Geoffrey Watkins Smith - 13th Rifle Brigade, kia 10/7/16

[stiletto_33853]

Stazione Zoologica, Napoli.

March 6, 1906.

Dear Father,

I have received your letter with the cheque, for which many thanks. I gave the family's congratulations to Henze, and he seemed very much pleased; to-morrow night Miss Foley is going to dine with us out at Posillipo, and we are going on to a very good concert afterwards; at dinner there will be just we three, and what shall I feel like, the solitary confirmed bachelor among such billing and cooing? At least, I suppose they will bill and coo all through dinner, so I shall get plenty to eat at any rate.

All kinds of savants of every nation are turning up here now, and one tries to talk all the languages mixed up together, which is great fun.

We have had a lovely spring day to-day, and the streets are full of flower sellers with the most sumptuous violets, camellias, and roses. Doesn't it make your mouth water ?

The people here want me to represent Italy at lawn tennis in the Olympian Games, but as I am not an Italian and it would mean spending weeks away I can't possibly do it, although apparently they pay all expenses. It is just possible, however, that later I will try to go to Sicily for a week with Dr. Paton, as it seems a pity not to see anything of Sicily after being here so long, and I have not been away for more than two nights since coming back here this time.

I am very anxious to hear what arrangements you are making for the holidays: please let me know when it is settled.

Best love to all.

Your loving son,

Geoff.

[marina]

Tennis player as well! He's an all rounder!

Marina

[stiletto_33853]

Stazione Zoologica, Napoli.

March 31, 1906.

Dear Father,

....I hope you haven't actually made arrangements to go abroad early in May, because firstly it will be bitterly cold in the Tyrol then, and secondly I don't want to leave here till the end of May or beginning of June, as just during May I shall have the opportunity of getting some material for my work which I can't get at another time. Also the Station is so crowded now until the end of April that Dohrn is very busy and has very little time to see me, and before I leave I want to discuss various things in connexion with my work with him. Further, the proofs of my book will arrive at the end of May, and it would be a great convenience if I could see them here before I leave. Therefore, all things considered, I should like to join you in the Tyrol, say in the second week of June. Is that possible ? I think you will find May at Berchtesgarten much too cold, at least evey one says so here. June would be just ideal, not too hot or cold, and not at all crowded.

It is bitterly cold here now, after a spell of warm weather, and in consequence I have caught a fearful cold in the head, but I suppose it will pass in a day or so.

The old Professor Dohrn is initiating me into the work he has been going at for about twenty years, and says he will let me use all his collections, which will be a tremendous advantage. Everybody hotherto has said he is all wrong, but I don't believe it, and now he is getting very old he wants younger men to carry on his work, especially as he is so busy with the management of the Acquarium.

When I get rid of this horrid cold, I am going for a short trip of two or three days to do some walking or idling.

Love to all.

Your loving son,

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Stazione Zoologica, Napoli.

April 7, 1906.

Dear D.,

As you have probably read in the papers, there is a terrible eruption of Vesuvius going on, perhaps the most serious since the destruction of Pompeii. It is impossible to see actually what is going on from here, as the whole mountain is involved in dense smoke, while we at Naples are in a sort of yellow fog caused by the ashes in the air. Every now and again one hears terrific explosions which shake the houses here, and we also feel slight earthquake shocks, but nothing of any danger. As far as can be made out there are huge streams of lava flowing from the cone in several directions, but especially towards the sea where the population is the thickest. Many houses have been entirely engulfed in the lava streams, and it is certain that unless the stream stops it will rush into Torre Annunziata, a large town.

There has been practically no loss of life as yet, since the inhabitants are all flying from their houses in panic, carrying away with them what possessions they have; and it seems thst this is also the case in the villages not immediately threatened, since in the darkness, noise, and confusion, a panic is inevitable.

Of course it means a terrible lot of suffering and loss, if not actual loss of life, to the unfortunate people living round Vesuvius, and the base of the mountain is very richly populated. Here in Naples there is, of copurse, no danger to be expected, but the murky appearance of the atmosphere, the ground covered with ashes, and the continual bombardments going on have a very impressive and fearful effect, especially when one remembers what fearful panic must be going on in the threatened towns.......

I am writing this in the evening out at Posillipo, and as I write a huge cloud of ashes has blown over and covered our terrace several inches deep, while it looks as if we are enveloped in a snowstorm, since it is impossible to see more than a few yards out of the window. Its all a very impressive experience, but I hope that it won't last much longer for everybody's sakes. One's eyes and mouth become filled with ashes, it is more or less dark in the daytime as in an eclipse, and the atmosphere is very sultry and heavy, and there is a genreal feeling of depression and awe which it is impossible to overcome, even when one knows that no danger threatens oneself or immediate neighbours. I will write again soon to report on what is happening.

Best love to all.

Your loving brother,

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Stazione Zoologica, Napoli.

April 11, 1906.

Dear Mother,

I wrote to D. a few days ago with some account of the eruption, and yesterday I sent a telegram partly because I was afraid the English newspapers might be exaggerating the panic in Naples, and secondly because yesterday a horrid accident occurred in Naples itself, killing and injuring many people. At 8 o'clock yesterday the building used asa market in the town collapsed, perhaps owing to the weight of ashes on it, but in any case it must have been just tottering.

We are simply smothered in ashes now, and they are still falling; the whole town looks like a kind of dull reddish-grey colour, and the atmosphere is like a very bad London fog. The ruption has however, ceased almost, and as far as we in Naples are concerned there is not the slightest anxiety.

