Crustacea, 4695 



do not impress the scientific reader quite so favourably as the admiring 

 writer. A taste for the miscellaneous collecting of curiosities is not 

 exactly that development of scientific talent which leads to lasting and 

 beneficial results. It was, however, in Geology that William Baker 

 attained most proficiency ; he was elected a member of the Geological 

 Society, and attained the lasting friendship of many of the most emi- 

 nent professors in that seductive science. He was a man of perfect 

 integrity and strict moral conduct ; a diligent tradesman, supporting 

 an expensive family by his own unwearying industry; a kind and 

 hospitable friend ; and in every sense of that too common-place ex- 

 pression, a " good man." I knew him personally, and enjoyed his 

 company. I well recollect the animation with which he explained to 

 me his views respecting the identity of the salmon and trout, a subject 

 on which he had experimented and observed for many years : 1 am 

 aware of the danger of misrepresenting the views of one who declined 

 to reduce them into form for publication ; but the impression left on 

 my mind by his conversation was, that he believed all our Salrnonidas 

 to constitute but a single species, races of which, by long isolation in 

 lakes and streams, assumed different specific appearances, and, repro- 

 ducing inter se, perpetuated their peculiarities : but that the entire 

 series and "system," so to speak, of our supposed species and varieties, 

 might and would be reproduced in the process of time from a single 

 pair of either. 



To write a memoir of William Baker, more faithfully portraying his 

 estimable qualities as a man or less correctly setting forth his un- 

 doubted qualifications as a naturalist, were almost impossible. As 

 showing how a good man can struggle upwards under every difficulty, 

 it is a valuable essay; as a contribution towards Natural-History 

 biography, it is all but useless. 



Observations on the Natural History and Habits of the Common 

 Prawn (Palaemon serratus). By Robert Warington, Esq.* 



Having during the years 1852 and 1853 had the opportunity of 

 making some observations on the natural habits and minute character- 

 istics of the common prawn (Palasmon serratus), which I understand 



* From the 'Annals and Magazine of Natural History' for April, 1855, and 

 obligingly communicated by the author. 



