1860 FRIENDSHIP WITH HOOKER 311 



It constantly becomes more and more difficult to me to 

 finish things satisfactorily. 



To Hooker also he writes a few days later : 



I hope your ear is better ; take care of yourself, there's 

 a good fellow. I can't do without you these twenty 

 years. We have a devil of a lot to do in the way of 

 smiting the Amalekites. 



Between two men who seldom spoke of their feel- 

 ings, but let constant intercourse attest them, these 

 words show more than the practical side of their 

 friendship, their community of aims and interests. 

 Quick, strong-willed, and determined as they both 

 were, the fact that they could work together for over 

 forty years without the shadow of a misunderstand- 

 ing, presupposes an unusually strong friendship 

 firmly based upon mutual trust and respect as well 

 as liking, the beginning of which Sir J. Hooker thus 

 describes : 



My first meeting your father was in 1851, shortly after 

 his return from the Rattlesnake voyage with Captain 

 Stanley. Hearing that I had paid some attention to 

 marine zoology during the voyage of the Antarctic Expedi- 

 tion, he was desirous of showing me the results of his 

 studies of the Oceanic Hydrozoa, and he sought me out 

 in consequence. This and the fact that we had both 

 embarked in the Naval service in the same capacity as 

 medical officers and with the same object of scientific 

 research, naturally led to an intimacy which was un- 

 disturbed by a shadow of a misunderstanding for nearly 

 forty-five following years. Curiously enough, our inter- 

 course might have dated from an earlier period by nearly 



