94 FROM AN EASY CHAIR 



swam better than the best, that he was a fine water- 

 colour painter, a real artist and a first-rate musician 

 and singer. I was astonished at his knowledge and 

 personal experience in natural history. His burly form 

 and bright, honest face gave me a most agreeable 

 impression, and when he said (as I had been told he 

 would) to each explanation of a specimen upon which I 

 ventured for his edification, " I know ! I know ! " I felt that 

 it was true, and that he really did know. " I have shot 

 thirty of them in the south of my country," he said of 

 some rare bird. " I know ! I know ! I have described a 

 new species like that in my book on the birds of 

 Portugal. I shall send it to you ! " was his comment on 

 another. When we came to some wonderful coral-like 

 specimens sea-pens and sea-feathers, dredged in the 

 deep sea and preserved in spirits, for exhibition in the 

 Museum he said, to my astonishment, " Those . are 

 very bad. I get much better than those in my yacht 

 off' the Portuguese coast. I preserve them myself ; it is 

 a real art. I shall send you some." I said they would 

 be a very welcome addition. " Yes, I know ! I know ! " 

 he said. " Would you like some fishes, too ? The 

 Prince of Monaco has some fine things, and he led me 

 to collect also myself. I have now many things better 

 than his. I shall send you some fishes, too." And he 

 did. A few months after his return to Portugal he sent 

 to the Museum a large collection, preserved in spirit, 

 which included many very fine and interesting specimens 

 of deep-water Atlantic fishes ; also his work, with 

 coloured plates, on the Birds of Portugal, and a most 

 remarkable publication on the tunny fisheries of the 

 South Coast of Portugal giving a careful survey of the 

 waters, sea bottom, currents, fauna, and flora in correct, 

 expert form, such as might issue from a Government 

 Fisheries Board, but in this case done, as modestly 

 indicated on the title-page, by the Head of the State 

 himself, " Dom Carlos di Braganza." He went into the 



