His Researches on Fossils 



49 



a mere clerk with a miserable pittance of a pay 

 could conceive and carry out such a mighty 

 assault upon the secrets of the Stormberg moun- 

 tains, why cannot our scientists do the same 

 to-day ? Why do they sit waiting for grants that 

 never come, instead of being like Brown and 

 fitting up an expedition to get on with the job ? 



If poor villagers of long ago could, for the cause 

 of science, lend their ramshackle wagon and that 

 cavalcade of lean tired horses with which they 

 earned their livelihood, why cannot those with 

 racing stables and motor cars see that the duty 

 is no less to-day? If Mollentzie could give the 

 warm shelter of his humble homestead to this 

 band of drenched explorers, surely those who 

 dwell in mansions will not forget that men who 

 hew the wood of knowledge and draw water from 

 the well of truth still need a sheltering roof. 

 Those heroes who gave up their Christmas dinners 

 for the bare bread of science, who defied the angry 

 Stormberg gods and stole their dragons, those 

 men of men, where are they now? Surely 

 Chivalry did not die with them ! 



