CHAP. xxn. THE FERNS PERI! 377 



walked to a rocky precipice, and gathered about a dozen 

 ferns. They must have been Peri ? Yes, they were 

 Peri I The longest was about fifteen inches. Three oi 

 them were beautiful and green finely cut and lobed. 

 In fact, I never saw prettier plants, and I was very 

 proud of them the more so, as I gathered them at the 

 end of December. I knew that the Sea Spleenwort was 

 green all the year round at the cliffs of Dunnet Head, 

 as I had gathered it there in winter, but I did not know 

 that the inland ferns were green at the end of Decem- 

 ber." 



Here is another extract from a letter to his sister : 

 " I observe that your husband is a rifleman. Tell 

 him that I never fired off a gun in my life, and scarcely 

 ever handled one. There are a great many riflemen 

 here. They have two targets. Not long since I was 

 nearly shot. I was on the shore, and some green hands 

 had come out to practise. They stood aslant, and not 

 hitting the target, their balls came pinging through the 

 air repeatedly. At length, one ball hit a ledge near me, 

 raising smoke and dust. I thought it time to be off, 

 and got out of the way." 



His sister was then lying on her deathbed, but he 

 continued to write to her, endeavouring to cheer her up. 

 He sent to her husband a long account of his digging 

 up a fossil, at the end of 1863. He said, "Tell my 

 sister that I have written all this, hoping that it may 

 amuse her." His sister died about two months later. 

 It need not be said how much he lamented her. She 

 was the last of his family his nearest, dearest friend. 



