204 GILBERT WHITE AND OTHERS 



great commiseration, but there is an utterly false tone 

 (as it seems to me) in all his writings.* 



Another naturahst of the same period, with whom 

 Newton came much into contact, but of a different 

 quality from some of those others already mentioned, 

 was Mr. Henry Seebohm, who had made a considerable 

 fortune at Sheffield, and late in life devoted his energies 

 to Ornithology. He made two journeys to Siberia, in 

 1875 with Mr. Harvie-Brown, and in 1877 alone, and 

 published two volumes describing his voyages and dis- 

 coveries. Newton's first meeting with him was in 1877, 

 when he went to Sheffield to see Seebohm's collection of 

 eggs. 



Early in December I took train to Sheffield and 

 gratified my eyes with the spoils w^hich the adventurous 

 Seebohm reaped in Siberia. And very great they are 

 for an Arctic harvest, interrupted as it was by two ship- 

 wrecks in the river Yenesei. Each of these disasters 

 cost him a week's diversion from his proper pursuits, 

 and occurring, as they did, in the height of the short 

 summer, they seriously crippled his operations. On the 

 whole he thinks himself fortunate in saving what he had 

 got, and save it he did, every egg-shell. That is a 

 wonderful man, and it is a pity he is so very rough in 

 his ways. I take it he will prove himself a leader now 

 that he is fairly come to the front. At the Zool. Soc. 

 one evening he described his expedition in a way better 

 than anything I have ever heard there before ; just saying 

 the right thing, neither too much nor too little, and 

 keeping up the interest of his audience (a good one) for 

 a whole hour most admirably and without the slightest 

 apparent effort. Huxley, who heard him somewhere 

 else, is said to have pronounced him a born lecturer ; 

 and he ought to know the necessary qualifications if 

 any one does.f 



* Letter to G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton, September 12, 1904. 

 t Letter to Lord Lilford, January 7, 1878. 



