Alfred Merle Normo.n. 



xlvii 



become ; but it was even then extensive, and not so very easy for a country 

 clergyman to consult, much less to have at home in his own library. Later 

 on, referring to this period, Norman spoke of the keen pleasure with which a 

 necessary book was then acquired as compared with the unemotional acquisi- 

 tion which was a matter of course to a replenished purse. 



Acquaintance with the present writer, which quickly ripened into intimacy 

 and abiding friendship, was invited by a letter from Norman, as follows : — 

 " Burnmoor Eectory, Fence Houses, Co. Durham, May 6, 1872. Dear Sir, 

 We have so few carcinologists that it gives me great pleasure to welcome an 

 addition to their number," with other obliging remarks. It will be easily 

 understood how encouraging was such a notice from an acknowledged 

 authority of long standing to one who was then a neophyte in systematic 

 Zoology, in every need of experienced help and guidance, and little suspicious 

 of the necessity for sifting good work from bad done by pioneers in all 

 departments. After much intervening correspondence, in 1875 Norman was 

 attracted away from his favourite northern seas to spend his summer holiday 

 in Devon, receiving a welcome in Torquay on his way to Salcombe, the classic 

 hunting-ground of Colonel Montagu. To attain this goal, instead of making 

 the comfortable and picturesque journey by land, he carried his dredging 

 apparatus on board a Brixham trawler, with the result that, on his applying 

 for accommodation which had been recommended to him at Salcombe, the 

 scared landlady would have no dealing with so disreputable-looking a visitor. 

 Too late her penitent eyes recognised in the rejected lodger a scrupulously 

 well-groomed parson. To such mishaps or misunderstandings enthusiastic 

 nature-students cannot help being exposed. A more inconvenient trouble 

 occurred at a later date. The sorting of miscellaneous specimens brought up 

 by the dredge is often rather uneasy work on land ; much more trying is it 

 on board a small vessel out at sea. It is useful, therefore, to have a series of 

 graded sieves, so that the minuter forms, which are sometimes the most 

 important, may be readily separated from those of coarser build. To fit these 

 one into the other for compactness in travel the uppermost with the largest 

 mesh will have the smallest diameter. On one occasion Norman, just ready 

 to start on his brief holiday, found that the constructor of this apparatus, 

 instead of following instructions, had followed his " common sense," which 

 taught him that the largest sieve should have the largest mesh, and that the 

 smallest mesh naturally belonged to the smallest sieve. Unhappily, this 

 theoretical improvement caused a very annoying delay while it was being 

 reversed in the interest of practical convenience. 



Though he published numerous treatises independently, Norman loved to 

 associate himself with other naturalists in publication, fully as much to their 

 advantage as to his own. Only on one occasion did this lead to any mis- 

 understanding. The highly important 'Monograph of the Marine and 

 Freshwater Ostracoda of the Noi'th Atlantic and of North-Western Europe,' 

 by Brady and Norman, of which the first part was published in 1889, had 

 been awaited with keen and pleasurable expectation by another colleague. 



