LITERARY STRUGGLES. 173 



summer of 1844, Philip Gosse, for the first and last time in 

 his life, was " run in " by the police. He had fastened a 

 bull's-eye lantern to a tree, and was anxiously watching for 

 the advent of insects, when the would-be capturer was 

 himself suddenly captured, on suspicion, by a couple of 

 active constables. He had no great difficulty in explaining 

 that his conduct, if eccentric, proffered no real danger to 

 society. 



A little before Christmas, 1843, Whymper suggested to 

 him that he should write a book about the ocean. There 

 was a sudden access of public interest in the new and 

 mysterious theories of deep-sea fauna. Sir James Ross 

 had just returned from his epoch-making voyage in the 

 Pacific Ocean, and had brought up living shell-fish from 

 what then seemed the astounding depth of a thousand 

 fathoms. It appeared that a general treatise on the 

 popular zoology of the deep sea might be acceptable, and 

 Philip Gosse proposed to write one for the Society for 

 Promoting Christian Knowledge. The committee were 

 delighted with the idea, and asked him to prepare a sample 

 of his method. He did so, and wrote a little essay of 

 which only half a dozen copies were printed for the use of 

 the committee. The work, as it finally appeared, did not 

 contain this fragment, which has never been published. I 

 print it here as a characteristic specimen of the style of 

 the author at this period : — 



" Waiving our privilege of breathing the thin and 

 " elastic air, let us descend in imagination to the depths 

 " of ocean, and explore the gorgeous treasures that 

 M adorn the world of the mermaids. We will choose for 

 " our descent one of those lovely little groups which 

 " speckle the Pacific, the wondrous labour of an insig- 

 " nificant polyp. The sun is no longer visible through 

 " the depth of the incumbent sea ; but a subdued 



