2$6 LETTERS TO MR LOUNSBURY [CHAP. xxi. 



the blocks of which you will let me have a list, that is to 

 say, of such as are quite my own. Those that I have from 

 Messrs. Blackie and Son, Stanhope Street, Glasgow, I have 

 only permission to use in my own publications. I think 

 very likely, though, that, if you were inclined to purchase 

 electrotypes from them, they would be quite willing to let 

 you have them at the same price which they charge me, 

 that is eighteenpence the square inch. About my own, 1 

 have no difficulties, as my wood figures and electrotypes are 

 all in charge of my printers. There would be no charge for 

 carriage, and I would charge you just the cost price of the 

 electros. But there is one point, please, that I am sure you 

 will forgive me insisting on as a condition of use of my 

 electrotypes, namely, that they may be used in any publica- 

 tion of the Department of Agriculture of Cape Colony, or 

 in any publication of your own, but nowhere else without 

 my consent. 



July 28, 1899. 



I have, I am afraid, been owing you for a long time, 

 more than one letter in reciprocation of your kind letters to 

 me, but I have hoped you would forgive me, for you know 

 how I am situated with a deal of application and no staff. 

 I am wanting now to say that I hope you have not been 

 vexed with me for having had a hand in robbing you of an 

 efficient member of your staff (Mr. Fuller), which I am 

 afraid must for the present be an inconvenience, but it 

 surely will be an immense benefit to Natal, to have 

 a trustworthy Entomologist. 



I am trying to work up Piophila casei (Cheese and 

 Bacon fly), which Miss Murtfeldt took up so well. I incline 

 to think that it is more present than is supposed, only of 

 course, " cured meat " dealers do not like to own to it. I 

 have got a nice little family reared from bacon for observa- 

 tion under a glass, and some of their brothers and sisters 

 loose about the room, which I see little or nothing of until 

 the cheese is brought in twice a day, when they come, and 

 so give me an opportunity of watching egg-laying. 



August 9, 1899. 



What a frightful thing this prospect of war is ! I have not 

 an idea what may be politically right, but it distresses me 

 intensely to think of the sorrow, and so far as in me lay 

 I have had a hand in getting poor Mr. Fuller right into the 

 thick of the trouble. 1 You have assuredly been having 



1 Miss Ormerod had recommended Mr. Fuller for the appointment 

 he secured in Natal. 



