350 



NATURE 



\Feb. 22, iSyy 



making of cases for holding them. In no long time every 

 corner of his house was filled with cases, and he wisely 

 determined to turn an honest penny by exhibiting his 

 treasures. This he did on two or three occasions in Banff 

 on fair days when the town was filled with country people. 

 These exhibitions were so successful that he resolved, by 

 the advice of his friends — it was all the help they ever 

 gave him — to try a wider sphere, and he rented a room 

 in Aberdeen, where he arranged his collection. Many of 

 the groups of animals were most artistically put together, 

 and as a mere sight, not to speak of its scientific value, 

 the exhibition was well worth visiting. But it proved a 

 complete failure ; only a few people dropped in. It was 

 a serious matter to Edward, for of course he had to leave 

 his work and necessarily incur what were for him con- 

 siderable liabilities. The prospect was so gloomy that he 

 was driven to think of the last resort of despair, suicide. 

 He went down to the mouth of the Dee, and had divested 

 himself of his outer garments preparatory to taking a last 

 plunge, when a strange bird hopping about on the sand 

 caught his eye. His ruling passion asserted its sway, 

 and off he set on a long and exciting chase to discover 

 the nature of the bird- ; in this he failed, but the chase 

 left him a more cheerful and a wiser man. He was com- 

 pelled to sell his collection for about 20/, returned to 

 Banff and resumed his work and gradually his old habits, 

 and ere long had the pleasure of seeing another collection 

 gradually accumulating. More than once afterwards had 

 he to sell his collections, which he regarded as his savings' 

 bank to fall back upon in time of need. But his ardour 

 was never damped, and until prevented from wandering 

 far by rheumatism and other results of his hard life, he 

 never ceased adding to his store. 



Edward's collections not only included quadrupeds, birds, 

 and insects ; plants of all kinds came in for a share of his 

 attention, and, latterly, marine animals of all kinds ; in the 

 last field, especially, he did work of the highest value. Ex- 

 cept one or two clergymen of similar tastes, the dreadfully 

 respectable people in and about Banff took no notice of Ed- 

 ward, whom they seem rather to have shunned as eccentric, 

 if not crazy. But gradually naturalists in various parts 

 of England came to know of him, and thus he got into 

 correspondence with well-known workers in various parts 

 of England. One of his principal correspondents was 

 Mr. Spence Bate, who, during the preparation of the 

 " History of the British Sessile-eyed Crustacea," obtained 

 important help from Edward. The latter collected for 

 and sent Mr. Bate a very large number of specimens. 

 Of 294 Crustaceans found in the Moray Firth, no fewer 

 than twenty-six new species were added by "Edward him- 

 self. A new Isopod which he discovered was named 

 after himself Franzza {Anceus) Edwardii, and one of his 

 most notable discoveries was one of the little fishes 

 known as midges, which he sent to Mr. Couch, who pro- 

 nounced it new to science, and named it Edward's Midge 

 {Couchia Edwardii). By and by he was induced to send 

 descriptions of his observations first to the local journal 

 and latterly to such scientific journals as the Linnean 

 Society's Journal, the Zoologist, Naturalist, and Ibis. 

 No one reading Edward's accounts of his experiences 

 would ever dream that their author had had no schooling 

 after his sixth year, and had worked nearly all his life 

 from 6 A.M. till 9 p.m. at a common handicraft. They 



have been compared without any exaggeration to the 

 classical descriptions of Wilson and Audubon. 



How Edward, with no dredging apparatus whatever, 

 but only with old pots, pans, rags, from seaweed cast 

 ashore, from the inside of fishes obtained from the fisher- 

 men, and by other similar methods, collected his marine 

 specimens, many of the greatest rarity, is well told in Mr. 

 Smiles's narrative. It is quite amazing how much is yet 

 to be learned about the commonest objects of our land 

 and sea ; and how much of new Edward managed to 

 discover of the nature and habits of animals about which 

 one would have thought no more was to be learned. In 

 an appendix of forty-eight pages Mr. Smiles gives a 

 descriptive list of a portion of the Fauna of Banffshire 

 observed or found by Edward ; had all that he has found 

 been thus catalogued it would have filled the volume. 



It is to the credit of the Linnean Society that years 

 ago they conferred upon Edward the rare honour of 

 Associate. Doubtless had the numerous correspondents 

 whom he was so ready to help with specimens and the 

 result of his observations known of his real condition, 

 they would have done something to put him in a position 

 in which he could have helped science with less hardship 

 to himself. Here, surely, if ever there was one, was a 

 fair case for the endowment of unremunerative research, 

 and had the fund now being allotted been in existence 

 even ten years ago, Edward would have had a prime 

 claim upon it. How these things are managed in Norway 

 may be learned from the following extract from a letter 

 from Mr. A. Archer, Laurvig, Norway, to the Times, 

 called forth by reading Edward's Life : — 



" Some years ago there lived on the wild west coast of 

 Norway a clergyman, with his wife, a large family, and a 

 small income. He, too, employed every leisure hour in 

 the study of nature, but being a graduate of Christiania 

 University, and being obliged to take many a journe)' 

 over the large fiords in visiting distant parts of his parish, 

 he possessed two great advantages over Edward — a good 

 education and larger opportunities of observation. He, 

 too, had the seeing eye without which all opportunities 

 are useless, and shortly it was known that science was 

 being enriched with discoveries in zoology made by the 

 hard-worked parish priest. The action of the Norwegian 

 Storthing was prompt. Though the great majority of 

 that body are poor peasants, with little more education 

 than they have picked up in the parish school, and though 

 in all ordinary cases they hold the purse-strings with a 

 grip that would have pleased Joseph Hume, they have the 

 virtue of being liberal when good cause can be shown 

 for it. At the request of the Governing ^Body of the 

 Christiania University they created a new unattached 

 Professorship of Zoology, endowed it with a salary of 

 333/., equal to 1,000/. in England ; and, relieving the 

 clergyman from his parish duties, which could be as 

 well performed by another, appointed him to the pro- 

 fessorship, but without requiring from him either resi- 

 dence or teaching. How the Professor, in these favourable 

 circumstances, went on enriching science with his dis- 

 coveries till his name became famous over the world, 

 how he trained up his sons to follow in his footsteps, how 

 two of them, though yet young men, are professors in 

 Christiania University, one of them in his own favourite 

 science, all this is known to the scientific men of Europe, 

 nor, should any of them read this, will they require to be 

 told that the name of the clergyman was Sars. It would, 

 of course, be absurd to ask the enlightened Parliament of 

 Great Britain to take in the case of Edward a hint from 

 the Norwegian Storthing in the case of Sars, and the 



