386 Alexander Goodman More. [i893 



It was the reading of Sir Robert Ball's " Cause of an 

 Ice Age," and lectures on the same subject, which had 

 done most to convince him of the impossibility of animal 

 or vegetable life having existed through a period of such 

 rigour. He watched with great interest also the contro- 

 versy on the indigenousness of the Frog in Ireland, and 

 made a series of notes, as though contemplating a paper 

 on the subject. On the strength of the historical evidence, 

 he felt satisfied that the Frog was an introduced species in 

 Ireland, as in some other islands. 



Towards the end of the month he again fell into indif- 

 ferent health, and went to Bray, hoping to benefit by the 

 change and sea air. During the whole of his stay here, 

 from May 25th to July 3ist, he continued an invalid. His 

 letters at this time are principally dictated, the following 

 amongst others : 



May jist, 1893. 



DEAR MR. SHERIDAN, Your porpoise is I believe Delphinus 

 acutus,* but you must preserve the head and skeleton carefully, and let 

 me see them before I can give a certain opinion. This Dolphin has 

 been taken in Dublin Bay, and also at Portrush in Derry : it is very 

 rare on the Irish coast, and you have secured a great prize. Better keep 

 the skeleton and the head near it, so as to send the two together up to 

 Dublin. In the meantime let them lie buried in the sand till I write to 

 you again about them. By the way, what has become of the remains of 

 the gigantic Cuttle-fish which I think you buried, in hopes of obtaining 

 the bone, which should be most valuable. Have you got the two man- 

 dibles of the jaws ? of a brown horny colour, and have you kept any of 

 the large horny rings of the suckers of the arms ? If you have, please 

 send me two or three if you can spare them, also I should like to see the 

 great spines from the claspers of the great Sun-fish, and have not you 

 kept a few of the large teeth of the Spermaceti Whale ? What has 

 become of its great skull, which would be very useful for our Museum ? 

 I am here for two or three weeks for the sake of recruiting my health. 

 So please write again to this address. Could you be kind enough to send 

 me a few small branches of the Mediterranean heath to see how far 

 advanced it now is ? 



But the following is in his own writing : 



July gth. 



DEAR WARREN, I wish I had been at your elbow when you 

 inspected that grand prize, a freshly killed Basking Shark. f Only to 



The White-sided Dolphin. \ Recorded in "Irish Naturalist," July, 1893. 



