216 MEMOIR OF DR. EAR VEY. 



my American friends would drop in on ine as friend S. did, 

 of whom I wrote you. 



Vacation is come, but I have not yet set off. I am finishing 

 up my Notes on Wilkes's Algse for Bailey, and mean to end 

 them before I take my holiday. There are more new species 

 among them than I anticipated. I wish you could let me know 

 how Bailey is, and whether he is back at West Point yet? . . . 

 Dr. Hooker is expected home from India by Christmas. I 

 have had many letters from Mrs. Griffiths, who is as active as 

 ever in her green old age. She has been touring about for the 

 benefit of her daughter's health; and only a day or two ago she 

 wrote me a long critical letter, giving me information about the 

 fruit of one of the Alga?, which I had not before known, and 

 which will cause me to put a supplementary plate to the Phyco- 

 logia. She is a wonderful specimen of vigour at eighty-two. 



To the Same. 



Plassey, August 1, 1850. 



My next letter will probably be dated from the coast of 

 Antrim, as yours will from Longbranch. It is very different 

 from your sandy pebbly beach, with nothing but sea-bugs to 

 enliven it. Apropos, if you see the fishermen picking those 

 sea-bugs I shall be obliged if you will put a few into a bottle of 

 spirits for me, and send when opportunity offers. I find we have 

 not got them in our Museum, and those I collected were dried 

 and in bad order. . . . 



This day is intensely still. I hear nothing but the distant 

 sound of the river falling over the mill-weir. I sit at an open 

 window looking out on the lawn, with the river and Keeper 

 Mountain, and the plantations of Mount Shannon (Lord Clare's) 

 in the distance. It is a very pretty scene in its way, though 

 not like your Hudson views ; for the Shannon here is not 

 navigable, and is only crossed by small fiat-bottomed boats. It 

 is however a broad stream, and the water is quite clear, running 

 over a limestone bed. You say we never have sunshine here. 

 'Tis not so ; there is a good bright shine and dark shadows on the 

 grass, and the sky is not the less beautiful for the few masses of 

 fleecy clouds which float in it lazily. The weather for the past 

 week has been most favourable for the harvest, and we look 



