62 THE SOUTH AND ITS SCIENTIFIC SCOPE 



illustration for Boss's * Account of the Voyage of Discovery 

 and Eesearch.' ^ 



To his Aunt (Mary Turner) he writes (April 18, 1843) : 



In drawing I do not improve much, though I have made 

 several sketches of the different places we have visited. 

 There is now but one tolerable artist in the Expedition, 

 Mr. Davis ^ of the Terror. Dayman ^ (Aunt Ellen's 

 acquaintance), who was the best, is left behind in Van 

 Diemen's Land. Your pencil, would be invaluable here, 

 though you [would] have grown heartily tired of Bergs and 

 Ice. Capt. Boss used often to make me sketch coastlines 

 of hills and valleys of snow, which is most miserable 

 work. Could I have coloured, nothing would be so grand 

 as a view of the scenes we have visited, if in fine weather ; 

 but let the weather be what it will, an Iceberg is always a 

 treacherous thing at the best. 



I am very anxious to know what Fitch * is about ; he 

 has sent me a very pretty fancy sketch of flowers, for which 

 I am extremely obliged to him ; it was very kind of him 

 to think of me ; in return I have been making a sketch of 

 a curious Iceberg with a hole in it for him. The berg is 

 fair enough, but the sea will not do. He could copy it and 

 with excellent e:ffect ; it was blowing hard and there were 

 some black scudding clouds near the moon, which was 

 reflected on the tips of the waves, close to the edge of the 

 berg. The water should be of an intense cobalt blue, and 

 it should reflect a white glare on the sea. There are no 

 harsh lines on an Iceberg ; the shadows should be faint 

 and the lights bright. 



This drawing, duly copied by Fitch, was doubtJesfe among 

 those shown to Prince Albert, when Sir WiUiam was summoned 

 to Buckingham Palace in the spring of 1842 to give some 

 account of the progress of the Expedition. 



1 See the list, p. 86, footnote. 



2 J. E. Davis was second master of the Terror. 



' Joseph Dayman Mas mate on the Erebus, and afterwards lieutenant" on 

 the Rattlesnake, in which Huxley was naturalist. In 1840-1, while Ross 

 made his first cruise to the South, Dayman was one of the three officers who 

 remained in charge of the magnetic observatory in Tasmania. 



* Walter Fitch (1817-92) was originally a pattern-drawer in a calico 

 printing factory. He entered Sir W. Hooker's service in 1834, and for half a 

 century continued as the official draughtsman for the Kew botanical publications. 



