86 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP, v 



help, but could recommend Government aid better if 

 he had seen the drawings. Meantime a certificate 

 should be got from Forbes, the best man in this 

 particular branch of science, backed, if possible, by 

 Owen. He would speak to some officials himself, 

 and give Huxley introductions to others, and if he 

 could get up to town, would try to see the collections 

 and add his name to the certificate. 



Both Forbes and Owen were ready to help. The 

 former wrote a most encouraging letter, singling out 

 the characteristics which gave a peculiar value to 

 these papers : 



I have had very great pleasure in examining your 

 drawings of animals observed during the voyage of the 

 Rattlesnake, and have also fully availed myself of the 

 opportunity of going over the collections made during 

 the course of the survey upon which you have been en- 

 gaged. I can say without exaggeration that more im- 

 portant or more complete zoological researches have never 

 been conducted during any voyage of discovery in the 

 southern hemisphere. The course you have taken of 

 directing your attention mainly to impreservable creatures, 

 and to those orders of the animal kingdom respecting 

 which we have least information, and the care and skill 

 with which you have conducted elaborate dissections and 

 microscopic examinations of the curious creatures you 

 were so fortunate as to meet with, necessarily gives a 

 peculiar and unique character to your researches, since 

 thereby they fill up gaps in our knowledge of the animal 

 kingdom. This is the more important, since such re- 

 searches have been almost always neglected during 

 voyages of discovery. The value of some of your notes 

 was publicly acknowledged during your absence, when 



