DBA WING AT SEA 61 



As far as I could I imitated Bauer's I style of drawing dis- 

 sections, but as the only sketches on board of that artist 

 are two in Parry's Voyage, I have not much to copy from 

 and I do not expect that they will please you much, and 

 further when the ship gets through a pack she at once meets 

 the troubled waters, and commences rolling about so that 

 I have to lash my portfolio and microscope and to prop 

 myself up. However I get on as well as I expected. Some 

 of the notes are in a very rude state, for the notice of the 

 opportunity was sudden. That they may prove correct is 

 all that I hope for, as I endeavoured to stick to facts. . . . 

 These are ... both as numerous and as well done as I 

 could. 



He did not restrict himself to scientific drawing, however. 

 In the same letter he tells his father : 



At present I am attempting a sketch of the ships off 

 the Barrier and burning mountain in 78 South for you, 

 and should I succeed you shall have it ; my talent for 

 sketching is, however, far below par, and without colours 

 it would be nothing. There is rather a nice print published 

 of Weddell's two ships bearing up in 74 15', by Huggins, 

 which would be worth your buying ; a few shillings would 

 cover it, and the Icebergs in it give a very fair idea of those 

 floating masses, though they are not flat-topped like the 

 most of those we have seen, nor is the colour at all good, 

 as they should have a blue tinge. 



Doubtless his artistic power was improving, for a year 

 earlier (February 3, 1840) he is much more severe upon his 

 general drawing. 'My sketches are characteristic of the 

 different places visited, but miserably done ; they are not 

 intended for any person but you to see.' Still, at the end of 

 the voyage, he feels that his execution is not equal to his aims, 

 though many of his sketches were utilised as the basis of 



1 Francis Bauer (1758-1840), the superb botanical draughtsman employed 

 by Banks, who left him a pension that he might continue his work at Kew. 

 His name appears as illustrator on the title-page of Sir W. Hooker's Genera 

 Filicum (1838-40) ; but more than half the plates were drawn by the new 

 draughtsman, Walter Fitch, who was to serve Kew and the Hookers for half 

 a century. 



