148 JAMES SMITHSON AND HIS BEQUEST. 



milk ; lay in the barn, firmly expecting to stay there for a week, without 

 even bread." 



"Sunday the 26th. — The man of the island came at five or six o'clock 

 in the morning to tell us that the wind was dropped, and that it was a 

 good day. Set off in the small boat, which took water so fast that my 

 servant was obliged to bail constantly — the sail, an old plaid — the ropes, 

 old garters." 



On the 29th, the tourists are at Oban, where a little circumstance is 

 noted, which significantly marks the zeal and activity of the collector 

 of minerals and fossils, and the light in which devotion to geology is 

 sometimes viewed. 



"September 29.— This day packed up my fossils in a barrel, and paid 2.9. 

 6d. for their going by water to Edinburgh. Mr. Stevenson charged half 

 a crown a night for my rooms, because I had brought ' stones and dirtf 

 as he said into it." 



A month later he visited Xorthwich. 



"October 28. — Went to visit one of the salt mines, in which they told 

 me there were two kinds of salt. They let me down in a bucket, in which 

 I only put one foot, and I had a miner with me. I think the first shaft 

 was about thirty yards, at the bottom of which was a pool of water, but 

 on one side there was a horizontal opening, from which sunk a second 

 shaft, which went to the bottom of the pit, and the man let us down in 

 a bucket smaller than the first."* 



These incidents indicate the character of Smithson as a scientific en- 

 thusiast, not easily deterred by the fear of personal inconvenience from 

 the pursuit of his favorite object. 



Much of his life was passed on the Contiuent, in Berlin, Paris, Kome, 

 Florence, and Geneva, enjoying everywhere the friendship and respect 

 of the leading men of science,! and always devoting himself to the study 

 of physical phenomena. Distinguished authors, as Gay-Lussac, Marcet, 

 Hatty, Berzelius, and Cordier, presented him with their scientific papers! 

 as soon as published, and he enjoyed intimate association and corre- 

 spondence with Davy, Gilbert, Arago, Biot, Klaproth, Black, and 

 others. § 



As a chemist. Sir Da vies Gilbert, President of the Eoyal Society, pro- 

 nounced Smithson to be the rival of Wbllaston, of whom Magendie said, 

 ••his hearing was so fine hemight have been thought to be blind, and his 

 sight so piercing he might have been supposed to be deaf." It is related 

 of liim that he made a galvanic battery in a thimble, and a platinum wire 

 much finer than any hair. 



* Smithsonian Miscell. Coll., No. \\->7, p. 140. 



tGalton, in speaking of Erasmus Darwin, remarks: " He was held in very nigh 

 esteem by his scientific friends, including such celebrities as Priestley and James Watt, 

 and it is by a mini's position among his contemporaries and competitors that his work 

 may ni< >^r justly be appraised." Francis Galtou, English Men of Science. 



tSee Appendix. — Note 5. 



$ See Appendix. — Note G. 



