LAST YEARS. 321 



known foreign rotifer, as well as all the British species 

 which had been discovered since the original work went to 

 press in 1885. This Supplement my father did not live to 

 see published, and Dr. Hudson alludes to that fact, in his 

 preface, in these graceful and generous terms : — 



"The natural pleasure, with which I see the observa- 

 '• tions and studies of thirty-five years thus brought to a 

 "successful conclusion, has been indeed marred by the 

 "sad loss of my deeply lamented friend. His great 

 " knowledge and experience, his keen powers of observa- 

 " tion, his artistic skill, and his rare gift of description 

 "are known to all, and have made him facile princeps 

 " among the writers on the rotifera ; but it is only those 

 "who, like myself, were privileged to know him inti- 

 •' mately, that are aware how much more he was than an 

 " enthusiastic naturalist. I shall never forget the hearty 

 "welcome (when I first met him) that the veteran gave 

 " to the comparatively unknown student, or the gracious 

 "kindness with which he subsequently placed at my 

 "disposal his beautiful unpublished drawings and his 

 " ample notes. 



" A happy chance had led our observations to differing 

 " parts of the same subject, and our united labours have 

 "produced, in consequence, the now completed work ; 

 "but I shall ever count it a still happier chance that gave 

 " me not only such a colleague, but also such a friend." 

 So late as the last autumn of his life my father continued 

 his occasional rambles on the shore with hammer and col- 

 lecting basket. September 19, 1887, will long be memo- 

 rable to his family as the latest of these delightful excursions. 

 He spent several hours of that day upon the rocks in the 

 centre of Goodrington Sands, surrounded by his wife, his 

 son and son's wife, and his three grandchildren— a compact 

 family party. No one on that brilliant afternoon would 



Y 



