AUTOBIOGRAPHY 11 



and, more especially, to learn to work for the sake of 

 what I got for myself out of it, even if it all went to the 

 bottom and I along with it. My brother officers were 

 as good fellows as sailors ought to be and generally 

 are, but, naturally, they neither knew nor cared any- 

 thing about my pursuits, nor understood why I should 

 be so zealous in pursuit of the objects which my friends, 

 the middies, christened " Buffons," after the title con- 

 spicuous on a volume of the Suites a Buffon, which 

 stood on my shelf in the chart room. 



During the four years of our absence, I sent home 

 communication after communication to the " Linnean 

 Society," with the same result as that obtained by 

 Noah when he sent the raven out of his ark. Tired 

 at last of hearing nothing about them, I determined 

 to do or die, and in 1849 I drew up a more elaborate 

 paper and forwarded it to the Royal Society. This was 

 my dove, if I had only known it. But owing to the 

 movements of the ship, I heard nothing of that either 

 until my return to England in the latter end of the 

 year 1850, when I found that it was printed and pub- 

 lished, and that a huge packet of separate copies 

 awaited me. When I hear some of my young friends 

 complain of want of sympathy and encouragement, 

 I am inclined to think that my naval life was not the 

 least valuable part of my education. 



Three years after my return were occupied by a 

 battle between my scientific friends on the one hand 

 and the Admiralty on the other, as to whether the 

 latter ought, or ought not, to act up to the spirit of a 

 pledge they had given to encourage officers who had 

 done scientific work by contributing to the expense of 

 publishing mine. At last the Admiralty, getting tired, 

 I suppose, cut short the discussion by ordering me 



