42 THE ANTAECTIC VOYAGE : PEELIMINAEIES 
answered, ' Well, perhaps you are right, but at any rate it 
would never be worth the while of any one to go, who was 
really capable, as far as mental acquirements are concerned.* 
Being determined not to be put off, I asked him again ' would 
he take a Government Naturahst ? ' He said, ' Certainly, 
and give him every accommodation,' at the same time 
adding, what was as much as to say, ' You would never be 
fit.' I said nothing, but must have looked very sorry and 
angry, which however he did not see, as he went on, speaking 
as kindly and almost as affectionately as ever, offering to 
write me letters of introduction to the surgeon and chief 
officers of the ship at Chatham, charging them to give me 
every opportunity of going ashore. I thanked him and left 
him. Major Sabine was in the room at the same time, and 
he must have felt for me, after having been so anxious that 
I should be sent as Natm^alist alone. I then went im- 
mediately to Mr. Children,^ who was highly indignant, and 
said I must not go if I am not to be the only Natm^alist, or at 
least the head Naturalist, for that it is utterly impossible 
that we should agree, each having an equal claim on going 
ashore, and he the better right. Mr. Brown and Mr. J. E. 
Gray ^ both said the same thing, and Mr. Children then offered 
to go to Sir William Burnett to put off my examination, 
telling me to meet him afterwards. 
This I did, and found Sir Wilham had put off 
my examination till when I choose, and had strongly 
disadvised my going except as the only Naturalist in the 
ship, the more especially as Dr. McCormick was to he my 
superior. Mr. Brown has gone to Capt. Beaufort,^ Mr. 
^ John George Children (1777-1852), mmeralogist, entomologist, and 
astronomer, held posts at the British Museiim from 1816-40, and Avas one of 
the secretaries of the Royal Society in 182o-7 and 1830-7. He ^^•as a friend 
of Sir Humphry Davy, who made raan}^ experiments in his private laboratory. 
His personal kindness to the young Hooker was t3'pical of his character. 
^ John Edward Gray (1800-75), began his scientific work as a botanist, 
and was responsible for the greater part of his father's book. The Natural 
Arrangement of British Plants, the first British Flora arranged on the natural 
system. A quarrel over scientific personalities diverted liim from botany to 
zoology, and in 1824 he entered tlic British Museum as assistant to Dr. Children, 
whom he succeeded as Keeper of the Zoological Department from 1840 till his 
death. His great work lay in the improvement and organisation of collections, 
and the scientific descriptions which he wrote. 
3 Sir Francis Beaufort (1774-1857), rear-admiral and K.C.B., retired from 
active service, severely A\ounded, in 1812, after a brilliant career of tAventy-tMO 
years. The excellence of his surveying work led to his appointment as Hj'dro- 
grapher to the Navy in 1829, where he was eminently successful during his 
twenty-six years' tenure of the post. 