The loss of life and property has been fearful, and it appears that the chief damage has not been done by the larva, but by the shower of ashes and stones which have completely buried several small towns near Vesuvius together with their inhabitants before they had time to escape. In this way about 400 lives have been lost, and one does not know what is going to happen to the thousands and thousands of poor people who hjave fled into Naples, as they have lost everything they had, and the crops for the year are pretty well ruined.

We can see nothing of the mountains now, owing to the fog of ashes, but the other evening I could just make out the outline which is completely altered, the cone having subsided about 800 feet............

The King and Queen of Italy have behaved very well, visiting the damaged districts with considerable risk to themselves, but the people complain very much about the helplessness of the authorities in lending aid, though in amny cases the soldiers have done splendid work.

I am afraid that the chief pinch will be felt when food and work has got to be found for the ruined peasants, as the South Italians are so hopeless at organizing things of that kind.

I will write again soon to let you know further particulars.

Love to all.

Your loving son,

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Stazione Zoologica, Napoli.

April 23, 1906.

Dear Mother,

I returned yesterday from Ischia with Darbishire after a delightful week with splendid warm weather, which we spent idling about among the vines and chestnuts, and I got through a considerable amount of work in the quiet. The death of Professor Weldon has come as a tremendous blow to all of us, as he ws quite a young man, only forty-five, and tremendously vigorous and energetic. From what I can make out I think he must have strained his heart on a long bicycle ride of 80 miles, as he complained of a pain afterwards, and then without hardly any warning became unconscious an died. We are all so very sorry for Mrs. Weldon, as they had no children and were tremendously good companions to one another. I heard from Mr. Goodrich at Oxford, and he says that they are naturally all very upset there..........

I have received Father's cheque, and will give a hundred lire to the English Church Fund for the sufferers in the eruption, as one is certain that that, at any rate, will be properly administered.

Will Father aso send me another £10, as although I have a considerable sum owing to me from the Oxford Scholarship, I am not certain now exactly when it will be handed over to me, and I would rather not run short? I am in excellent health after my trip, and the dust in Naples has improved greatly.

With love to all.

Your loving son,

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Stazione Zoologica, Napoli.

April 1906.

Dear Father,

There are two possibilities for me, either to join you in Munich about the 25th May, or else in Saltzburg when you arrive there which, according to your lette, will be about the 29th May. It is partly a question of getting the proofs of my plates before then, but also if I join you in Munich I will be passing twice over the same bit of railway, namely Roseheim to Munich, which seems rather an unecessary expense, so perhaps it will be anyhow better for me to join you in Saltzburg, If, however, you think I should be useful in Munich especially, I could make an effort to arrive there in time. It will be great fun going to all these jolly places together, and I am looking forward to it tremendously.

We have just had a tennis tournament here, the proceeds going to the Vesuvius Fund; I was rather successful, winning three prizes, the open singles, men's doubles with a fellow called Jackson who is in the gunworks out at Pozzouli, and the mixed doubles with a girl who is partly Italian and partly Russian and plays tennis quite well but won't run about enough, not thinking it graceful and ladylike, I suppose. However, we just managed to win. For the open singles I had some hard sets against Pflucker, and I was fearfully done up, as the cold I have had pulled me down a bit. My prizes were a Pompeian Cup (but as I got exactly the same last year I have exchanged it at the shop for 60 francs worth of Pompian Vases, three very pretty ones in bronze), a little silver clock, and a cigartette case.

The King of England came to see over the Acquarium while he was here, and Dohrn showed him all round. I followed just behind, and heard everything they said; nothing very startling, but the old King seemed very much interested and in a very gracious mood. He was much fascinated by the large crabs and lobsters, and said that he should not like to be surrounded by them:'Except at the dinner table, sir', put in the wily old Dohrn, whereat the King guffawed greatly. He spent about ten minutes watching a sea-anemone trying to eat a sea-horse which finally escaped, greatly to Edward's delight. I was surprised how bright and lively he seemed, his aides-de-camp and people being most stiff and boring in comparison.

I received the cheque for £10; I am waiting for news from Oxford to hear about the Rollseton Prize which I have gone in for, and also the rest of my scholarship. I think they must all be very upset by Proffesor Weldon's death.....

Love to all.

Your loving son,

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Stazione Zoologica, Napoli.

MAY 12, 1906.

Dear Father,

Before starting on your adveturous journey will you send me particulars as to where you will be at particular times, so that I can know where to meet you exactly, and where to write to, if possible? Also will you send me before leaving a cheque for £10, as these wretched Oxford people, Heaven bless 'em, will not send me any money, though I have written to hurry them up. Also I want to gtet a wedding present, of a modest sort, for Henze, who is going to be married in June. Old Professor Dohrn has been in a great state of mind about this new building here, in charge of which Henze is, and he was very angry when Henze told him he was going to be married, as he likes to exert a kind of paternal authority over all his employees. I think he thought that I was badly implicated, as he is marrying an English girl, so for a long time he was very snarlish with both of us. However, he is now in a more gracious mood, and has given his royal consent to Henze's marriage, and discusses the origin of vertebrates with me with the greatest bonhomie.

