no 



thoughtful assistance constantly received from all branches of 

 the public services in South Africa. Many people complain about 

 public servants, but that is not my experience at all. 



I read those cabled words again. So that had come into it as 

 well, as if there was not enough already; but it was no very great 

 surprise. My leaflet method had tremendous advantages, but it 

 also had certain drawbacks, one of which was that while so great a 

 sum for a fish, just one fish, would certainly arrest attention 

 everywhere, if one were found by its aid when I was not about, in 

 more enlightened people it might well excite natural human 

 cupidity. If this man was prepared to pay £ioo each for these 

 fishes at such a distance, surely they must be worth a lot more ? 

 I had certainly never concealed my views about the importance 

 and value of the Coelacanth, the leaflet showed that clearly 

 enough, and if the French had had the remotest belief in my 

 views and in the possibility that Coelacanths might live in their 

 waters, they would have done something about it before if there 

 had been anyone suflBciently interested from the scientific side 

 alone. The very fact that the leaflets taken by Hunt had been 

 new to the Comoran authorities and that they had had no reserva- 

 tions in distributing them was clear indication that the leaflets 

 sent to Madagascar had apparently not really interested the 

 French there, scientifically or otherwise, for if they had been 

 interested in any way, surely my leaflet would have induced 

 them to go into the matter on their own, to hunt and to offer a 

 reward themselves. It could have been done easily enough, and 

 no one could have criticised them for it. Yes, whichever way you 

 looked at it that was my Coelacanth, it had been found as a 

 result of my efforts and ideas, and unless it was just another stray 

 like the one at East London, it did mean, as I had strongly sus- 

 pected, that it had been under the very noses of the French all 

 along, and they hadn't seen it. I realised full well that one does not 

 value anything until it is desired by others, and I suppose that at 

 the back of my mind there had all along been an unspoken fear 

 that all the fuss and publicity might induce the French authorities 

 to confiscate the fish. In the excitement of the moment they might 

 not be prepared to give full recognition to all that had gone before, 

 to all the years of work that had led to this discovery, to the leaflet 

 that had really tracked this treasure. Hunt must be in a difficult 



