Notices of New Books. 4091 



" During the time in which the first volume of this work, published 

 in 1851, was passing through the press, its estimable author was in a 

 very delicate state of health. So reduced, indeed, was he by a linger- 

 ing illness, that he felt himself unequal to the task of compiling an 

 Analytical Index, according to the plan which he had followed in the 

 two volumes on ' Rare and Remarkable Animals of Scotland ; ' and a 

 few weeks after the publication of the volume, his disease terminated 

 fatally. 



" Sir John Dalyell had contemplated proceeding immediately with 

 the preparation of the second volume, if his life had been spared; and 

 towards the accomplishment of his object he had, to some extent, ar- 

 ranged his notes of descriptions of species, intending to correct and 

 transcribe the whole for the press. Several plates had likewise been 

 executed, and many drawings were in some measure assorted as ma- 

 terials ready to be placed in the hands of the engraver. 



" In this state of things it was considered by his sister, who always 

 lived with him, as a duty, to make an effort and save for the public 

 benefit a large amount of valuable information, the result of the con- 

 tinuous labour, through many years, of an acute, patient, and intelli- 

 gent observer. This zeal to promote the author's fame, and advance 

 at the same time the interest of science, was naturally to be looked for 

 from the individual referred to in the second volume of 'Rare and 

 Remarkable Animals of Scotland ' (p. 99), where, in reference to the 

 Cristatella, he says, ' I am indebted to the sedulous care of an affec- 

 tionate relative, the companion of all my excursions, the encourager 

 of all my exertions, in so tedious, laborious, and difficult a work, for 

 the finest of any — that exhibited to the British Association, taken by 

 herself from the garden pond at Binns House, in Linlithgowshire.' 

 Another passage, dictated by the same grateful considerations, occurs 

 in the same volume (p. 124), under Plumatella repens. ' Of these an 

 admirable example occurred near a ruinous mansion called Fenton 

 Tower, in the county Haddington, about twenty-one miles east of 

 Edinburgh, for which I was indebted to that same affectionate com- 

 panion of my excursions already noted, who takes the liveliest interest 

 in all my pursuits, and who values the beauties of Nature as demon- 

 strations of the Divine Essence vouchsafed to the gaze of admiring 

 mankind.' 



" When this affectionate relative had somewhat recovered from the 

 bereavement which deprived her of a valued companion, she resolved 

 to undertake the task which he had contemplated. 



