56 THE SOUTH AND ITS SCIENTIFIC SCOPE 
Dr. Eichardson warmly encouraged him in the work ; skill 
with the pencil being a special qualification in dealing with 
sea creatures which could not be preserved. To add to our 
knowledge of the structure of animals, he insisted, is the most 
certain w^ay of attaining a scientific reputation ; to be the 
first to discover or name a new species is a very secondary 
matter. 
But, rich as the collections were that he brought back from 
the voyage, they were never fully worked out, to the great loss 
of marine zoology and the disappointment of their zealous 
collector. The * might have been ' was sharply brought home 
to him w^hen, sixty years later, he read Dr. Bruce's report of 
his Antarctic w^ork, ' The Scientific Eesults of the Voyage 
of the Scotia.' ^ 
There is [he TSTote to Dr. Bruce, January 10, 1901] 
always something painful to me w^hen I come across the 
scientific reports on Antarctic expeditions, due to the whole- 
sale destruction of the great collections made by Boss and 
myself of marine and submarine animals of all classes. 
Boss was an indefatigable collector, who never lost an 
opportunity, whether on sea or ashore ; but except my 
collection of Diatoms published by Ehrenberg,^ and dis- 
cussed in my ' Flora Antarctica,' there is nothing to show 
of the stores of the pelagic materials obtained with so much 
zeal and care by Boss and myself. Thereby hangs a tale 
which, if w^e two have the pleasm'e of meeting again, I may 
unfold to you. 
But his enthusiasm was unabated when his forgotten harvest 
was at last fully garnered. Eight years afterw^ards Dr. Bruce 
sent him Vol. V. of the ' Invertebrates of the Scotia Expedi- 
tion ' : he replied on February 14, 1909 : 
I have again to thank you for a magnificent addition to 
my Antarctic hbrary. It is really a noble work, and I find 
1 Cp. vol. ii. p. 441. 
^ Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (1795-1876), Professor of Medicine at 
Berlin, was the founder and chief representative of the study of microscopiG 
organisms. He was one of Humboldt's companions on his journey to the Ural 
and Altai mountains. 
