LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. t5 



tion to be gleaned from them refers to the hfe, character, and 

 work of the various correspondents as much as to Swainson himself, 

 or even more so. 



It is not my intention to enter into the details of this Catalogue 

 which I have the honour of offering to the Society ; but if you 

 permit me I will read to you a general report on the correspondence, 

 with a few remarks on some of the more I'emarkable portions. 



The letters are generally in a good state of preservation, 

 considering that they accompanied Swainson to New Zealand, 

 where they were kept for half a century before they were returned 

 by one of his daughters to England, to the care of Sir Joseph 

 Hooker. The writing has faded and, in a few letters, has become 

 illegible. There are 934 of them, written by 236 correspondents, 

 only 15 being di*afts of letters from Swainson. They are dated 

 from the year 1806 to 1840, thus extendiug over the entire period 

 of his scientific activity. The numerical proportions in which they 

 are distributed over the several years show that the collection 

 before us must be a fairly complete representation of Swainson's 

 scientific correspondence. There is, however, one year, viz., 1832, 

 in which the collection is evidently mutilated ; only four letters 

 bear that date, and they are from writers whose names commence 

 with B, so that there can be no doubt that the greater portion of 

 the correspondence of that year is lost. Also for the years 

 1835 and 1836 only a few letters are in existence ; but this can be 

 accounted for by the death of Swainson's first wife, whose loss was 

 a sad blow to him, greatly impairing his powers of application to 

 original work. The thought of emigrating and freeing himself 

 from the ceaseless toil of his numerous literary engagements 

 originated at that period. 



A certain proportion of the letters are of a purely personal 

 nature, and have no relation to Swainson's scientific work : some 

 containing more or less interesting biographical information, others 

 referring to matters so trivial that the reason is not apparent why 

 Swainson should have preserved them. It was not my business 

 to eliminate them from my Catalogue, but no notice is taken of 

 their contents. 



In order to place the following remarks before you in a some- 

 what coherent and intelligible manner, I propose to connect them 

 by a few data taken from the outline-sketch of Swainson's life that 

 appeared among the obituary notices of deceased Fellows in our 

 Proceedings for the year 1856. 



Swainson was born in 1789 : his education must have been of 

 an elementary, unfinished character, for we are told that he entered 

 the public service as a clerk in the Board of Customs at the early 

 age of 14 ; but being imbued with an intense love for Natural 

 History, and a great desire to visit foreign countries, he had 

 himself transferred to an appointment abroad, which he held from 

 1806-15. During these years he was stationed in Malta and, for 

 a longer period, in Sicily, paying visits to Greece and various 

 parts of Italy. He seems to have had ample leisure for acquainting 



