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406 among the fishermen at Cromer. His last fishery report was presented in March, 1880. It was a document which he endeavored to make as far as possible an outline and guide to those who wish to open up and improve salmon-fisheries, in whatever part of the world they may be situated. He went for the last time to the fishery-office in August, 1880, and left his house for the last time, on the 21st of the same month, to visit a newly arrived orang-outang. He continued to write, however, for "Land and Water," and completed a new edition of the "Natural History of British Fishes," and a revised edition of White's "Natural History of Selborne" in the last month of his life. He also arranged and revised a series of articles, which was published after his death, as "Notes and Jottings from Animal Life."

Buckland's journals occasionally show glimpses of those thoughts and feelings that men do not usually talk much about to others; the passages strikingly exhibit his simple-hearted earnestness. Thus, in 1865, he says: "I can not help thinking that the Almighty God has given me great powers, both of thought and of expressing those thoughts. Thanks to him, but I must cultivate my mind by diligent study, careful reflection in private, and quick apprehension of facts out-of-doors, combined with quick appreciation of ideas of others; in fact, strive to become a master-mind, and thus able to influence others of weaker minds, whose shortcomings I must forgive. . . . Why should I not imitate the example of that great and illustrious man to whom I owe so much of my education (William of Wykeham, founder of the Winchester School), and endeavor to do as much good as possible in my humble way? I will therefore begin next week, and put up a storm barometer for the use of the fishermen at Heme Bay." And, December 16, 1866, "Thanks be to God, I have preserved a straight course to the best of my abilities, and, though I see others taking short cuts, I think honest dealing and true is the safest ballast to keep the ship in trim, through the sea of difficulties and dangers." Just after his forty-third birthday, he wrote, "I do not aspire to do more than my duty in that station to which it has pleased God to call me, but I want to do it nobly and well."

There was another, a curiosity side to Frank Buckland's character. Nothing was without interest to him; and he was hardly less fond of studying the curiosities of the Barnum Museums than the objects of natural history with which he spent most of his life. He very much enjoyed the bearded woman, of whom he wrote quite extensively, was on good social terms with Captain Bates the giant, and Miss Swan the giantess, and Mademoiselle Millie-Christine, the "two headed nightingale"; knew nearly all the fat women and the other giants, and was fond of making up parties for these people, with the Chinamen, Aztecs, Esquimaux, Zooloos, Siamese twins, tattooed New-Zealanders, and whatever queer specimens of mankind happened to be on exhibition at the time, as fellow-guests.