156 TEE REV. J. 0. WOOD. 



They are not mere diagrams, but finished pictures in colours of 

 great beauty. These, as they literally started into life under 

 the lecturer's artistic touch, elicited very marked approbation from 

 the audience. One picture especially showed the very highest skill. 

 A particular species of the hydrozoa had to be described, which, 

 from the transparency of its substance and the near approach of its 

 refractive power to that of water, can scarcely be distinguished from 

 the element in which it swims. It requires a practised eye and close 

 -attention to see it at all. Mr. Wood drew it on the screen as one 

 would gradually come to distinguish its parts ; here a flash of light 

 and there a filament; here a red, and there a blue tint, till the 

 creature ultimately took shape and stood forth in all its beauty of 

 iridescent colours and gracefulness of form. 



Of course, all this artistic skill was the outcome, 

 not merely of much careful practice at home, but also of 

 many experiments and failures with chalks of various 

 descriptions. At first the ordinary drawing pastils 

 were procured, but these were soon found to be utterly 

 unsuited for the purpose, having neither sufficient 

 brilliancy of colour to show out upon the black surface, 

 nor the peculiar quality necessary for ready adherence 

 to the smooth canvas. In the course of a conversation, 

 however, with the late Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, who 

 had already adopted the coloured pastils in his lecture- 

 sketches, although upon quite a small scale, my father 

 was recommended by him to pay a visit to Messrs. 

 Lechertier & Barbe, of Eegent Street ; and from that 

 firm he thenceforth procured the whole of his pastils. 

 Some of these, as stated in the Marlburian, were 

 imported from Paris, more particularly the brilliant 

 scarlet which glowed out with such striking effect upon 

 the black of the canvas. Some were specially manu- 



