232 The Naturalist of Cumbrae. 



acuteness of his host is shown by the circumstance 

 that, at the close of one of his visits, he carried off 

 almost by force a paper on which Mr. Robertson was 

 then engaged, in order to ensure its being published 

 in the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science in 

 London. 



The paper was upon a subject which has not even 

 to this day exhausted its interest for the persistent 

 observer who wrote it. 



St. Paul, it will be remembered, upon a time takes 

 occasion to make the memorable and magnanimous 

 observation, " I have learned, in whatsoever state I 

 am, therewith to be content. " 



Of Mr. Robertspn one might fancy, from the course 

 of his biography, that, numerous as were the changes 

 he effected in his condition of life, there was no state 

 in which he had either learned or found any inclina- 

 tion to be discontented, yet; in scientific matters he 

 has shown a most; uneasy temperament, one never 

 satisfied to let go of an unsolved problem, but rest- 

 lessly renewing his inquiries and attempts to find out 

 all about it. In one of his letters he even finds fault 

 with the sigh of Alexander the Great that there were 

 no more worlds to conquer, since in science there are 

 moi;e worlds than either our own generation., or per- 

 haps any future generation of the children of men, is 

 likely to subdue. 



The paper which D,r. Dohrn carried off had to do 

 with the common heart-urchin, Amphidotus cordatus 

 (Pennant). 



This sea-urch,in is very abundant. It is said to be 

 found in all the seas of Europe, and in all the sandy 



