United Service Museum, 437 



well ask, why nature has given to the hippopotamus the very 

 same power, or to the otter, or the water rat *, or the beaver, 

 and has denied it to other animals. We do not ask of her 

 why she allows this or that faculty to one animal, and denies 

 it to another : we only enquire whether the fact be so; and, 

 certainly, Mr. C. Waterton is going a roundabout way to 

 disprove that she has gifted the dipper (sometimes so called, 

 says Mr. Waterton) with a singular power, by telling us that 

 it does not seem likely to him. Really, Sir, he has himself 

 demonstrated that some animals can flounder in the mud ; and 

 he has not been content with his prowess, but has tried at the 

 same time to bespatter me. Thank goodness, we have plenty 

 of clean water in the pump, despite the long drought. Mr. 

 Waterton answers my question, as to what the feathers of a 

 bird have to do with its anatomy^ by saying, " Every thing." 

 There I shall leave him, happy in his self-conceit, no doubt. 

 Every thing, Mr. Waterton : are you quite sure ? Try again : 

 take my advice for once, and try again. " Nil desperandum" 

 would do better for you than a Dutch motto. Every thing ? 

 indeed ! every thing ? 



" Being hard pressed for a demonstration of the supposed 

 subaquatic promenade, he [myself ] refers us to other writers, 

 and there the matter rests." Not quite so fast, Mr. Waterton, 

 not quite so fast, if you please : the matter does not rest there, 

 " sit venia verbo," nor shall it rest there. When first of all 

 I mentioned the subject, I said it had been well authenticated; 

 when you rail away, I give authorities — eyewitnesses: and 

 if that be not something like a demonstration, I do not know 

 what is. I believe, Sir, there is nothing else to answer in his 

 last letter. 



[Before this has been published, Mr. Waterton will have 

 left England, on a visit to the Continent for some little 

 time.] 



Art. XI. Instances of Mans Progress in the Extension of his 

 Knowledge of Natural History. 



The United Service [Scientific Society and its] Museum. — The following 

 information on these is derived from the fifth annual report of the council, 

 1836. The United Service Museum has been instituted as a central 

 repository for objects of professional art, science, and natural history, and 

 for books and documents relating to these subjects, or of general informa- 

 tion. The delivery of lectures on appropriate subjects is included in the 

 design of the institution. The Society consisted, on March 5. 1836, of 



* Since ivriting the above, I have received a letter from my esteemed 

 friend, J. C. Dale, Esq., in which he writes, " I have shot a rat walking, 

 or rather running, at the bottom of the water. Then why cannot the dipper 

 do the like ? " Why not, indeed ? Facts are stubborn things : one is 

 worth a hundred baseless theories. 



