Oh. VIIL] 1842—1854. 159 



water, all difficulties of nearly all kinds would bo removed 

 (for the simple fact of muddy ordinary shallow sea implies 

 proximity of land). [N.B. — I am chuckling to think how you 

 are sneering all this time.] It is not much of a difficulty, 

 there not being shells with the coal, considering how unfavour- 

 able deep mud is for most Mollusca, and that shells would 

 probably decay from tho humic acid, as seems to take place 

 in peat and in tho black moulds (as Lyell tells me) of 

 the Mississippi. So coal question settled — Q. E. D. Sneer 

 away ! " 



The two following extracts give the continuation and con- 

 clusion of the coal battle. 



" By the way, as submarino coal made you so wrath, 1 

 thought I would cxperimentise on Falconer and Bunbury * 

 together, and it made [them] even more savage ; ( such infernal 

 nonsense ought to be thrashed out of me.' Bunbury was more 

 polite and contemptuous. So I now know how to stir up 

 and show off any Botanist. I wonder whether Zoologists and 

 Geologists have got their tender points ; I wish I could find 

 out." 



"I cannot resist thanking you for your most kind note. 

 Pray do not think that I was annoyed by your letter : I 

 perceived that you had been thinking with animation, and 

 accordingly expressed yourself strongly, and so I understood 

 it. Forfend me from a man who weighs every expression with 

 Scotch prudence. I heartily wish you all success in your 

 noble problem, and I shall be very curious to have some talk 

 with you and hear your ultimatum." 



He also corresponded with the late Hugh Strickland, — a 

 well-known ornithologist, on the need of reform in the 

 principle of nomenclature. The following extract (1849) 

 gives an idea of my father's view : — 



" I feel sure as long as species-mongers have their vanity 

 tickled by seeing their own names appended to a species, 

 because they miserably described it in two or three lines, we 

 shall have the same vast amount of bad work as at present, 

 and which is enough to dishearten any man who is willing to 

 work out any branch with care and time. I find every genus 

 of Cirripedia has half-a-dozen names, and not one careful 

 description of any one species in any one genus. I do not 

 believe that this would have been the case if each man knew 

 that the memory of his own name depended on his doing his 

 work well, and not upon merely appending a name with a few 



* The late Sir 0. Bunbury, well known as a palaeobotanist. 



