344 The Naturalist of Cumbrae. 



CHAPTER xxii. 



APPRECIATIVE FRIENDS. 



THE position which Robertson occupies in scientific 

 literature may in part be gathered from the bibli- 

 ography given in the appendix. Yet his services to 

 that literature will be very imperfectly seen, unless 

 we look beyond the books and papers to which his 

 name is attached as author, whether separately or in 

 partnership with others. Mention has already been 

 made of the foreign writers of high reputation who 

 have acknowledged their indebtedness to his exer- 

 tions, but it is proper here also to point out how his 

 intimate friends at home in some of their most 

 prominent works have delighted to do him honour. 



A sort of forecast of the essential assistance he was 

 destined to render to serious workers is to be found 

 in The Morning Journal for November 5, 1865. 



Describing a conversazione of the Geological Society 

 of Glasgow, the report refers to numerous illustrative 

 specimens as " obtained, chiefly by dredging opera- 

 tions in the Firth of Clyde, by Mr. David Robertson." 

 "We know," it continues, "that natural history science 

 is much indebted to Mr. Robertson's labours in marine 

 zoology, and naturalists assure us that he is ever 