Your letter has just arrived. I can undertake to arrive at Munich on May 30th, as by that time my proofs will have arrived here. Can you say at what hotel in Munich you will stop? There is a nice little one, called Englischer Hof, in Bruder-Strasse; it is comfortable and good food, in fact a first class hotel and not a swell one with much life or bustle about it. It is, however, in the middle of the twon and very convenient. There is a place where all the millionaires go, called Die Vier Jahreszeiten, but I am not much up in hotels in Munich, so if you hear of any better place than Englisher Hof, I should go there, but otherwise I can recommend it.

Darbishire, with whom I went to Ischia some time ago, has just sent me a splendid old pipe; I begin to see the virtue of giving up smoking, at least in other people.

So we meet at Munich on May 30th.

Your loving son,

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Tasmania, 1907 - 8.

New College, Oxford.

Spring, 1907.

Dear Father,

.....This wonderful scheme of Professor Bourne's to send me on an expidition to Tasmania this next winter is apparently developing into something. He proposes to contribute £100 to my expenses, and he thinks he can get the rest from various learned societies. The object is to make collections of animals from the freshwater lakes and streams in Tasmainia, and especialy to work out the general natural history of a particular animal that has been known for some time to come from there, but has never been properly investigated. It occurs quite close to Hobart, which I should make my headquarters. A naval commander here, called Walker, knows Hobart well and says it is a delightful town, with lots of nice people living there........

Of course nothing is settled yet, as I have to get leave of absence for the winter from the college; but I don't suppose that much difficulty will be made. It is rather a fine chance of doing some amateur exploring under very easy circumstances, and I am quite keen to go......

Love to all from

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

R.M.S. Orontes.

Sept. 12, 1907.

Dear Mother,

I wrote a letter to you when we were in the middle of the Bay of Biscay, and intended posting it at Gibraltar, but of course left it behind when I went on shore there, and so only dispatched a postcard, and now I have begun a new one as the other seems fearfully out of date. We have had a wonderful passge so far; just outside Plymouth it was rather rough, and I felt pretty bilious, but getting across the fateful Bay it was like a mill-pond, with lovely sunshine all the time.....Life on board a liner is quite a new and, so far, a most delightful experience. One gets to know everybody, and that is a wide term, including people of every kind and description, bent on the most varied errands, and with a variety of manners and standards which one would have thought inconceivable, considering they are supposed to belong to all one class. There are quite a lot of Australians and New Zealnaders on board, and they are the most homogeneous lot, characterized by extraordinarily open, kind, and thoroughly bad manners, i.e. bad in our 'insular' sense I suppose. I spoke to New Zealand sheep-farmer one morning at breakfast, whose wife must have been a barmaid, and he himself was all over diamond pins and ornaments, and almost the second thing he said to me was as invitation to go and stay with him in New Zealand, when he would lend me all his horses and guns and boats and everything I wanted, and one felt that he really meant it too......We have had two dances so far, and it is jolly difficult to prevent yourself falling into the lee scuppers, owing to the tilt of the deck, but one gets into it in time, and lancers go off splendidly. Also we have had one concert, when the ship's doctor sang a couple of fine bass songs, but the rest was poorish, very trashy songs. Of course we are now in the Mediterranean, gliding along a clam blue sea, with an occasional view of land, a frequent view of porpoises and gulls, and the most perfect weather, though pretty hot at night down in the cabin. I share a cabin with a young chap who is an electrical engineer, and is going on a trip to Sydney. We make Marseilles to-morrow (13th) and Naples on Sunday morning (15th), then into the Red Sae, when we shall be frizzled. It is impossible to do anything serious in the way of work or reading on board ship, though I am getting through my two volumes on Ceylon slowly, to the huge amusement of eveybody, who have never heard of such a thing on board a liner before. When I get to Tasmania I really shall have to become a hermit and vut myself off from society altogether, or else I shall do nothing solid........

Love to all from

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

R.M.S. Orantes.

Sept. 17, 1907.

Dear Mother,

We left Naples last night at 12 o'clock, and I was dead tired after a long, hot, and most enjoyable day in the town. I went to the Acquarium and found several of my old friends there, and among them Reinhardt Dohrn, the son of the chief. Henze was away at Ischia, where he is spending his holiday with his wife and infant, so we sent him a telegram to let him know I was in Naples, in case he might be able to turn up in the evening. I had a long talk with Reinhardt Dohrn and old Professor Mayer and various people, and then went off to lunch with the Millers and Mr. Benham at their hotel, the people whom I have got to know rather well on board.

After lunch I took them all over the Acquarium in fine style, and had all the animals fed at the right moment; it was really a fine show, and I think they were a good deal pleased at it. In the late afternoon Mr. Benham and I went for a long walk through the old part of Naples in search of churches, and in the evening we went to a cafe for dinner, and in the middle Dr. Henze turned up, and we had a long talk before I had to go off to my ship. He seemed in excellent spirits and was enjoying his stay at Ischia very much; he could not go north for his holidays this time as it would have been such a nuisance with a little baby. He inquired after you all and sends his greetings.......

Love to all from

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Peradeniya, Ceylon.

Oct. 9, 1907.

