112 ARTHUR E. SHIPLEY 



and, being an exceptionally able and hard- 

 working government servant, he took great in- 

 terest in anything which was likely to affect 

 the navy. He discoursed with the ingenious 

 Dr. Kuffler "about his design to blow up 

 ships," noticed "the strange nature of the sea- 

 water in a dark night, that it seemed hke fire 

 upon every stroke of the oar" — an effect due, 

 of course, to phosphorescent organisms float- 

 ing near the surface — and interested himself 

 incessantly in marine matters. His troubled 

 eyesight and his love of music account for the 

 attention he paid to optical appliances, the 

 structure of the eye, musical instruments of 

 every kind and musical notation; for this last, 

 he seems to have invented a mechanical means 

 of composing which is still preserved at Mag- 

 dalene College, but which no one now quite 

 understands. 



Physiology and mortuary objects had, for 

 him, an interest which was almost morbid. He 

 is told that "negroes drounded look white, and 

 lose their blackness, which I never heard be- 

 fore," describes how "one of a great family was 

 . . . hanged with a silken halter ... of his 



