i855 THE COAST SURVEY I35 



one's capital and adding nothing, for I find the physical exertion 

 of lecturing quite unfits me for much else. Fancy how last 

 Friday was spent. I went to Jermyn Street in the morning with 

 the intention of preparing for my afternoon's lecture. People 

 came talking to me up to within a quarter of an hour of the 

 time, so I had to make a dash without preparation. Then I had 

 to go home to prepare for a second lecture in the evening, and 

 after that I went to a soiree, and got home about one o'clock in 

 the morning. 



I go on telling myself this won't do, but to no purpose. 

 You will be glad to hear that my affairs here are finally 

 settled, and I am regularly appointed an officer of the survey 

 with the commission to work out the natural history of the 

 coast. 



Edinburgh has been tempting me again, and in fact I be- 

 lieve I was within an ace of going there, but the Government 

 definitely offering me this position, I was too glad to stop 

 where I am. 



I can make six hundred a year here, and that being the case, 

 I conceive I have a right to consult my own inclinations and 

 the interests of my scientific reputation. The coast survey puts 

 in my hands the finest opportunities that ever a man had, and 

 it is a pity if I do not make myself something better than a 

 Caledonian pedagogue. 



The great first scheme I have in connection with my new 

 post is to work out the Marine Natural History of Britain, and 

 to have every species of sea beast properly figured and described 

 in the reports which I mean from time to time to issue. I can 

 get all the engravings and all the printing I want done, but of 

 course I am not so absurd as to suppose I can work out all these 

 things myself. Therefore my notion is to seek in all highways 

 and byways for fellow labourers. Busk will, I hope, supply me 

 with figures and descriptions of the British Polyzoa and Hy- 

 drozoa, and I have confidence in my friend, Mr. Dyster of Tenby 

 (are you presumptuous enough to say you know him?) for 

 the Annelids, if he won't object to that mode of publishing his 

 work. The Mollusks, the Crustaceans, and the Fishes, the 

 Echinoderms and the Worms, will give plenty of occupation to 

 the other people, myself included, to say nothing of distribution 

 and of the recent geological changes, all of which come within 

 my programme. 



Did I not tell you it was a fine field, and could the land o' 

 cakes give me any scope like this ? 

 10 