Dear Mother,

I have been having a splendid time since writing last. I came up country to Kandy and put up at a very nice little hotel called The Florence for a few days, and made several little expeditions from there. About five days ago I drove over to the botanical gardens at Peradeniya and saw Mr. Ernest Green there, the government entomologist, to whom Marion's friends at Ashtead, the Robertsons, had given me an introduction. He invited me to stay with him in his bungalow here, and I gladly accepted, so I have been staying here with him ever since. He lives with his wife and one child, a small boy of about three, the other children being older and in England, a boy and a girl, at Bedale, or however it is spelt. They are such nice people and have entertained me simply spledidly in their delightful little bungalow, which is just outside the gardens. Mr. Green knows all the countryside and all the local beasts, as he has been out here studying for about twelve years, and we have made some delightful expiditions together into the jungle and elsewhere in search of moths. He has a little laboratory in the gardens, where I have been putting together the collections I have made. The botanical gardens are most lovely; it is like a huge park with every sort of tropical plant and tree growing..........On one of the trees there are always a lot of flying foxes, a huge bat, roosting, which when flying look like rooks.

I am going back to Kandy this afternoon and then on to-morrow to Anuradhapura, to collect some freshwater beasts there and see the ruins of the old capital. Then I shall arrive back in Colombo on Saturday evening and pick up my boat, the Ophir, on Monday. I shall be jolly sorry to leave Ceylon, as the whole life here is simply fascinating and I have been especially lucky to see it all staying with residents like the Greens, who live the regular upcountry life and know all the ins and outs of the place........

Love to all

Geoff.

[marina]

Don't fancy the sound of the rooky bat!

Marina

[stiletto_33853]

The Galle Face Hotel,

Colombo, Ceylon.

Oct. 13, 1907.

Dear Mother,

After leaving the Greens at Peradeniya I returned to Kandy and the next day took train to Anuradhapura. It is about six hours in the train, and the railway passes through regular wild jungle country, quite dirrerent to the luxuriant cultivated land round Kandy. We passed several lakes, on which I could see all sorts of wonderful birds - egrets, storks, geese, besides water buffalo. At Anuradhapura I put up at the Government Rest House, a very comfortable bungalow, where everything is done very simply and at fixed and moderate prices.

Anuradhapura is the old capital of Ceylon, i.e. from about B.C 300 to A.D. 1100; it is now a very small native village in the middle of dense jungle where dwell elephants, bears, cheetahs, peacocks, and other strange and fierce fowl. The ruins of the ancient city, which extended over an area of sixteen square miles and was said to hold 2,000,000 people, have been partly excavated, so that one comes across wonderful remains of temples, shrines, and cloisters all among the wild jungle trees.

On the whole, I think it is the most wonderful place I have ever seen. The story of the founding of the city is roughly as follows: In B.C. 300 the Chinhalese king Divanam Pe Tissa was on the throne; the people were very savage and devil-worshipers. There came to Ceylon a Buddhist prophet, called Mahinta, from India, and he was living on a hill in the jungle near where is now Anuradhapura. He had found a natural cave where he commanded a splendid view ver the jungle to the hills by Tricomalee. One day the king Tissa was hunting in the neighbourhood with a large retinue and he came to where the prophet lay. The prophet spoke to him and told him all the evil deeds which he, the king, had done, and finally converted the king and his retinue to Buddhism.

Whereupon Tissa returned to the hill on which the prophet had lived into a kind of religious citadel, which is called Mahintale. I drove out to this place, which is eight miles along a jungle road from Anuradhapura. I took a guide with me whose name is Henry Dubray, he is a Cinghalese with Portugese blood in him, a Roman Catholic, and one of the nicest fellows I have ever met, and perfectly marvellous as a guide.

The hill is about 600 feet high and the top is reached by several flights of granite steps. On the top there is quite a lot of the old temples and shrines, or rather the remains of them left, but the whole hill is now overgrown by jungle. There is a wonderful pool on the top, excavated in the granite and filled with water, round which are carved the heads of cobras. There is also a pagoda (called dagoba here) which encloses the collar-bone of Buddha.

When we went to the cave where Mahinta lived, and sat there for some tome admiring the view. Henry said, 'Here Mahinta came when he wanted to meditate or perhaps he really went to sleep: at the same time this is a good place to meditate, for one can see the trees and mountains and here the birds sing and wonder why man was created.' So you see Henry, although a black man, is a considerable philosopher. He had theories of his own about all the ruins (buildings in disrepair, he called them) and always ended each theory by saying, 'Perhaps, perhaps not.'

The ruins in Anuradhapura itself (by the way, the town was built by the same king a little later when the whole of Ceylon was converted to Buddhism) consist of gigantic dagobas built on solid brick. It has been reckoned that the bricks in the largest one would build a wall ten feet high and a foot wide stretching from London to Edinburgh. Each Dagoba encloses some relic of Buddha; one of them has a hair from his eyebrows, but it (the hair) has never been found. The other ruins are small temples, of which the pillars of granite only remain and some nice bits of stone carving. There is also a huge monastry, which used to be nine stories high and all coated with brass, but only the foundation pillars, several hundreds of them, remain. I took some photographs of all the chief things and also of the carvings, but I cannot get them developed until I arrive in Australia........I did a lot of collecting of small beasts in the fresh waters about the place, and when Henry heard what I was doing, he at once entered into the thing and appeared to understand all about it, and insisted on my taking samples of the water wherever I went. He simply slaved about for me the whole of two days, and only wanted five shillings at the end of it, but of course I gave him a little more, and he was delighted. If I was a king I should make Henry my prime minister.

The Ophir comes in to-morrow morning, and I am writing to the Barbers to see if they will spend the day with me on shore.......

Love to all,

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Hadley's Orient Hotel, Hobart.

Nov. 2, 1907.

