CHAP. IX.] STOEM SIGNALS. 97 



From the huge packet of MS. papers, of printed speeches, 

 various reports, written and spoken by Alfred Smee for the benefit 

 of sundry companies to which he belonged (which ! had the 

 curiosity to collect and preserve), it would seem that he must 

 have been the moving spirit in them, and in losing him they 

 must indeed have lost a friend and a strong supporter. 



In the summer of 1868 my father had a serious illness, which 

 at the time was supposed to be a severe form of colic, but which 

 would appear to have been rather the beginning of the disease 

 which proved fatal to him at the beginning of last year : for 

 from that moment he lost his stoutness, and became year by year 

 thinner and thinner. From that moment, too, he cannot be said 

 to have enjoyed robust health. Through the kind attention of 

 his old friend Dr. Jones, he rallied from this illness, and when 

 convalescent he went to Whitby, where he thoroughly enjoyed 

 himself, sometimes in fishing, sometimes on the moors, sometimes 

 amidst the rocks, searching for fossils embedded in the lias or 

 oolitic strata, and sometimes in the beautiful woods in the vicinity, 

 searching for ferns for his beloved garden at Wallington, which, 

 when absent from it, was never forgotten by him. At such times we 

 would return to Whitby with the carriage so filled with oak ferns, 

 beech ferns, and other sorts of ferns, that our heads only would 

 just be visible above the mass of lovely foliage, much to the 

 amusement of the good folks of that seaport, who thereupon 

 styled my father the "Professor of Ferns." Besides these in- 

 nocent amusements, which tended to restore his health, he took 

 steps to promote the interests of the fishermen of Whitby, as will 

 be seen from the following letter, which he wrote immediately 

 on his return to London, to the late Mr. Gassiot, F.E.S. 



MY DEAR SIR, I have been at Whitby during the last equinox, and 

 took great interest in the storm signals on that dangerous coast, and 

 I write the general result for you to lay before the committee for their 

 information. 



1. The barometer was of the highest importance to the fishermen. 

 Every morning they walked up the pier to examine it, and their decision 

 was most materially guided by its rising and falling. 



2. The storm signal seemed to be of secondary importance to the indi- 

 cation of the barometer, though of great use taken in conjunction with it, 

 and the reason for its being hoisted. Upon this matter I have a suggestion 

 to make. I found that whenever the drum was hoisted, every sailor knew 

 the reason of its being hoisted from the Preventive Service men, and they 

 would tell me that there was a great storm raging in the Channel, a high 

 wind on the coast of Scotland, and 'one day that there was a storm so near 

 as Yarmouth. 



