INTRODUCTION. ll 



dium, all of which may be converted into a gelatine by 

 boiling. 



The question, cui bono ? to what useful end are your 

 pursuits ? has often been asked of naturalists, and has been 

 already often and triumphantly answered by abler pens than 

 mine. It is no longer necessary to apologise for indulging 

 a love of Natural History, nor shall I waste time in de- 

 fending it from the aspersions of those who either fear or 

 despise it. Happily the audience to which I should address 

 myself is neither so numerous nor so respectable as it was 

 thirty years ago ; it is becoming every day less so, and will 

 soon be confined to the ignorant and the sensual. To 

 those few well-informed persons who still, from old preju- 

 dices, accuse us 



" of dropping buckets into empty wells, 



And growing old in drawing nothing up," 



we may say that till the well of creation be emptied there 

 is no danger of our returning from our labours without 

 abundant food for thought; and if we do not always make 

 the best use of it, the blame must rest with us and not with 

 Natural History. The sportsman, it is true, often pursues 

 his game with intense ardour till it is brought down, and 

 then ceases to regard it with interest. So, I fear, it too 

 often is with naturalists, but it is not necessarily so. Nay, 

 of all men, they who are best acquainted with the works of 

 the Divine finger, and who know how justly it may be 

 said " we are fearfully and wonderfully made," are surely 

 most bound to cling to the truths of revelation, for they 

 have continually before them collateral evidences of the 

 certainty of those " invisible things " which are " clearly 

 seen, being understood by the things that are made, even 

 His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without 

 excuse." If they too often neglect the true use of this 

 knowledge, and rest satisfied with the knowledge itself, the 



