Merit Recognized. 195 



become one of the best explored and most widely- 

 known districts of Britain." 



This was no funeral panegyric, dismissing the object 

 of it into the shades of inactivity and forgetfulness, 

 for in the account of the very next meeting, Decem- 

 ber 29, 1863, we read : 



"Mr. David Robertson exhibited specimens of 

 two rare fishes Miiller's topknot (Rhombus hirtus) 

 and Bloch's topknot (R. punctatus\ both from the 

 Cumbraes ; also, a recently described crustacean 

 Galathea Andreivsii, from the same locality where it 

 is found plentifully. At the same time, Mr. Robert- 

 son exhibited an annelid, new to the British fauna 

 Clymene lumbricalis from two different localities in 

 the west of Scotland. This gentleman, one of the 

 most successful investigators of our Scottish marine 

 fauna, was especially thanked by the president and 

 members for his valuable contributions to the society 

 transactions, and it was announced that among the 

 results of his recent observations many new and im- 

 portant additions to the local lists would shortly be 

 forthcoming." 



By paying this singular and exceptional tribute of 

 respect to Mr. Robertson the society certainly gave 

 him no more than his due, but the value of the tribute 

 consists in this, that it was paid, not by ignorant 

 persons, incompetent to judge, but by naturalists, 

 themselves of sterling merit, as the society's volumes 

 of proceedings sufficiently evince. 



Whether Mr. Robertson's scientific researches could 

 really add anything to the pristine and intrinsic 

 grandeur of the two Cumbraes, it is less easy to 



