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but Grahamstown is very far away from the centre of things. 

 Then came a letter from a complete stranger, the late Bransby 

 A. Key, of Johannesburg, inviting me to write a popular book 

 about fishes, saying that a thousand pounds had been made 

 available for this purpose. 



By a curious coincidence this letter was dated 26th September 

 (1945), which is the joint birthday of my wife and myself (our 

 young son grew up with the quaint idea that all married couples 

 had birthdays on the same day). Partly as a result of my own early 

 struggles in the study of fishes it had come to be my ambition to 

 produce a book of this kind, and several years before, without any 

 hope of funds to publish, I had set out to produce one. It soon 

 became clear that its cost would far exceed any funds I might 

 hope to raise, so that the whole thing, text and illustrations, was 

 packed away. 



After receiving this letter, I got out and examined that earlier 

 manuscript. It was interesting to observe how much I had pro- 

 gressed in the meantime, for I could see clearly that what I had 

 composed then was not good enough. My ideas had enlarged and 

 crystallised since that time, and what I had in mind was much 

 more ambitious and comprehensive. 



In reply to Key it was possible to give him an almost complete 

 outline of the book I envisaged, and to say that a thousand pounds 

 was not enough. He replied at once that a satisfactory plan and a 

 competent author were far more difficult to find than the money ; 

 that could be raised, and so a Board of Trustees was got together. 

 Before the end of the year (1945), the project was in full swing. 



If chemistry and fishes had been equally balanced before, fate 

 was now loading the ichthyological pan. Here were not only my 

 beloved fishes, but a work I had longed to do, something big, 

 with a definite aim and end. 



About this time we heard the first rumours of the foundation 

 of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, which 

 would co-ordinate all scientific research and administer funds in 

 its aid. Would it be able to help me in the move I was now more 

 than dreaming about ? Would it help me to fishes, to change from 

 sulphuretted hydrogen to formalin? Meanwhile, work on the 

 book went on apace. Our house became more of a laboratory and 

 a studio than a home. I sought out a number of young artists and 



