DEAWING AT SEA 61 
As far as I could I imitated Bauer's ^ style of drawing dis- 
sections, but as the only sketches on board of that artist 
are two in Parry's Voyage, I have not much to copy from 
and I do not expect that they will please you much, and 
further when the ship gets through a pack she at once meets 
the troubled waters, and commences rolling about so that 
I have to lash my portfoho and microscope and to prop 
myself up. However I get on as well as I expected. Some 
of the notes are in a very rude state, for the notice of the 
opportunity was sudden. That they may prove correct is 
all that I hope for, as I endeavoured to stick to facts. . . . 
These are . . . both as numerous and as well done as I 
could. 
He did not restrict himself to scientific drawing, however. 
In the same letter he tells his father : 
At present I am attempting a sketch of the ships off 
the Barrier and burning mountain in 78° South for you, 
and should I succeed you shall have it ; my talent for 
sketching is, however, far below par, and without colours 
it would be nothing. There is rather a nice print published 
of Weddell's two ships bearing up in 74° 15', by Huggins, 
which would be worth your buying ; a few shilhngs would 
cover it, and the Icebergs in it give a very fair idea of those 
floating masses, though they are not flat-topped like the 
most of those we have seen, nor is the colour at all good, 
as they should have a blue tinge. 
Doubtless his artistic power was improving, for a year 
earher (February 3, 1840) he is much more severe upon his 
general drawing. * My sketches are characteristic of the 
different places visited, but miserably done ; they are not 
intended for any person but you to see.' Still, at the end of 
the voyage, he feels that his execution is not equal to his aims, 
though many of his sketches were utihsed as the basis of 
1 Francis Bauer (1758-1840), the superb botanical draughtsman employed 
by Banks, who left him a pension that he might continue his work at Kew. 
His name appears as illustrator on the title-page of Sir W. Hooker's Genera 
Filicum (1838-40) ; but more than half the plates were drawn by the new 
draughtsman, Walter Fitch, who was to serve Kew and the Hookers for half 
a century. 
