56 THE SOUTH AND ITS SCIENTIFIC SCOPE 



Dr. Eichardson warmly encouraged him in the work ; skill 

 with the pencil being a special qualification in dealing with 

 sea creatures which could not be preserved. To add to our 

 knowledge of the structure of animals, he insisted, is the most 

 certain way of attaining a scientific reputation ; to be the 

 first to discover or name a new species is a very secondary 

 matter. 



But, rich as the collections were that he brought back from 

 the voyage, they were never fully worked out, to the great loss 

 of marine zoology and the disappointment of their zealous 

 collector. The * might have been ' was sharply brought home 

 to him when, sixty years later, he read Dr. Bruce's report of 

 his Antarctic work, * The Scientific Eesults of the Voyage 

 of the Scotia.' ^ 



There is [he wrote to Dr. Bruce, January 10, 1901] 

 always something painful to me when I come across the 

 scientific reports on Antarctic expeditions, due to the whole- 

 sale destruction of the great collections made by Boss and 

 myself of marine and submarine animals of all classes. 

 Boss was an indefatigable collector, who never lost an 

 opportunity, whether on sea or ashore ; but except my 

 collection of Diatoms pubUshed by Ehrenberg,^ and dis- 

 cussed in my ' Flora Antarctica,' there is nothing to show 

 of the stores of the pelagic materials obtained with so much 

 zeal and care by Boss and myself. Thereby hangs a tale 

 which, if we two have the pleasure of meeting again, I may 

 unfold to you. 



But his enthusiasm was unabated when his forgotten harvest 

 was at last fully garnered. Eight years afterwards Dr. Bruce 

 sent him Vol. V. of the * Invertebrates of the Scotia Expedi- 

 tion ' : he replied on February 14, 1909 : 



I have again to thank you for a magnificent addition to 

 my Antarctic library. It is reaUy a noble work, and I find 



^ Cp. vol. ii. p. 441. 



^ Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (1795-1876), Professor of Medicine at 

 Berlin, was the founder and chief representative of the study of microscopio 

 organisms. He was one of Humboldt's companions on his journey to the Ural 

 and Altai mountains. 



