Page:London Journal of Botany, Volume 2 (1843).djvu/112

 in the house of the Governor. This astonishingly rapid increase might seem almost incredible in any artist of less ability than our friend; but such were the skill and facility to which he had attained, that he had only (so to speak) to transcribe nature, and his transcripts were ever alike faithful and elegant.

I possess, moreover, two letters of his, one written from the east coast of New Holland, when the "Lady Nelson" left the "Investigator," and the other, at the period when the latter vessel had been condemned, and Captain Flinders was on his way to England. In the latter communication, which is not dated, but probably written in the middle of the year 1803, Bauer states, that between the period of his starting from and his return to Sydney, he had executed designs of 500 species of plants, and 90 of animals; the latter chiefly birds. He complains, in this and former communications, that the wet state of the cabins in the "Investigator," by injuring all his paper, had hindered the perfect execution of his drawings. Captain Flinders having decided to go back to England, Mr. Robert Brown and Mr. Bauer awaited his return in Australia; and during this period, Ferdinand visited Norfolk Island, and spent eight months there, collecting those materials from which Endlicher has been subsequently enabled to compile his Flora Norfolkica.

And here I shall conclude my notice of the part which Ferdinand Bauer bore in the expedition of the "Investigator," and proceed to that period when Flinders published the Narrative of his voyage. The high opinion which the Commander entertained of the subject of our memoir, appears from many passages of this work. In several instances, where Brown was otherwise engaged, Bauer went to investigate portions of the coast, and in different cases, Captain Flinders speaks of them conjointly, as "Botanists;" a juxtaposition, than which nothing can be more flattering to Bauer. But on the 5th of