VI IN T R O D U C T IO N .
portion. This last mentioned department has been undertaken by Dr.
H o o k e r , * Professor o f Botany at Glasgow, by whose assiduity eight
numbers have been already published ; the remainder are in course of
preparation, and the work when complete will comprise ten numbers,
containing one hundred plates.
It must be well known to those who are conversant with matters
of science that a work of this nature could not have been presented
to the public without a considerable loss to the publisher, had there
not been among the community gentlemen, who were eminently qualified
for the task, sufficiently liberal to bestow gratuitously their time
and their talents upon the descriptions ; and had not the Government
with its accustomed liberality and desire for the promotion of science,
contributed towards the publication by granting a sum of money to
defray the cost of the plates.
To the gentlemen who have interested themselves in forwarding
the work in so able and so liberal a manner, I have alreadv exnressed
my thanks in the narrative of my voyage, but I cannot forego the
opportunity which now presents itself of renewing my acknowledgements
to Professors B u c k l a n d , H o o k e r , Dr. R i c h a r d s o n , Messrs.
V i g o r s , B e n n e t t , and O w e n , for their cordial and ready co-operation.
Nor will I omit to repeat my thanks to Messrs. C o l l i e , L a y ,
* N ow S ir W i l l ia m H o o k e r .
IN T R O D U C T IO N . vii
and Lieutenant (now Commander) B e l c h e r , for their attention to the
collection and preservation of the specimens, as it is chiefly owing to
their assiduity that the collection has been so far extended.*
I wish I could with sincerity have included with the above-mentioned
names that of Mr. J . E. G r a y , who undertook to describe the shells,
but the publication has suffered so much by delay in consequence of his
having been connected with it, that it is a matter of the greatest regret
to me that I ever acceded to his offer to engage in it. This delay has
from various causes been extended over a period of eight years, and
I cannot with justice or propriety conceal from the government, the
collectors, and especially from the contributors to the work, whose
MSS. have been so long printed, that it has been occasioned entirely
by Mr. G r a y ’s failing to furnish his part in spite of every intercession
from myself and others : promising his MS. from time to time, and thereby
keeping the department in his own hands, yet always disappointing
the printer, until at length, from other causes, the publisher (Mr. Richter)
fell into difficulties, and all the plates and letterpress were sold by the
assignees and lost to the government.
* S in c e th is p a r t o f th e In t r o d u c t io n w a s w r itte n , s c ie n c e h a s b e e n d e p r iv e d o f tw o o f its
v a lu a b le m em b e r s in M r , E . T . B e s n b i t , a g e n tlem a n w h o s e ta le n ts a r e to o w e ll k n ow n to n e ed
a n y e u lo g ium , a n d M r . C o l l i e , b y w h o s e d e a th s c ie n c e h a s b e e n d e p r iv e d o f a n a b le a n d
a s s id u o u s c o lle c to r , a n d th e s e rv ic e o f a s k ilfu l, h um a n e , a n d e x p e r ie n c e d s u rg e o n .