‘
[258]
Fishes.’
But, having begun it, I have no alternative; my only safety is in success.
I have a firm conviction that I shall bring my work to a happy issue, though often in the evening I hardly know how the mill is to be turned to-morrow. . . .
By a great good fortune for me, the British Association, at the suggestion of Buckland, Sedgwick, and Murchison, has renewed, for the present year, its vote of one hundred guineas toward the facilitating of researches upon the fossil fishes of England, and I hope that a considerable part of this sum may be awarded to me, in which case I may be able to complete the greater number of the drawings I need.
If I had obtained in France only half the subscriptions I have had in England, I should be afloat; but thus far M. Bailliere has only disposed of some fifteen copies. . . . My work advances fairly; I shall soon have described all the species I know, numbering now about nine hundred.
I need some weeks in Paris for the comparison of several tertiary species with living ones in order to satisfy myself of their specific identity, and then my task will be accomplished.
Next comes the putting in order of all my notes.
My long vacations will give me time to do this with the greatest care. . . .
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Houghton, Mifflin and company, New York, Boston, 1885.
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