Dear Mother, I arrived in Tasmania yesterday morning early from Melbourne, where I only stopped for three days. Everything was very gay and crowded there for the races, and I put in an amusing few dyas, but I did not want to waste any more time or money there, so I came away. I saw several of the people at the University, and they bgave me a lot of hints which will be useful; they seem to think that the ground I shall be covering here is really quite untouched from a scientific point of view, and they expect I shall get a lot of new things.

I have fallen into excellent hands here, a Mr. Wertheimer, who is secretary to the tourist's association and I don't know how many other things, and he is introducing me to every one who knows anything about the country and its productions, and furnishings me with letters to squatters up country. There are all sorts of legends of strange animals about, expecially up in the lake district, and I am greatly excited to start off and begin work. I went over to tea and supper with Mr. Wetheimer this afternoon at his house across the river, a very pretty little place, and after tea we went with his children along the shore for a walk. They are very nice simple sort of people, and he is putting himself out a lot for me: indeed all the people here seem ready to do anything for one, and I have more letters of introduction and offers for putting me up than I know what to do with.

The town here is beautifully situated on the estuary of the Derwent, with a fine mountain, Mount Wellington with my shrimp on it, rising up behind, just tippedwith snow. The estuary and harbour are surrounded with low hills covered with eucalyptus, and lots of yachts and pretty shipping about.......

We had a very gay time on the Ophir, with dances and card parties galore, and I made great friends with a few of the people, especially some New Zealanders......The New Zealand people are a very good lot, I think......I thought at one time of trying to get over to Nw Zealand, but from what I have seen and heard of this country I shall want all my time here. There seem to be such heaps of interesting districts; there is, first of all, Mount Wellington, where I must spend some time; then the Lake District in the centre, and a small group of lakes in the Harz Mountains. Then there is the scrub on the west coast, called the Never Never Country, which abounds in wild animals of all kinds, and then there are some marine bits in the estuary here and at Maria Island. In fact I could easily spend a couple of years here, if one only had the time; but I hope I shall be able to get a good deal done in the short time I have.

With love to all from

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Hotel, Mount Wellington,

'Springs', Hobart.

Nov. 20, 1907.

Dear Mother,

I am the sole occupant of this little hotel on the top of Mount Wellington,which has not really been properly opened yet. It is kept by an old chap called Illslow and his family, very nice sort of people. I live more or less like one of the family, and old Illslow takes me walks round the mountain and generally looks after me. I have been pretty hard at work for the last week on the shrimp which I have discovered u here all right in great quantities, and I expect I shall spend some time here off and on. To-morrow I am going on an expidition to the Harz Mountains with a man called Lieutenant Harbottle, who is going up there to put some trout fry into the lake on the top of the mountains. It is a real wild district, and we are going to take pack horses and camp in the bush, and I hope to do some fishing and dredging in the lake.

About a week ago I had a splendid three day's camping with the field Naturalists Club of Hobart. A Mr. Rodway took me, who is a very good botanist, and knows the bush vert well; he is going to come out with me again soon, but he cannot get away very easily as he is a dentist by profession. He taught me a lot of things, as how to pitch a tent, and cook a bush dinner, and even how to kill a snake, all of ehich are equally interesting and necssary accomplishments in this country. What I have seen of the Tasmanian bush has impressed me very much; of course it is just the right time of year, as the eucalyptus trees of all sorts which form the main part of the bush are throwing out their new shoots, which are reddish-brown, and all the flowering shrubs, of which there are such heaps here, are all in flower. This afternoon I got into a bit of dense bush on the side of the mountain, and I have never seen such a wild confusion of growth, enormous tree ferns growing out of masses of fallen and decayed timber, and one had to simply fight one's way through every yard. The birds here are very prety, and some of them have very characteristic calls, but not much song. The parakeets and parrots are of course especially gay, but some of the smaller flycatchers and honeysuckers have lovely plumage, and they seem much tamer than birds in EWngland and quite glad to show themselves off. I have been fairly successful hitherto in collecting some of the smaller freshwater animals, but I am getting rather fired with ambition to collect the larger animals too, but in order to do that I must get further up country and make friends with the shepherds. The people in Hobart have been very good in looking after me, and I have been introduced to all the Ministers and a crowd of other people beside, so that I have no difficulty in getting about the country and being put up. I have also been made a member of two clubs where I can sleep and get meals very cheaply and comfortably when I am in Hobert, and the people at the small museum there have given me a large table and a cellar where I can store my specimens as they accumulate. We have been having lovely summer weather so far, and the air is beautiful up here, quite cold at nights and warm in the day. We are about 4000 feet up, and there is a large patch of snow still lying on the summit.

Murray Puckle has written to me asking me to stop with them whenever I am in Melbourne, and when I go back I shall certainly accept his offer.....

Love to all from

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Hotel, Mount Wellington,

'Springs', Hobart.

Dec. 3, 1907.

Dear Mother,

Since writing last I have been several expiditions, first up into the Harz Mountains to take some tins with trout fry in them to put down in small lakes on the top. We went there by steamer to a place called Geeveston, where various families of the name Geeves carry on a timber trade. It is a great place to see huge eucalyptus trees. We started early in the morning from the village, and took a steam trolley used for carting timber about some way up the valley, and then struck on to a track thatleads up to the mountains. We took about six men with us to carry the tins with the fish. It took us seven hours to reach the hut near the lakes where we intended spending the night, and as we were caught in a thunderstorm we were pretty well drenched. We were rather staggered to find the hut completely filled with a party of people who had come up from the other side, a general stores keeper who was giving all his employees a holiday, including several girls. However, we managed to shake down somehow, about fifteen of us all sitting round a large log fire in a tiny room about six yards square, and cooking chops on the ends of sticks.

