82 EMINENT NATURALISTS. 



he was helped greatly by several of tliem. On one 

 occasion lie wrote as follows to the local paper, which 

 now regularly printed his notes on the specimens which 

 came in his way : "It is quite astonishing what amaz- 

 ing numbers of minute creatures are at times to be 

 foimd amongst the refuse of only one boat's lines. 

 .... The ocean is, as it were, one vast and bound- 

 less expanse of life, and the inhabitants thereof about 

 as numberless as the sands by the sea-shore. I have 

 myself picked out of a net nine distinct species of shells, 

 three different kinds of starfish, and five different sorts 

 of zoophytes, besides worms, and a number of other 

 parasitical animals." 



It is impossible for me to follow up his studies of sea 

 life in all its rich variety of forms. Friends at a distance 

 began to lend him books, other naturalists named his 

 specimens for him through the medium of the post, and 

 one scientific gentleman sent him a microscope. Several 

 again interested themselves in trying to procure for him 

 work more congenial to his tastes, but these efforts, 

 singularly and unfortunately, did not lead to the desired 

 result. True, just about this time he became keeper of 

 the Scientific Society's Museum at Banff, at a salary of 

 forty- two shillings per annum, and all through his 

 career the Banff public do not seem to have realized what 

 sort of a man they had amongst them. It appears to 

 have been the old story of a prophet having no honour 

 in his own country. The scientific men of the district 

 found it hard to swallow Edward's lapstone and his 

 growing reputation as a naturalist. Gret free, however, 

 from his bench, he could not, and he has patiently and 



