Methuselah in want of Time. 277 



foraminifera, these being closely connected with 

 those of glacial deposits, and I have had some 

 excellent speed with them. 



" I shall be glad to hear from you soon." 



The carboniferous fossils soon brought Robertson 

 into correspondence with Professor Rupert Jones, 

 and, to show the stress upon the time of a naturalist 

 which results from investigating the microscopic 

 organisms both recent and fossil, an extract may 

 be given from one of Dr. Brady's letters, in which 

 he observes, "Jones said to me the other day in a 

 letter, that if old Methuselah busied himself among 

 the forams. and entoms., he must have grieved to 

 die so young! I think myself I should be tired 

 of them before I got to his years, but one might still 

 be far from exhausting the subject ! " 



In the letter to Dr. Dohrn, it will have been noticed 

 that Robertson speaks of having had two or three of 

 his ribs broken. This is an accident to a man of 

 sixty-six tolerably well calculated to impress the 

 memory, but the occurrence was forgotten by the 

 person most interested in it, until the letter above 

 quoted brought it to light. When Lord Brougham 

 as a child fell down and broke his crown, he apolo- 

 gized to his mother, who was scolding him for it, on 

 the ground that it was crackit before. Robertson 

 might excuse his forgetfulness of the second accident 

 to his ribs on a similar score. What other breakages 

 or batterings of his hardy frame may have been in 

 like manner overlooked it is impossible to say. But 

 whatever they may have been, they have left him 