After exploring the lakes, in which I did a little collecting, we came back to the hut for tea, another squash, and after tea we had a wonderful impromptu concert, singing chiefly hymns out of a Salvation Army hymn book, which one of the girls had. It was a remarkable experience, but after the fatigues of the day I slept like anything in my wet clothes on a straw bunk and took no harm at all.

The next day was fairly fine, and we returned to Geeveston in the afternoon. The track through the forest was very beautiful, huge eucalyptus trees and the most lovely flowering shrubs and tree ferns growing in great luxuriance. Since returning I spent some days in Hobart, and gave a popular lecture on natural history at the Masonic Hall, which went off rather successfully, and now I have come back on to the mountain here to go on with my work. Yesterday Mr. Rodway came up, and went for a splendid walk over the top of the mountain to a river on the other side, which is quite full of my shrimp. It is a beautiful river, rather like one in the lakes at home, with large clear pools, in which one could bathe easily. I brought back a lot of shrimps, which I am trying to domesticate in a series of footbaths here.

I must send this off to catch the mail in a hurry.

Everything going on splendidly.

Love to all from,

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Hadley's Orient Hotel, Hobart.

Dec. 20, 1907.

Dear Mother,

I have finished my spell for the present on the top of Mount Wellington, and have got some fairly successful results, though if I have time later I shall put in some more days up there. The order of the day is a series of expeditions to various parts fro making collections and general observations on the country. The week after Christmas we are going for a camping expedition on to a mountain called Ben Lomond; about eight of us are going, including Mr. Rodway, who is organizing the expedition. After returning from there I am going up to the Lake District and shall spend a good long time there, as I expect it will be a rich field both for freshwater things and also for birds and marsupials. At the Great Lake I stay with a policeman, being the only man living there at all for a radius of about forty miles, so I should think he will hail the advent of a fellow being, whether a malefactor or not, with some cordiality. The Governor has given me permission to shoot anything I can see in the way of protected game, so if I can I shall try to collect enough skins for a Possum rug, and persuade my policeman that it is for scientific purposes, and if he has not forgotten to wink the other eye in the lonely forests which he supervises, all will be well. There are heaps of platypus up there too, which have the most lovely fur, but I shall want those for specimens.

I am getting very keen on the country here and quite a professional botanist and geologist too; the flowers and trees are all so peculiar that there is no difficulty in recognizing them and remembering their names. There are very few annual small plants, their place being taken by a wonderful variety of evergreen flowering shrubs and trees, some of which are very beautiful. I enjoyed my time up on the mountain very much; the air up there was most invigorating and the walks through the gum forests very fine. There were several parties of people staying at the small hotel, and we had quite cosy evenings, with large log fires, as at night it was bitterly cold........To-morrow I am going on a bicycle with a young chap called Elliott, who is a clerk in a government office, and very keen on birds, to stay with his uncle for a couple of nights, and do some collecting and poking around after birds. I saw such a lovely eagle yesterday on Mount Wellington, only about twenty yards away, and quite six feet across the wings, a noble fellow. The black cockatoos up there put me into the greatest state of excitement, and I was very keen to shoot one as a specimen, but they were far too wily.. On the whole I am rather glad, as I really hate killing animals, especially birds. I believe they are just as intelligent in their way as human beings, and they lead a decent outdoor life, which improves their dispositions, or ought to. Two Sydney University men came over here the other day on a trip, both scientific and biological; I went one or two walks with them, and they have invited me to go over and see them in Sydney. One of them was an interesting fellow who has travelled a lot among the Pacific coral islands, and has wonderful yarns about the Polynesians and how they discovered America long before Columbus.

Love to all from

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Hadley's Orient Hotel, Hobart.

Dec. 31, 1907.

Dear Mother,

I have just returned from our camping-out expidition on Ben Lomond, a mountain of about 5,000 feet in the north east of Tasmania. We were a very jovial party, consisting of Mr. Rodway, who was the skipper, a Mr. Nickolls, leader of the opposition in parliament, two university men from Sydney teaching science there, and three other business men from Hobart, who are given to bushing in their spare time. We took out a couple of tents, food for a week, and blankets and a change in clothing. Of course we had to carry everything ourselves and our swags were pretty heavy, at least I thought so, as I have never dreamed of carrying such a weight up a mountain before. After leaving the railway we had about eighteen miles to our camping ground on the top up a bed of a river; luckily the bush was not very thick, so we got up pretty easily. We camped the first night about half way up, and we were quite close to a big bush fire that was going on, and all night one could hear the huge gum trees as they were burnt through crashing down. We started early the next morning at sunrise, and reached the top at mid-day. The top of the mountain is a huge plateau with lakes on it, and all round the edge are splendid basaltic cliffs going sheer down.

