there was nothing for his righteous pleased to publish it; I will give you one hunindignation but a heart-sickening silence. dred guineas for it." One hundred guineas! He records how

The shrieks of women under the cow-hide whip, cynically plied in the very courtyard beneath his windows at night, would make him almost sick with distress and impotent anger; he tried to stuff up his ears to deaden the sound of the agonizing cries which marked the conventional progress of this very peculiar

"domestic institution."

In the late autumn Gosse had an attack of malarial fever, which completely pros

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It was Peru and half the Indies! The reac tion was so violent, that the demure and min

isterial looking youth, closely buttoned up in his worn broadcloth, broke down utterly into hysterical sob upon sob, while Mr. Van Voorst

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murmuring My dear young man! My dear young man!"-hastened out to fetch wine, and minister to wants which it was beyond the power of pride to conceal any longer.

A very fair amount of success attended the publication of the "Canadian Natural.

ist," but as yet the author did not perceive that his true vocation was scientific literature. His morbid religious views often depressed and trammelled the free exercise of his mind; the sedentary life in a town invariably threw his thoughts inwards, with an injurious result upon his spiritual vision. He, like many another, needed an open-air life for the proper adjustment of his faculties; he was always at his best, intellectually, when seeking the truth from nature at first hand.

moths being rare. In consequence of this, he turned his attention to the birds; and having by this time become a very fair shot, he had no trouble in making good his collection. During the tropical rains, he describes himself as hard at work; drying and packing his plants, preparing his birds, wrapping up his orchids, cleansing his shells, and packing them generally for transmission to his sale agent in London. Gosse's description of riding off before daybreak into the forest, is infectious in Since his return to England, Gosse had its enthusiasm; and we are made partakbeen diligently pursuing the work of self-ers in his deep joy at the glowing tints of education, mainly in the direction of natu- dawn, which chase the shadows from the ral history; but so diffident was he, at mountain-side, and awake all that aboundfirst, that he could hardly be persuaded ing gladness of life which hails the brightto undertake the writing of an Introduc- ness of a tropical sun. tion to Zoology," proposed to him by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. The preparation of these two vol umes, for which he received £170, took Gosse very frequently to the British Museum, and led to his making many valuable | acquaintances among other men of science. It was a wholly new and a very delightful sensation, this intellectual sympathy, which now warmed the reserved man into something like geniality with his fellows.

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Hitherto, buffeted by fortune, uature had been his only friend perhaps, therein lay his strength. To Philip Gosse's honor it must be mentioned, that the first use he made of his improved finances was to offer a home to his aged parents; his father, a man who had always been hopelessly at odds with fortune, was now in his seventy-eighth year and a confirmed invalid. A modest dwelling was found in Kentish Town, with the advantage of a long garden behind, and beyond waste fields, stretching away to the north. One night Gosse had fastened a bull's-eye lantern to a tree, watching for night moths when he suddenly found himself" run in " by a couple of zealous constables, to whom he had some difficulty in explaining the fact that his strange occupation was entirely law-abiding.

He was accompanied in these expedi tions by a negro lad named Sam, whose intelligence became so developed during his few months of service, that he could be trusted to make collecting expeditions by himself, and he succeeded in procuring not a few unique specimens. His memory with respect to species was remarkable.

Often and often [says Mr. Gosse] when a thing has appeared to me new, I have appealed to Sam, who on a moment's examination would reply, 'No, we took this, in such a place, or on such a day; " and I invariably found on my return home that his memory

was correct.

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To the naturalist's regret, the time had now arrived for him to leave Jamaica, and in August, 1846, he took his passage in a homeward-bound steamer. The vessel stopped for a few hours at San Juan, Porto Rico, and the passengers availed themselves of the opportunity of seeing the town. With the exception of Gosse, the whole party visited the cathedral; but it was characteristic of this strangely preju diced and intolerant man, that he would never under any consideration enter what he called "a popish mass-house." Still more curious was the fact, that though a great lover of poetry, even including Byron, who in youth had first fired his love of literature, yet he would never read In 1843 Gosse turned his attention to a Shakespeare, because he was a playnew branch of natural history-the deep- wright. Southey he liked, for, as he said, sea fauna; and the result was the produc-" he was the best naturalist among the tion of one of his most popular books, English poets," and had described sea"The Ocean." While this was going anemones like a zoologist in "Thalaba." through the press, he set off again on his travels; this time to Jamaica; going thither to collect objects, generally of zoological interest. He remained on the island eighteen months, a period of great refreshment of spirit, though he was disappointed in the insects, butterflies and

A further instance of the limitations imposed by the narrowness of Gosse's creed, occurs in one of his unpublished letters of a later date. His correspondent had probably referred to Tennyson's "Holy Grail," and remarked on the poetic influence of this "solemn and weighty legend.

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To me [writes Mr. Gosse in his indignant search were to be divided and subdivided reply] the Holy Grail" is a solemn and into well-defined limitations. The natuweighty crime, resting on ages of deepest dark- ralist who bade us view a whole world of ness and blackest evil, that ever were, for complex beauty and varied interest, no they were the ages of unchallenged dominion of Anti-Christ. This San grail is but an ab- more exists; but we have instead a host breviate form of sang real,the real blood." of specialists there are mammologists, The whole superstition rested on and emmolluscologists, and ichthyologists - and bodied the abomination of trans-substantiation a man must now devote himself to a rethe great diabolic engine by which the Papacy has maintained its dreadful dominion.

stricted division of labor, and peg away for half a lifetime at spiders or sponges.

naturalist's diary: "E. delivered of a son. Received green swallow from Jamaica." Both entries proved of permanent interest; the "son" has become his father's biographer, and the " green swallow" reposes in perennial beauty behind a glass case in the South Kensington Museum.

