THE DESIRE FOR ADVENTURE 5 



I can remember often seeing the Hon. Walter 

 Rothschild there. His passion for entomology was 

 even then keen, and he was often in my father's 

 place looking over collections. I did not dream 

 then that I would one day be stationed at the Anti- 

 podes to collect for him, but always I kept the hope 

 in my heart of getting away somehow from the narrow 

 life of the city. 



When I reached the age of seventeen there came 

 the first promise of this. My father arranged to 

 take me to the Canary Islands on a collecting trip. 

 We were preparing for this trip when a letter came 

 from Mr. George Barnard, of Coomooboolaroo Station, 

 Queensland. He was a squatter, or rather cattle- 

 rancher, who followed up a scientific enthusiasm for 

 entomology in that far-away corner of the earth; 

 my father was in the habit of supplying him 

 with butterfly cabinets, and had once written to 

 him asking him if there were a chance in Australia 

 for a young man with a desire for an open-air life 

 and some knowledge of Natural History. Mr. 

 Barnard had now written in reply that he thought 

 he had sufficient influence to get me into a museum 

 in Australia. Truth to tell I was not particularly 

 joyful at the prospect of working in a museum, but 

 the idea of Australia was attractive. It was a con- 

 cession to the roving spirit in my blood. That letter 

 came in March of 1889. By April I had left for 

 Australia by a British India Company's boat. 



