294 EDWARD'S ENTHUSIASM. CHAP. xiv. 



regretting the small amount of observation and re- 

 search which had been made along the shores of the 

 Moray Firth, he said, " It is a great pity that the 

 Moray Firth was never dredged by naturalists, as I 

 am led to believe it never was, on a scale worthy of 

 its waters. If such were done, and done as it should 

 be, I am quite sure, from what I know, that many a 

 valuable rarity, and, I have no doubt, many new 

 species, would be procured, and better got than those 

 already known. If I were but possessed of half the 

 means that some are, it should not long be so. Wind 

 and weather permitting, I should have it dredged 

 from the one end to the other, over and over again. 

 Alas ! that Nature, that fair and comely dan\sel, whom 

 I supremely admire and love so well, should have 

 called me into existence at the very moment when 

 Want and Starvation stood hand in hand, ready to 

 stamp the unconscious heir of immortality with their 

 accursed brands. Money, it is said, is the root of all 

 evil ; but tell me, ye who know, what the want of 

 it is ! " 



We have already said that Edward, because of his 

 want of books on Natural History, obtained the prin- 

 cipal knowledge of the objects which he discovered 

 from gentlemen at a distance. But even this was not 

 accomplished without difficulty. It was not always 

 a pleasant task, and sometimes it was rather expen- 

 sive, expensive at least for a poor man. He occa- 

 sionally encountered disagreeable rebuffs. Some com- 



