INTEEVIEW WITH BOSS 41 



Golden Cross, Charing Cross : April 27, 1839. 



My dear Father, —You will be surprised to hear from 

 me so soon again, and I assure you the unfortunate cause has 

 given me much vexation. 



In my last letter I told you that I had not seen Captain 

 Eoss ; I have since, after much hunting, and the result of 

 the interview has been most unfortunate. The following is 



»a correct statement. 

 One of the first questions I asked him was in what 

 capacity he was to take me ; he told me ' as Asst. Surgeon 

 and Botanist,' adding ' that he had appointed the Surgeon, 

 Dr. or Mr. McCormick,^ to be Zoologist.' I saw at once that 

 this would completely interfere with all my duties, but I 

 said nothing, desiring first to know whether he would take 

 me in any other capacity ; so I asked * whether he would 

 take a NaturaHst with him and give him accommodation, 

 provided Government would sanction or send him.' He put 

 off my question twice, evidently seeing my drift, which I 

 did not wish to conceal ; telling me that such a person as a 

 Naturalist must be perfectly well acquainted with every 

 branch of Nat. Hist., and must be well known in the world 

 beforehand, such a person as Mr. Darwin; ^ here I interrupted 

 him with ' what was Mr. D. before he went out ? he, I dare- 

 say, knew his subject better than I now do, but did the world 

 know him ? the voyage with FitzKoy was the making of 

 him (as I had hoped this exped. would me).' Captain Boss 



1 Robert McCormick (1800-90) was a Yarmouth man, though of Ulster 

 descent. He studied medicine at Guy's and St. Thomas', and became a naval 

 surgeon in 1823. He had special qualifications for the post of surgeon and 

 naturalist on the Erebus, for he had seen Arctic service under Parry in 1827, 

 and when on half pay for four years after thrice invaliding home from his special 

 detestation, the W. Indian station, he had worked at geology and natural 

 history in the study and in the field. Though afterwards he distinguished 

 himself by conductii;ig a boat expedition in search of Franklin (1852), he came 

 to loggerheads with the Admiralty on the question of the promotion he con- 

 sidered due after his exceptional service in the Antarctic, and the end of his 

 career was clouded over with a sense of grievance. 



Readers of recent Antarctic exploration will recall his name in the appella- 

 tion of ' McCormick's Skua,' the Antarctic gull first described by him. 



2 Charles Robert Darvvin (1809-82) was the son of Dr. Robert Waring 

 Darwin of Shrewsbury, and grandson of Erasmus Darwin, physician, botanist, 

 and man of letters. His mother was Susannah Wedgwood, daughter of the 

 potter. Hooker took his Voyage of the Beagle as a model of what his own 

 Journals of travel should be. The story of their intimate friendship, both 

 before and aft^r the publication of the Origin of Species in 1859, is fully told 

 hereafter. 



