CPIARLES WA TERTON AS A NA TURALIST. 



hardships of changes of tempera- 

 ture, wind and weather, and the dif- 

 ficulty of finding food, but where 

 they are secure, undisturbed by any- 

 one. The mountain in labour giv- 

 ing birth to a mouse was truth when 

 compared to the breaking up of the 

 foundations of the earth being 

 necessary to give us in Europe the 

 only wild representatives of these 

 " unlucky mimickers of man !" 



I have not by any means exhaust- 

 ed the points to be commented on, 

 for they are scattered in profusion 

 through Waterton's works. I will 

 content myself by presenting, in my 

 next and last paper, a general sum- 

 ming up of his character as a natu- 

 ralist. 



III. 



Charles Waterton appeared be- 

 fore the world as a naturalist under 

 the most favourable circumstances. 

 He was the representative of an 

 ancient family, the possessor of a 

 romantic estate, and the owner of 

 comfortable, if not ample, means, 

 and he could have well afforded to 

 let his Wanderings, which contained 

 much interesting and valuable infor- 

 mation, find their way gradually 

 into public favour, leaving others to 

 defend them against attacks made 

 on them, or defending them 

 himself in a dignified way, avoid- 

 ing the use of names and epithets. 

 Instead of that, he acted the part of 

 a brawler and bruiser, using lan- 

 guage inconsistent with the ameni- 

 ties of a man of business, or the 

 courtesies and instincts of a gentle- 

 man. If he had studied a little the 

 natural history of his own species 

 to any advantage, he would have 

 been satisfied to have had his work 

 abused rather than not noticed at 

 all ; either of which is the common 

 fate of what adds to knowledge, 

 when something has to make way 

 for it ; and he would have presented 

 it to the public in a manner calcu- 

 lated to secure its ear sooner or 

 later. In place of that, he gave an ex- 



ceedingly ill-arranged, rambling and 

 wandering account of his adventures 

 and observations, mixed with many 

 simpering sentimentalisms, trifling 

 egotisms, and pedantic quotations, 

 of no earthly use to a large part of 

 his readers ; peculiarities seldom 

 or never met with in a character 

 that is judicious and manly, or real- 

 ly amiable. With no sense of con- 

 sistency, he spoke of the book as 

 having " little merit," yet quoted a 

 high eulogium passed by Sir Joseph 

 Banks on the first half of it, the 

 other half having been written after 

 his death. In the work he described 

 what he called a nondescript, as re- 

 gards its habits and capture, giving 

 its likeness in a frontispiece; and 

 urged his readers to visit the scenes 

 of his adventures to procure speci- 

 mens of the same animal ; all, as he 

 afterwards admitted, pure fiction, to 

 gratify his spite against the govern- 

 ment for charging him, according to 

 law, a duty of twenty per cent, on 

 the valuation of his collection, if it 

 was for private use, and nothing if 

 intended for a public museum ! 

 Taking his own account of the oc- 

 currence, he was really well treated 

 by the custom-house. If he had 

 landed fifteen years afterwards, and 

 very probably at that time, a donkey 

 loaded with diamonds, the only duty 

 he would have had to pay was 

 ten shillings for the donkey ! A 

 man of the world and a gentleman, 

 knowing from experience what all 

 governments are, and possessed of 

 ample means, would have paid 

 the duty, without any ado be- 

 yond making it the occasion of agi- 

 tating for the abolition of it for the 

 future. Had he been a man occu- 

 pying the position of that of little 

 better than a beggar in the pursuit 

 of natural history, he would have 

 doubtless received the entire pub- 

 lic sympathy ; and all the more so 

 had he told us how much the 

 " Hanoverian Rats " had devoured 

 of his substance. Besides giving 

 the world the nondescript as a sweet 



