Philip Henry Gosse. 363 



doors closed, and the orator appeared on the platform. He 

 began by describing the depredations of the squirrels, the 

 difficulty of coping with them, and various other circum- 

 stances with which his audience was familiar. He was a 

 plausible fellow and seemed to have mastered his subject. At 

 last he approached the real kernel of the question." *' You 

 wish," he said, "to hear my infallible preventive, the ab- 

 solute success of which I am able to guarantee. Gentlemen, 

 I have observed that the squirrels invariably begin their 

 attacks on the outside row of corn in the field. Omit the out- 

 side row, and they won't know whereto begin ! " The money 

 was in his pocket ; he turned and vanished by the platform 

 door; his horse was tied to the post, he leaped into the sad- 

 dle and was seen no more in that credulous settlement. 

 The act was one of extreme courage as well as impudence 

 in that land of ready lynching, but my father was wont to 

 say that after the first murmur of dissatisfaction and words 

 of anger, the disappointed audience dissolved into the most 

 good-humoured laughter at themselves." 



Notwithstanding this delightful field for study and the 

 kindly, rough-and-ready hospitality of the planters, after 

 the first few months Gosse was utterly miserable. As an 

 Englishman, his prejudices clashed with those of his com- 

 panions, and though no humanitarian, he was sickened by 

 the horrors of slavery, which even to him, seemed indis- 

 pensable in Alabama. In January, 1839, he, therefore, 

 abruptly took his departure, seeking after a twelve years' 

 exile, his life-work in his childhood's home. He was 

 reduced to extreme poverty, and knew not where to turn, 

 when his cousin, Prof. Bell, recommended the manuscript 

 of the " Canadian Naturalist " so highly to Mr. Van Voorst, 

 the publisher, that he offered one hundred guineas for the 

 woi'k. This offer was accepted with joy, and never again 

 in his career as an author was Philip Gosse reduced to 

 such straits. The next few years were full of intellectual 

 effort, but little of his work during this period was 

 published. Two books, howover, " An Introduction to Zoo- 

 logy," and the " Ocean," written for the Society for Pro- 



