168 NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER 



found in the southern part of the Ohio valley attracted my 

 attention. Thus at a glance it was evident that the northern 

 forms of the lynx was far less varied than those of Kentucky. 

 The same decrease in local variation appeared in all the other 

 species occurring in the northern locality as I in memory com- 

 pared them with the more southern kindred. I still think that 

 this difference was well observed, and that it was due to the 

 colder climate of the more boreal station. I have since noted 

 in very many species in diverse groups, as for instance in the 

 Virginia oyster, that the range in the variation of the form 

 diminishes as the temperature of the water in which they dwell 

 becomes lower. Something of the same nature is observable 

 in many species of plants. It is likely to prove somewhat general 

 in organic forms. 



Probably the largest profit I found in the voyage about the 

 shores of the St. Lawrence, came to me from the discomfort 

 and the danger there encountered. Our conditions were in 

 both these regards rather worse than those of the common 

 fisherman; for in addition to the labor and trials of those who 

 go down to the sea for fish, we had to cleave to lee shores and 

 to fight our way through the surf to study the land. It was 

 very hard work in fairly hard danger. We did not see it at the 

 time, but I can recall that it made a curiously strong impression 

 on our skipper and on the sailors we met. We had among them 

 the reputation of being dare-devils. All this was well for us, 

 for the best you can do for a boy is to expose him to hardships 

 which bring him nigh to death. Being by two or three years 

 the youngest of the party, and moreover rather delicate, I 

 wonder that I did not suffer illness, through exposure where 

 we were not dry for weeks at a time, when we were badly and 

 irregularly fed, scaly and bruised all over from our hard knocks, 

 with our legs from the knees down blue from the whacks in 

 tugging at the old-fashioned windlass to get up the anchor, or 

 knocked about in our surf work. Moreover, I was sea-sick in 

 any storm, though I managed to keep up sailor's duty; I did 



