266 THE AQUARIAN NATURALIST. 



before me ; for certes, since the days of Robinson 

 Crusoe, no man ever presented himself in such a garb 

 in such a desolate place. A long red beard, worthy 

 of an Eastern sage, swept down over his ample breast ; 

 and when he informed me that he was a hermit, who 

 had retired from the society of mankind, and had 

 built for himself a hut on that dreary coast, I began 

 to look upon my new acquaintance with feelings in 

 which pity and apprehension were strangely inter- 

 mingled. However, as he courteously invited me to 

 visit his cell and have some refreshment, I was by 

 no means in a condition to refuse hospitality so 

 frankly offered, and accordingly followed my new 

 acquaintance : 



" Far in a wilderness obscure 



The lonely mansion lay, 

 A refuge to the neighbouring poor, 

 A.nd strangers led astray." 



And now, be it known unto thee, gentle reader, 

 that we have long been familiar with hermits' cells of 

 all sorts and sizes, from that of the Hermit of Wark- 

 worth to that of Friar Tuck, and of course always 

 knew them to be devoted to contemplation and study ; 

 but perhaps you yourself never heard of a hermit' s 

 cell with " MUSEUM " inscribed over the portal, or 

 dreamed of such a collection of relics as were here 

 crowded together by the anchorite, my worthy host ; 

 albatroses and torn-tits, African fetishes and Chinese 

 gongs, ornithorhynchi from Australia and whales' 

 jaw-bones from the North Pole, Kaffirs' tobacco- 

 pipes and New Zealanders' heads, fiddles from New 

 York and old shoes from Otaheite, monkeys and 



