CHAPTER TWO 



A Problem in Deduction 



HIS will be a chapter of prece- 

 dents. I purpose to reveal a history 

 of the blunders and disappoint- 

 ments rather than the easy successes 

 attending certain of my own studies 

 in connection with the sea. I shall describe how, 

 in the pursuit of Nature's elusive secrets, vari- 

 ous pitfalls beset the trail, retarding the natural- 

 ist's progress often for years. I intend to detail 

 not the romantic way in which the staggering in- 

 tellect of a laboratory recluse is popularly be- 

 lieved to rise superior to those obstacles, but the 

 means and methods in investigation as they are 

 actually applied. I shall show sufficient for the 

 intending student to enable him to profit thereby; 

 to the world at large, I shall show a side of this 

 brain-bursting business of biological lore-hunting 

 seldom bruited by the bearded professors; in short, 



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