WILLIAM TURNER. 343 
intention of publishing a work upon the names and natures of 
the Fishes to be found within the dominions of Queen Elizabeth. — 
But the catalogue of 1557 was a remarkable production for the 
middle of the sixteenth century, and refers to many old names of 
British Fishes. Thus the title of ‘“‘ Keeling” is applied to Cod 
(Gadus morhua) of a particular size. Or again, Turner’s remarks 
have a historical value, as when he represents that the Smelt 
(Osmerus eperlanus), which rarely ascends the Thames higher 
than Woolwich at the present day, used in his time to follow the 
tides as high up as Kew and Brentford in the spring of the year. 
How carefully Turner studied the specific characters of fishes 
may be guessed from the gravity with which he rejects the 
fallacious opinion entertained by some of his countrymen that 
the Sprat, or “ Sprote,” as the Londoners of those days termed 
it (Clupea sprattus), was not the young of the Herring (Clupea 
harengus), nor an immature form at all; but a valid and distinct 
species of fish. We can well believe that Turner’s failure to 
produce his promised monograph of British Fishes was due in 
part to the strange vicissitudes of his career; in part to the 
encroachments of his Herbal upon his spare time. 
Whatever shortcomings may be detected in the writings of 
William Turner, the man himself is worthy of our homage, 
not only as the first sturdy Englishman who essayed to study 
our insular fauna in a spirit of intelligent research, but also 
because, like Dr. Caius and Dr. Fauconer of his own genera- 
tion, he delighted to clasp hands with brother naturalists 
across the “silver streak,” thus bringing to our own remem- 
brance the signal truth that the naturalist belongs to no single 
motherland, but is united with his comrades in the bonds of 
a generous friendship wherever the waves and the winds may 
carry him. : 
Dear old Turner was not spared to attain a very great age. 
His failing strength lasted long enough to enable him to correct 
the text of the edition of his Herbal printed in 1568; but that 
same year brought his sorely troubled life to a peaceful termina- 
tion. On July 7th the great Northumbrian naturalist “quietly” 
laid his head upon the pillow and passed away. We gather 
from the epitaph which Jane Turner placed upon her husband’s 
monument in St, Olave’s Church, that the veteran was “‘ ac tandem 
