taken years to prepare and name, entirely destroyed through the ill-mannered behaviour of a couple of cats?
There was one Crustacean about which some difficulty had arisen. It was Mysis spinifera, which Edward had first found in the Moray Firth in 1858. He had sent it to one of his correspondents to be named, but it remained unnoticed and unknown for at least four years, when it was re-discovered in Sweden by M. Goes, who at once published the fact. "Thus," says Edward, "the first finder, as well as the country in which this Crustacean was first found, have both been ignored in the records of Science."
But the day of disappointment, we trust, has passed: after years of unceasing labour in the pursuit of knowledge, and withal of patient struggling with adversity, perseverance has had its reward. Fortune at length has smiled upon our naturalist (in a twofold sense), and few will read the 'Life of a Scotch Naturalist' without echoing the words of the Queen, who, "touched by his successful pursuit of Natural Science under all the cares and troubles of daily toil," has graciously conferred on him a well-merited reward.
If we have abstained from criticising Mr. Smiles' share in this book, it is because we think that the sense of gratification which he must feel in having been the means of obtaining a pension for a most industrious and deserving man will be a far greater recompense to him than any praise bestowed by unknown critics.
Whether it is desirable to write a man's biography in his lifetime is a question upon which there may be two opinions. Mr. Smiles has anticipated the objection in his preface, where he pleads justification on the ground that his hero's life is well-nigh ended, and that his work is done. A further argument in his favour may now be found in the fact that had the 'Life' not been written, the Scotch naturalist would not have received his pension. Let us hope that he may yet live long to enjoy it.
Mr. Vennor, in his "Introduction," tells us that he has been engaged on the present work for thirteen years; and he writes:—
