NE WFO UNDLAND. 79 



" mountains, while further on in the same direction, 



" between two distant peaks, the ocean, with the golden 



" sun above it, flashed forth in dazzling splendour. The 



" low, unvarying, somewhat mournful note of the snipes 



" on the opposite hill, and, as one would occasionally fly 



" across the water, the short, quick flapping of his wings, 



"seemed rather to increase than to diminish the general 



"feeling of repose. The air seemed (perhaps from its 



" extreme calmness) to have an extraordinary power of 



" conveying sounds, for I could with perfect ease keep up 



" a conversation with Sprague on the other side (not less 



" than one-eighth of a mile off), without raising the voice 



" above the pitch used in ordinary discourse." 



The entomological work done in 1833 and the personal 



record of it are so profuse, that the biographer is inclined 



to wonder where the duties of the counting-house came in. 



But Mr. Elson was spending the summer in England, 



which gave a little more leisure than usual, and the 



young man became a kind of interesting local celebrity. 



The sons of Mr. Elson had a pleasure-boat of their own, 



the Red Rover, and she was placed at Philip Gosse's 



service for visiting the islands. One of the captains, 



Mr. Hampton, became an enthusiastic pupil of the young 



naturalist, and collected ardently for him in southern ports 



of Europe and Africa. Even the townspeople vied with 



one another to be on the watch for strange-looking insects 



" for Gosse's collection." His desk in the counting-house 



stood against one of the windows, and in the window-sill, 



close to his right hand, he kept his card-covered tumblers, 



in which he watched the development and transformation 



of many species while at his work. Mr. Elson never made 



the slightest objection to this, and from these simple 



apparatus many a fact was learned. In the summer of 



1833 ne began, under the title of Entomologia Terrce-novce, 



