9 
it up this long'; but what do you get out of it V’ 
On one other occasion 1 walked into a two-up party 
in an abandoned quarry and caused a sudden and com- 
plete scatter of all the players. This was most interest- 
ing to watch. 
I shall mention .just one more experience. At Catar- 
act Gorge, near Launceston, Tasmania, whilst on my 
knees at the side of a mossy bank from which I was 
knocking very tiny land shells into a specimen tube with 
a match, I was approached by two men who stood one 
on either side and asked if I was ill. I was able to 
convince them I was all right and they then told me they 
had been called by the curator to investigate as I seemed 
to be acting queerly. 
Leaving all these humorous and occasinally more 
serious interludes aside the Field Naturalist has a most 
interesting time, there being always something to attract 
his attention,- the whole field of animate nature is before 
him, there are rocks and geological structures, the 
wonder of astronomy and the vagaries of the weather all 
having stories to tell. 
There is a story told of an American businessman 
who purchased a small block of bushland and erected a 
log cabin to be occupied when he retired in the near- 
future. lie gathered together a small library to read now 
that he would have plenty of spare time, and for a period 
enjoyed the quiet and lazy life. However, the spring 
time called him into the open, the trees and bushes in his 
holding attracted him, and he decided it would be worth 
while knowing something about them. Ho he set to work 
and learnt their names and characteristics; from this it 
was just a step to the lesser flora and he found a great 
interest here also. The birds attracted his attention and 
he felt he should learn something about them also, and 
in this way four years passed by filled with interest. 
He stated there were still the insects and all other inver- 
tebrate animals within his property that simply demanded 
that he learn something about them, and he looked 
forward to years of pleasant investigational work in 
natural history before he could hope to complete a survey 
of his own little kingdom. Our retired man is now well 
on the way to becoming a local authority on natural 
history and a man who finds life simply teeming with 
interest. 
However, this story is not meant to suggest that a 
real field naturalist can only develop when there is plenty 
of leisure time. One of the real field naturalists of recent 