We spent three days in our camp on the top, and had a gorgeous time roaming about the mountain, cooking weird dishes, and spinning yarns over the camp fire. We had a very hot sun during the day, and I scorched all the skin off my legs paddling about in the lakes looking for beasts, of which I got a good collection. But one morning we woke up to find it pouring with rain and turned quite cold, so the general opinion was that we ought to clear out before the snow came. So we struck camp, shouldered our swags, and began walking down. We thought at first that we would have a spell and a good meal half-way down, but the rain was so tremendous and we got so fearfully cold that we didn't dare stop at all. In consequence we walked the whole eighteen miles into Avoca with a pretty stiff climb down over the rocks and a real sousing in the river, which was swollen without a stop; in fact we were on the go from 10 am till 6 pm, without a rest or anything to eat, and absolutely soaked to the skins. The last part of the way we all strung out in a line, every man walking his own pace, and we straggled limping into the inn at Avoca at intervals, in a sorry plight, calling for hot brandy and water. I came in third, of which I was rather proud, the two in front being great whacking 6 ft. 4 fellows with gigantic strides I couldn't keep up with. Every one said it was the hardest plug thay had ever done, and our shoulders were fairly bruised where the straps of our swags had cut through the wet clothes. You can imagine the supper we ate when we got in and the jollifications afterwards.......

Love to all from

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

The Great Lake.

Jan. 13, 1908.

Dear Nowell,

I have been living in a hut here for about ten days, and had a great time dredging and poking about in the lake, and stalking kangaroo on shore. It is rather a wild and desolate region, not exactly beautiful, as it is too barren and stony, but in the bright fine weather we are having it is very free and open. There are a couple of old fishermen living in the hut with me, and the policeman has his cottage close by where we get our meals; otherwise there is nobody within forty miles except shepherds. They are bringing the sheep up into the highlands here for the summer, and almost every day a mob of several thousand come past. We have caught some rather fine trout, one fellow weighing 14lbs., but on the whole I prefer collecting and poking about with a gun to more or less fruitlessly flogging the waters.

I have had rather good luck in the way of getting hold of animals; I have a great opossum, a small wallaby, several native cats, and some porcupines, and I have discovered a brand new shrimp in the lake quite unbeknownst to the world, lay or scientific, which is a great find for me. To-morrow I start off in a little buggy with a pair of horses and a driver to go to Lake St. Clair, a very deep and picturesque lake, about forty miles further in the wild west. We shall have to camp out several nights, as there are no houses on the way, but if the weather keeps good we shall have an easy time.

The shepherds up here are rather primitive sort of people: very few of them can read or write, but in the bush they can pick up the track of a kangaroo almost as well as a dog. This life I am leading seems very remote from civilization and Oxford, but it suits me marvellouly; I believe I am burnt quite black from the sun, and my legs and arms are quite skinned, and I have grown a beard, such as I know how, a poor thing I expect, but mine own, and I cannot see it as there are no looking-glasses handy.

I have met some rather nice people in Hobart, called Giblin, a brother and a sister more or less middle-aged, who read and sing a good deal........I introduced them to the king in Thule song, which they have never heard, and also some of Humphrey Milfords' dialect songs, which I made a poor imitation of. Lyndhurst Giblin was at Cambridge, and is a crack mathematician, but he has taken to living in a tent and growing potatoes and poultry in the country, which he seems to enjoy more than anything else.

I must stop now and go to bed, as we start early to-morrow. Will you please circulate the news that I am still flourishing, as I shall not be able to write again for another week, owing to the lck of post offices?

Love to Cecil and all yours.

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Launceston Hotel, Launceston.

Feb. 20, 1908.

Dear Cat,

I don't believe I have written to you once since I started on this surprising tour, and you and Nowell saw me off at Tilbury. I have, however, been reminded of you on several occasions, especially when using the gun which you chose for me; it is an awfully nice one, and I have had some awfully good sport with it, kangaroo shooting, and after ducks, quail, and all sorts of birds. I am nearing the end of my stay in Tasmania now, and will be soon be going on to Melbourne and Sydney preparatory for sailing in the Asturias on March 24th. But before I go I am making an expedition on to the west coast here to see the miningdistricts, where there is some very fine scenery and one or two animals which I want to collect. I have just come in for an awfully good thing, namely an almost complete collection of native marsupials, most of them still alive, and including the remarkable Tasmanian Devil, a very rare carnivorous marsupial, only found in Tasmania. It is a pretty fierce beast, about the size of a bull pup, and does a lot of harm among the sheep. I am going to try to get him home alive. I have also got a pair of beautiful black Tasmanian opossums, which I am thinking of bringing alive too. Quite a menagerie!

For the last fortnight I have been staying with a Mr. Archer at his place near here; it was built by his father in the very early days and is now quite an English country place, with lovely oaks and firs and a beautiful orchard with figs and peaches. Everything was just ripe while I was there, and I had a great time. He has two children, a boy and a girl; the boy has just finished Cambridge, and they are both very jolly people. We had tennis and croquet parties and all sorts of civilized delights, but I had to come away as I was getting idle and not doing much good in the way of collecting work.

I have written a chapter or so of a book on Tasmania, and I think I might make rather a good thing of it.

This is a wonderfully healthy country, especially if one lives out in the open and avoids the town as much as possible.

I hope you are fit and having a good time at Sandhurst.

It was rather amusing the way I got the collection of animals. I heard of a man who was in touch with the shepherds and trappers, and who was supposed to be collecting for the Swedish consul. Well, I asked him to let me have anything which might remain over, but when I saw him to-day he was in a fearful huff with the consul, who it seems was trying to treat him in a rather high-handed way, and now he is letting me have the whole set. These colonial people want rather delicate handling and they are very independent, and I expect that the gorgeous consul was a bit too high and mighty.

The Fijian cricketers have been playing a match against Tasmania. They seem to be pretty good, considering they have only played for three years. They look pretty strange dressed in a sort of white kilts with bare legs and enormous masses of woolly hair at the back of their heads, which they decorate with roses.

