INTEEVIEW WITH BOSS 41 
Golden Cross, Charing Cross : April 27, 1839. 
My deak Father, —You will be surprised to hear from 
me so soon again, and I assure you the unfortunate cause has 
given me much vexation. 
In my last letter I told you that I had not seen Captain 
Eoss ; I have since, after much hunting, and the result of 
the interview has been most unfortunate. The following is 
a correct statement. 
One of the first questions I asked him was in what 
capacity he was to take me ; he told me ' as Asst. Surgeon 
and Botanist,' adding ' that he had appointed the Surgeon, 
Dr. or Mr. McCormick,i to be Zoologist.' I saw at once that 
this would completely interfere with all my duties, but I 
said nothing, desiring first to know whether he would take 
me in any other capacity ; so I asked ' whether he would 
take a Naturahst with him and give him accommodation, 
provided Government would sanction or send him.' He put 
off my question twice, evidently seeing my drift, which I 
did not wish to conceal ; telling me that such a person as a 
Naturahst must be perfectly well acquainted with every 
branch of Nat. Hist., and must be well known in the world 
beforehand, such a per son as Mr. Darvjin ; ^ here I interrupted 
him with ' what was Mr. D. before he went out ? he, I dare- 
say, knew his subject better than I now do, but did the world 
know him ? the voyage with BitzBoy was the making of 
him (as I had hoped this exped. would me).' Captain Boss 
1 Robert McCormick (1800-90) was a Yarmouth man, though of Ulster 
descent. He studied medicine at Guy's and St. Thomas', and became a naval 
surgeon in 1823. He had special qualifications for the post of surgeon and 
naturalist on the Erebus, for he had seen Arctic service under Parry in 1827, 
and when on half pay for four years after thrice invaliding home from his special 
detestation, the W. Indian station, he had worked at geology and natural 
history in the study and in the field. Though afterwards he distinguished 
himself by conducting a boat expedition in search of Franklin (1852), he came 
to loggerheads Math the Admiralty on the question of the promotion he con- 
sidered due after his exceptional service in the Antarctic, and the end of his 
career was clouded over with a sense of grievance. 
Readers of recent Antarctic exploration will recall his name in the appella- 
tion of ' McCormick's Skua,' the Antarctic gull first described by him. 
2 Charles Robert Darwin (1809-82) was the son of Dr. Robert Waring 
Darwin of Shrewsbury, and grandson of Erasmus Darwin, physician, botanist, 
and man of letters. His mother was Susannah Wedgwood, daughter of the 
potter. Hooker took his Voyage of the Beagle as a model of what his own 
Journals of travel should be. The story of their intimate friendship, both 
before and after the publication of the Origin of Species in 1859, is fully told 
hereafter. 