After a long spell of hard work in London, Gosse's health compelled him, in 1852, to seek again the open-air life that was necessary to his well-being. The results of his visits to Babbicombe and Ilfracombe were given in that delightful volume, fragrant of tonic breezes, "A Naturalist's Rambles on the Devonshire Coast." Not only is " beauty enregistered in every nook" of woodland mystery, but it is to be found in many a pool left by the receding tide, where in the clear crystal may be seen the puckered fronds of the oar-weed, drooping beside the corolla-like crown of tentacles which form the feelers of some brilliant sea-anemone.

While working heartily and profitably Fortunately for his own fame and the at his profession, Philip Gosse had wisely general good, the necessity at this period taken unto himself a wife, a lady who not of earning his daily bread hindered Gosse only shared his religious convictions, but from spending his militant efforts in driv- whose talents and culture enabled her to ing non-elect souls from the errors of the assist himlin his task of translating EhrenPapacy. He returned from Jamaica to berg's important work on the influence of find himself in the full swing of successful fossil infusoria in building up the great scientific and literary work. The pub-globe itself. This happy marriage had lication of his "Naturalist's Sojourn in taken place in 1848; a subsequent event Jamaica," and his "Birds of Jamaica," is thus characteristically marked in the added greatly to his reputation. Gosse may now be said to have found his true vocation in life, which was no other than the popularization of science. It is familiar enough in our day, but he was the first who sent the learned and the unlearned to spend delightful hours on the seashore; and, as some one said, "invented a new. pleasure" in the marine aquarium, which owed its complete realization to his ingenuity in applying the simple use of nature's own laws. The idea of maintaining the balance between animal and vegetable life on chemical principles, was not newnothing is new! At the meeting of the British Association, in 1833, Daubeny read a suggestive paper on the action of light upon plants; he proved that light is a specific stimulus, keeping alive those functions from which the assimilation of carbon and the evolution of oxygen result. In truth this mother-thought, together with Priestley's earlier experiments on the emission of oxygen gas by plants, was unknown to Gosse when he began his independent researches. As a matter of fact, the idea of the aquarium formulated itself in his mind while he was investigating, by aid of the microscope, certain of the lower forms of life, notably the rotifers, those curiously conditioned wheel animalcules, which henceforth became his speciality, and formed his most important and enduring work as a scientist. The time when Gosse became one of nature's ablest interpreters to the uninitiated was, so to speak, the parting of the ways in respect to science; something of romance and wonderment, like a halo formed of the morning mist, still surrounded natural science, but henceforth the objects of reVOL. LXXVII. 3964

LIVING AGE.

On one of his lonely rambles, Gosse came upon a large water-filled cavity in the rock, but which was too deep to be easily examined. Without a moment's hesitation the eager sportsman stripped as for a bath, and plunged into the cool reservoir. He was rewarded by finding "a madrepore of refulgent orange color, which proved to be the Balanophyllia, a fossil coral, whose existence with an actinia-like body of richly colored living flesh had never been suspected."

Gosse's researches at this period led to a redistribution of genera, and the naming of many new species of British sea-anemones. As an accurate and careful observer, he stands almost unrivalled among his fellow workers; and it is an interest

ist," but as yet the author did not perceive that his true vocation was scientific literature. His morbid religious views often depressed and trammelled the free exercise of his mind; the sedentary life in a town invariably threw his thoughts inwards, with an injurious result upon his spiritual vision. He, like many another, needed an open-air life for the proper adjustment of his faculties; he was always at his best, intellectually, when seeking the truth from nature at first hand.

moths being rare. In consequence of this, he turned his attention to the birds; and having by this time become a very fair shot, he had no trouble in making good his collection. During the tropical rains, he describes himself as hard at work; drying and packing his plants, preparing his birds, wrapping up his orchids, cleansing his shells, and packing them generally for transmission to his sale agent in London. Gosse's description of riding off before daybreak into the forest, is infectious in Since his return to England, Gosse had its enthusiasm; and we are made partakbeen diligently pursuing the work of self-ers in his deep joy at the glowing tints of education, mainly in the direction of natu- dawn, which chase the shadows from the ral history; but so diffident was he, at mountain-side, and awake all that aboundfirst, that he could hardly be persuaded ing gladness of life which hails the brightto undertake the writing of an "Introduc- ness of a tropical sun. tion to Zoology," proposed to him by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. The preparation of these two volumes, for which he received £170, took Gosse very frequently to the British Museum, and led to his making many valuable acquaintances among other men of science. It was a wholly new and a very delightful sensation, this intellectual sympathy, which now warmed the reserved man into something like geniality with his fellows.

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Hitherto, buffeted by fortune, nature had been his only friend perhaps, therein lay his strength. To Philip Gosse's honor it must be mentioned, that the first use he made of his improved finances was to offer a home to his aged parents; his father, a man who had always been hopelessly at odds with fortune, was now in his seventy-eighth year and a confirmed invalid. A modest dwelling was found in Kentish Town, with the advantage of a long garden behind, and beyond waste fields, stretching away to the north. One night Gosse had fastened a bull's-eye lantern to a tree, watching for night moths when he suddenly found himself "run in " by a couple of zealous constables, to whom he had some difficulty in explaining the fact that his strange occupation was entirely law-abiding.

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