70 THE SOUTH AND ITS SCIENTIFIC SCOPE 



at which times he is very agreeable and my hours pass quickly 

 and pleasantly. 



The years pass ; but the same note is continued in a letter 

 of April 20, 1843. Community of intellectual interests, no 

 doubt, minimised the inevitable little rubs of months of close 

 quarters in a saiHng-ship, frankly acknowledged by the young 

 assistant surgeon. 



Our Captain is still always to me most kind and attentive, 

 indeed his whole conduct to me, ever since we left, has been 

 quite uniform, and I have an immense deal to thank him 

 for ; as you may suppose, we have had one or two httle tiffs, 

 neither of us perhaps being helped by the best of tempers ; 

 but nothing can exceed the Hberality with which he has 

 thrown open his cabin to me and made it my work room at 

 no little inconvenience to himself. He is quite now the 

 same to me as ever he was, and will be I doubt not to the 

 end of the Expedition, so that my situation is most comfort- 

 able, nor would I change with any ship in the service. 



But whatever his equitable claim in such circumstances 

 he would not lay himself open to the charge of grasping at 

 more than his due. 



Whenever the seine was shot I attended on the return 

 of the boat, to pick out the fish that were wanted ; a very 

 few I kept for myself and Kichardson^ should he not get 

 them, but my duties of course precluded the possibility 

 of my making any notes or a large private collection. 

 Captain Koss often feels himself jammed between me and 

 McCormick, when the latter wants to keep a nice thing for 

 his government collection, and I of course want to put it 

 with ours, for he makes no general collection of anything 

 but rocks and birds, and as I take the drudgery of collecting 

 all the other branches of Nat. Hist, with the Captain's 

 assistance, it would not be fair that I should be refused 

 the credit of botthng down the more scarce and beautiful. 

 Whenever there is the slightest difficulty I always give up, 

 remembering the proverb against * those who wrestle with 

 sweeps.' 



» I.e. Sir John Richardson of Haslar. 