Your affectionate broother,

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

Launceston Hotel, Launceston.

March 5, 1908.

Dear Dad,

I have just returned from my last exploring expidition on the west coast, as I leave on Saturday for Melbourne, and say good-bye to Tasmania.

I spent about a fortnight on the west coast, and very interesting it was; the travelling is pretty rough, but the inns very decent considering; of course the whole district is only inhabited by miners and people connected with the mines. I had introductions to various mine managers and went all over a couple of mines, a little silver lead mine and the famous Mount Bischoff tin mine. I travelled in the most appalling steam haulages & cages under and above the ground, but I always took good care to have a manager or director with me, so as not to be dashed to pieces unheeded. The mining people were great fun, and gave me a very good time all round. The mines are mostly tucked away on the sides of mountains or in the dense forest, and wherever I stayed I took good care to ferret out someone who knew the bush and was keen on natural history, and got them to take me for long walks.

The forest on the west coast isvery wonderful, quite unique in Australia, and only paralled by the South American forests. The trees here are not the usual gums, but beautiful evergreen beeches growing very densely, while between them is an absoultely impenetrable scrub, which one has to walk on the top of, as there is no hope of pushing through it. The whole country is very mountainous, the mountains being rugged and bold in outline, and the scenery quite the most wild and beautiful I have ever seen. I got some good specimens in the mountain tarns, and altogether I enjoyed the trip enormously.

I have just received your letter with the insulting rhymes to the shrimp, and learn with amazement tinged with disgust that some Oxford tradesmen have had the cheek to send in some bills to you. I am at present quite insolvent, but I am hoping to make some money in the future by my Cambridge Natural History and aslo by a marvelous volume(1) which I am writing on Tasmania, and which is to be the sensation of the season. At the idea of making any money by writing a book I can distinctly hear you smile even at a distance of 20,ooo miles or whatever it is. Of course if I had written a volume of Interludes or a sensational novel entitled Miss Desdemona, there might be something in it, but I scorn to pander to the tastes of the multitude, and confine myself to reiable statistics and the hard facts of science.

......I start for Melbourne on Saturday, and shall spend about a week there and a week in Sydney before sailing in the Asturias from Melbourne on March 24th. I will let you know by the next mail the dates at which I arrive at the different ports, so that you can dend me a line there letting me know any news. I shall not be sorry to see the white cliffs of England again, although I have enjoyed myself so much out here.

Love to all from

Geoff.

(1) A Naturalist in Tasmania, published by the Clarendon Press in 1909.

[marina]

Wonder if he got that Tasmanian devil home, and if he did, what Mum did with it!

Marina

[stiletto_33853]

Melbourne Club.

Narch 1908.

Dear Mother,

I have been staying now for some days with the Murray Puckles at their very nice house in the suburb of Melbourne, called Toorak. They are awfully jolly people, and are giving me a splendid time all round, but without any boring fuss. There are two boys at home, Charlie, who is a few years younger than I am, and Noel, who is just going to the university; Dorothy, the only daughter, is about 14 or 15; they are all quite charming. I usually spend the mornings at the University, where I am arranging about some work with Professor Spencer there; then in the afternoons we plat tennis, and in the evening mostly have dinner parties. This afternoon I am going with Charlie to the picture gallery, where we are going to be shown over by the Director, who married a Miss Shutter, and so is a kind of cousin by law.

I am really being fearfully pampered and feted; but I suppose I shall rapidly be reduced to a normal condition when I get on that horrid rolling ocean again.

Just now I was introduced to the Governor-General, Lord Northcote, and had quite a long conversation with him about Oxford.........

....The Puckles are simply delightful people, and are awfully keen to know all about us, and they would certainly all send their love if they were here at the present moment, which they are not, as I am writing this at the Melbourne Club, just after lunch.

I suppose this will arrive abouta week before I do; now I must fly and meet Charlie to go to the pictures.

Love to all from

Geoff.

[stiletto_33853]

R.M.S. Asturias.

April 21, 1908.

Dear Mother,

We are just getting near Suez now, after a very jolly voyage from Australia. This is a splendid ship, the largest, I believe, that has ever been out to Australia; it has five decks, with an electric lift to take you up and down, and the most beautiful cabins, of which I have got one to myself. There are about 300 first class passengers, and some very nice people among them; they are almost all Australians, going home to England for a trip.......

A party of us are going to get off at Suez and go by train to Cairo, and then pick up the boat again at Port Said. We ought to have about eight hours in Cairo, giving us time to see the Pyramids and the Sphinx and a bit of Cairo, and I hope to get some good photos.

I am going to do the last bit of the journey by train, leaving the boat at Marseilles and going overland to Calais. It saves about a week, so that I shall not be so late for the beginning of term. I hope to arrive in London on May 1st or 2nd, and I shall come straight down to Ivy Bank the same evening, so that I can see something of you all before going on to Oxford. I have got all my packing-cases with my collections safe on board, which is a great relief.

We had some rather muggy trying weather between Freemantle and Colombo, but since then it has been obth calm and fairly cool, and I am in very robust health. I have been able to do a certain amount of writing on board, and have finished a rough account of my Tasmanian travels, but generally speaking one is very idle and only good for playing frivolous games and going to sleep. We had a very jolly fancy-dress ball last night, at which I danced every dance. I expect I shall arrive soon after this letter, but I will send a card from Naples on the chance of its arriving before me.

Love to all from

Geoff.