MICROSCOPICAL SECTION. 423 



resources than just what constitute a sailor, and then he 

 finds himself an idle man or comparatively so, after his 

 life of unceasing industry. There are many times when 

 ships are becalmed in the Eastern Seas and Pacific, when 

 soundings might be taken, if any one who had a taste for 

 that pursuit were supplied with the necessary apparatus, 

 partly at the expense of the Association to which he be- 

 longed, and in part by the Society desiring such soundings, 

 we might soon know the nature of the deep sea-bottom. 

 Indeed, for collecting specimens of every thing in the sea 

 and out of it, from the first germ to the finished animal or 

 fabric, whether in Comparative Anatomy, Zoology, Ethno- 

 logy, Botany or Meteorology, no better adapted staff of 

 workers could well be wished for : they carry your fabrics 

 to every corner of the world ; and to my thinking there is 

 but one thing necessary — let the owners desire their 

 commanders to pay some attention in their leisure time to 

 some of these pursuits, and approve of their holding the 

 certificate of the Association. 



It is too much to expect that they will apply themselves, 

 and neither find their pride gratified or their industry ac- 

 knowledged ; but with this or some such scheme there is 

 a great deal of good to be done to the class of men to 

 which I belong. As a matter of social science I hope some 

 of your members may take it up. 



I hope you do not think you have found one likely to 

 bore you frequently with such long yarns. I am in earnest 

 on this point, having thought of it for years ; and were I 

 not trying to be brief I could go on and shew how I would 

 supply the Museums of Liverpool and Manchester so as to 

 exceed all others in their completeness ; but I should like 

 what I have written to be read, and if it is not afterwards 

 thought of, then it is long enough. 



Yours very truly, 



JAMES ANDERSON. 



