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Coelacanth. Nielsen had worked on Coelacanth fossils all his adult 

 life. He had baked in heat and frozen in terrible cold hunting them 

 from the equator to the Arctic circle, so that they were not mere 

 fossils and academic abstractions to him, but an intimate part of 

 his life. On his way to South Africa, Nielsen had been staggered 

 by the comparative lack of interest in Coelacanths he found in an 

 important institution in London. One scientist, indeed, had said he 

 was 'Sick of Coelacanths'. It was beyond Nielsen. When we got 

 into the room where old Malania lay, Nielsen walked all round and 

 looked for some time in silence. Then he said, almost breathless 

 with emotion, and with deep sincerity, 'How beautiful.' And so 

 he is, old man Coelacanth, to a scientist, a wonderful and beautiful 

 thing. 



Nielsen is, of course, a Scandinavian, and we heard later that 

 before his arrival our staff speculated on his appearance. It was 

 decided he would be huge, blond, and genial, but instead Nielsen 

 is small and dark, active in mind and body, and has a rapier-like 

 humour. His English is excellent, as we learnt when he gave a 

 public lecture we had requested on his work. He is no soft labora- 

 tory worker, but as tough as a scientist in his field has to be to get 

 anywhere. He would have been at home on the shores of a Triassic 

 swamp. 



When he got to work on Malania it was interesting to see that 

 he went first to examine that extraordinary puzzling cavity and 

 channels in the nose, next to look for traces of the air-bladder, 

 exactly as I had done myself. Smoking is not permitted in our 

 highly inflammable Department, so that Nielsen got to know the 

 outside of our building quite well. 



After a week of intensive study, Nielsen was due to leave. Early 

 that morning, at his special request, we went for the last time to 

 the laboratory. He took the Coelacanth's pectoral fin in his hand 

 and shaking it, said solemnly, 'Good-bye, Malania.' It was very 

 sincere and quite touching. 



It is interesting to record that by courtesy of the French 

 authorities in the Union, we managed to send Nielsen's heavy 

 baggage to Madagascar on a French warship that happened to be 

 passing. Nielsen went over by air, and later wrote to tell me that 

 he had got more than two thousand splendid Coelacanth fossils 

 in Madagascar. One could hardly describe them as anything but 



