82 THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 



whom the clerks at Elson's were well acquainted ; but he 

 escaped all punishment The state of things which pre- 

 vailed at that time in Newfoundland was a direct reflection 

 of the condition of Ireland, at that moment swayed by the 

 oratory of Daniel O'Connell. Large contributions were 

 being sent home from the colony to swell " the O'Connell 

 thribbit," as it was called ; and Newfoundland was fast 

 becoming a most unpleasant place to live in. 



The year 1834 passed, almost without incident, in 

 absorbing attention to natural history. To understand 

 the difficulties under which PhiHp Gosse laboured, it must 

 be borne in mind that no one in Newfoundland had ever 

 attempted to study its entomology before ; that there 

 were no museums, no cabinets to refer to for identification, 

 in the whole colony — no list of native insects ; that the 

 young man was entirely self-taught ; that he was poor, and 

 could not buy what, in fact, did not exist if he had had the 

 money. In October, 1834, Captain Hampton brought 

 back for him, from Hamburg, a cabinet for insects which 

 had been made there by Gosse's order and strictly accord- 

 ing to his written directions. This was three feet high, 

 three feet long, two feet wide, with twelve drawers, and 

 folding doors. It was ill planned ; the drawers were not 

 corked, and therefore the specimens had to be pinned 

 into the wood, which was deal throughout ; the substance 

 was but slight, and when he came to travel, he found it 

 very unsatisfactory. However, it served its turn, and 

 Gosse was too good a workman to grumble at his tools. 

 His only written guide was the system of terse, highly 

 condensed, intensely technical generic characters out of 

 Linnseus's Systema NatiircE, as printed in the article " Ento- 

 mology " in Tegg's London Encyclopcsdia. These characters 

 he copied out, and they were of great value. He studied 

 them most intently ; was often puzzled, discouraged, but 



