152 GEOEGE JOHN EOMANES 



It would have been very odd if I had been the dis- 

 coverer, as I should have been had I known that there 

 was a living Victoria Eegis, for then I should have 

 gone to see the plant, and would not have failed to 

 see the Medusae. Only in that case I might have 

 begun to grow superstitious, and to think that in 

 some way my fate was bound up in jelly-fish. 



I must get to work soon because all the naturalists 

 are in a high state of excitement, and there has been 

 a regular scramble for priority. 



The worst about this jelly-fish is that it will only 

 live in a temperature of 90, so I shall have to work 

 at it in the Victoria House, which is kept at a tempera- 

 ture of 100, and makes one ' sweat.' But I shall not 

 work long at a time. 



From 1882 to 1890 Mr. Romanes rented Geanies, 

 a beautiful place overlooking the Moray Firth. It 

 belongs to a cousin of the Romanes family, Captain 

 Murray, of the 81st Regiment. Captain Murray's 

 mother and sisters lived not far away, and the 

 Murrays and Romanes formed a little coterie in that 

 not very populous neighbourhood. 



He continued to be an ardent sportsman, and 

 probably his happiest days were those he spent 

 tramping over moors or plodding through turnips in 

 those October days of perfect beauty, which seem 

 especially peculiar to Scotland. 



The surroundings of Geanies, without being 

 romantically beautiful, have a charm of their own. 

 There is a certain melancholy and loneliness about 

 the inland landscape round Geanies which appealed 

 strongly to him. It is a place abounding in every 



