Now that I have had my growl out, which is a privilege sailors take on all occasions, I will turn the tables and give an account of my doing in Nat.History.I must have one more growl: by ill luck the French Government has sent one of its collectors to the Rio Negro, where he has been working for the last six months, and is now gone round the Horn.

So that I am very selfishly afraid he will get the cream of all the good things before me.

As I have nobody to talk to about my luck and ill luck in collecting, I am determined to vent it all upon you.

I have been very lucky with fossil bones; I have fragments of at least 6 distinct animals: as many of them are teeth, I trust, shattered and rolled as they have been, they will be recognised.

I have paid all the attention I am capable of to their geological site; but of course it is too long a story for here.