132 Alexander Goodman More. [i860 



and imagine, if you can, the hopeless despair with which 

 he will rise from the task." 



BEMBRIDGE, Jan. 2$th, 1861. 



MY DEAR NEWTON, Your letter was immense fun, but I am not 

 going to believe that a man of your genius was half so mystified as you 

 pretend to be. A writer who expressed to a very shade his degree of 

 belief in the specific distinctness of the " Smiling " goose is not likely 

 to be taken in by a little bit of formula of the A B C-adabra descrip- 

 tion. Now don't put on an air of injured innocence ; if you did not 

 take the meaning of my Christmas riddle, it was only because I forgot 

 to send the key. I am very sorry to have given you so much trouble ; 

 but then, as you observe, I quite forgot that a course of Cybele and 

 Cybelizing has rendered these symbols so simple to myself that I took 

 it for granted you could read Mr. Watson's page at once. 



Do not suppose I ever intended to submit the grand Arcanum to 

 any eyes except those of my chief consulting adviser. All I ask from 

 different quarters is simply the county list, marked with " Reg"(ular), 

 " Occ"(asional), and " Hist"(orical), and with a few localities or 

 details for the scarcer species. 



When a sufficient number of these county lists has come in, I pro- 

 pose to work them up into the "mystical structure" which will show 

 the main features and general point of the whole results. Now sup- 

 posing Great Britain divided into 18 large districts (or parcels of 

 counties), and these again into 38 smaller districts, as you may say 

 France is divided into " provinces " and " departments " let us assign 

 a numeral to each, e.g., Roman figures to the large sub-divisions, 

 Arabic figures to the small. A bird (x] is ascertained to nest in the 

 southern parts of England, in provinces I., II., III., IV., V., VIII. 

 Now to vouch for the authenticity of the record, I know of only two 

 ways ; one is to put an abbreviated name of the observer (as a syllable 

 follows a specific name) under each numeral, thus 



Accipiter Falco. 



Provinces, . I. II. III. et IV. &c., &c. 



Authorities, . Ro Kx Rs Nw 



which, being interpreted, would be read " nests in the south-west 

 corner of England (Peninsula Province, I.), in the south (Channel Pro- 

 vince, II.), in the S.E. corner of England (Thames Province, III.) : 

 the authority for Province I. being Rodd, for II. Knox, for III. Rogers," 

 &c., &c. But I should prefer to give the names in full, both of counties 

 and of observers, using small numerals to separate the counties into 

 their several groups: i. Cornwall (Rodd), Devon (Gatcombe) ; 

 2. Somerset (Smith) ; 3. Hampshire (Williams), &c., so that nobody 

 can be puzzled in reading the paragraph, and yet the figures will be 

 available for generalizing. Now, if you do not comprehend my mystery, 

 I am worse than a conjuror. Yet will I gladly send you a map with 



