OBITUARY. 119 



A few days after the last letter quoted from, he wrote : — " Certainly 

 no one would do a perfect book, but there is room for more accuracy 

 and detail than has already been placed before the public." Ten 

 days later: — "What I think I shall most need your assistance in 

 regard to are certain small matters. . . . Then again, if you can 

 favour me with a general criticism of my work when it takes shape, 

 I shall of course be very grateful. ... I hope presently to send 

 you some draft MSS. on MustelidcB." 



Considerations of space preclude many quotations, and it must 

 suffice to record that the first part of the great work eventually 

 appeared on October 18th, 1910, and that since then the present 

 writer has read every proof, making every kind of criticism and 

 suggestion that seemed to him improvements, with frequent consul- 

 tations and discussions, Barrett-Hamilton proving a charming person 

 to try to help, because he was always so grateful, and (what was even 

 more to the point) because he adopted a very large proportion of the 

 suggestions ! 



On July 10th, 1913, he wrote : — " I wonder if you will be surprised 

 or shocked when I tell you that I have accepted a mission from the 

 Colonial Office to go and study the whaling at South Georgia. I 

 couldn't refuse it, . . .• and it is a beautiful trip via Portuguese ports. 

 ... I am much troubled about my ' British Mammals.' ... I 

 count that the knowledge which I shall get on Whales will more 

 than recompense the book for any slight 'hold up,' and I am hoping 

 to use my spare time in writing the Whale parts of it. It's most 

 curious that fifteen years ago they should have sent me to Kamchatka, 

 which no one had ever heard of, and now to South Georgia, which is 

 nearly as bad in the opposite direction. But I am a lucky naturalist 

 to get these trips. . . ." 



Writing at sea on his passage out, on October 15th last (posted 

 at Cape Verdes), he begins a long letter : — " The world is very small ! 

 Here I am, sailing to South Georgia under your old friend of the 

 Finland [= Finmarken] whaling days, Capt. I. Bryde,* who sends you 

 his best respects ! Your volume of reprints [ = of Whaling Eeports] 

 has been of the very greatest use to me, as I hope you will be glad to 

 hear. I have been abstracting information from it the last few days, 

 and in some respects your statistics are the most valuable I can find. 

 I hope to use them for comparison with those to be obtained later 



* Vide " Reports on Finwhaling off Coast of Finmarken," ' Zoologist,' 

 1886-1890, and his father in those published 1884-85. Also ' Saga Book of 

 the Viking Club,' 1895-6, vol. i., p. 322. 



