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MINISTRY AT WARRINGTON. [Chap. IV. 



able to correct. The errors of observation can easily be de- 

 tected, as the shells themselves are open to all who desire to 

 study them. It is hoped that all such errors will as speedily 

 as possible be detected and exposed ; and that this work may 

 soon be laid aside as useless, having served its purpose as a 

 stepping-stone to something far better. The sooner our own 

 work perishes, the truer will be our knowledge of Him whose 

 exquisite order and beauty can be abundantly traced even (as 

 in the following pages) in the worm-eaten passages of a decaying 

 shell. — April 22, 1857." 



At the Manchester meeting of the British Association, 1855, 

 Philip had been entrusted with the duty of preparing a Report 

 " On the Present State of our Knowledge of the Mollusca of 

 California," and he was led to embrace the whole west coast 

 of North America. This was printed in the B. A. Report of 

 1856, where it occupies 209 out of the 664 pages of that 

 volume. This shows the importance attached to it ; and it not 

 only entitled him thenceforth to a place on the Committee of 

 the Association, but gave him an honourable position among 

 naturalists. When I looked at ft first, and saw page after page 

 filled with names, I asked him how many of the members of 

 the Association he expected would study it. He hoped there 

 would be half a dozen, but observed that the record would be 

 valuable to future naturalists. Although " dry " is a feeble 

 description of much of this Report, it contains many pages 

 which are interesting even to those who are ignorant of 

 conchology. 



On receiving the request of the Association, he sent a 

 circular for information " to every accessible station on the 

 west North American coast, and to naturalists in this and 

 foreign countries." He spared no time or pains in his investi- 

 gation ; indeed, he always observed his father's rule, " What- 

 ever is worth doing, is worth doing well." But the scope of his 

 work must have required a remarkable amount of perseverance, 

 as well as accuracy and method. After some introductory 

 pages which describe the way in which mistakes have arisen as 

 to the habitat of shells, etc., he presented an abstract of all the 



