68 THE SOUTH AND ITS SCIENTIFIC SCOPE 
the surgeon and nominal naturalist to the Erehus, under whom 
he was to serve, for technically his collections, other than 
botanical, were Hable to be merged in his senior's ; but on the 
high seas, where botany gave insufficient occupation, Hooker 
slipped into the position he had first desired, of Naturahst de 
facto to the Expedition. As he writes (February 3, 1840) : 
McCormick has collected nothing but geological speci- 
mens, and pays no attention to the sea animals brought 
up in the towdng nets, and they are therefore brought to me 
at once. . . . 
(March 17, 1840, at the Cape.) McCormick and I are 
exceedingly good friends, and no jealousy exists between 
us regarding my taking most of his department ; indeed he 
seems to care too little about Natural History altogether to 
dream of anything of the kind ; for my part I am rather 
glad to have an opportunity of doing more than is expected 
from my department. ... He takes no interest but in 
bird shooting and rock collecting ; as of the former he 
has hitherto made no collection, I am, nolens volens, the 
Naturahst, for which I enjoy no other advantage than the 
Captain's cabin, and I think myself amply repaid. 
Most of his work, however, was done under Eoss's wing, 
whose special branch of science lay in terrestrial magnetism ; 
but he was keenly interested in Natural History and, adds 
Hooker to his father (February 3, 1840), * he knows a good deal 
of the lower orders of Animals, and between him and the in- 
valuable books you gave me, I am picking up a knowledge 
of them.* No doubt he would not have been so gracious to a 
mere assistant surgeon who was not the son of his distin- 
guished friend, and indeed in all Hooker's early undertakings 
when he had to deal with officials, he w^as greatly helped, 
and knew that he was helped, by the social and scientific 
prestige at his back, and the introductions he received to 
notable persons who could help him. 
My time during this sea life has not been, I hope, so 
uselessly employed as I expected it might have been. 
Capt. Koss, as soon as he heard that I was very anxious 
to work, gave me a cabinet for my plants in his cabin ; one 
