en, Rolfs. Had the lump-fish for dinner;
very good,--something like turtle.

"March 10. Rather seedy from lump-fish."

And again:

"B---- called: had a viper for luncheon."

He held a theory that from popular ignorance and superstition much
wholesome material is wasted which might be made useful not only in
satisfying hunger, but in cheapening the prices of the foods which new
control the market. The "Acclimatization Society" was formed by his
influence, at the inaugural dinner of which everything that grows on the
face of the earth and under the waters was partaken of, from kangaroo
hams to sea-slugs. These various studies and experiments, all entered
into with unequalled spirit and audacity, led up finally to the great
work of Frank Buckland's life, which was the restocking of the
watercourses of his own and other countries with the trout and salmon
which had once teemed in them, but had been driven away by man's
encroachments. The success of his system of fish-culture is too well
known to require comment, having had the happiest results in all
countries in which it has been introduced. But the perils and
vicissitudes encountered in procuring the ova are little realized by
most people. "Salmon-egg collecting," Frank Buckland wrote in 1878, "is
one of the most difficult, and I may say dangerous, tasks that fall to
my lot." And it was, indeed, the frightful exposure attending this
search for spawn on a bitter January day in the icy waters of the North
Tyne that shortened his bright, useful career.

The biography is most instructive and valuable, besides being highly
interesting. And Frank Buckland's life was by far too rich and too
many-sided to allow anything less than his full history to give an
adequate idea of his patience, his fidelity of purpose, his love of
work, and his joy in accomplishment. The birthday entries in his diary
almost invariably disclose his satisfaction and comfort in his own life
and endeavors: "December 17, 1870. My birthday. I am very thankful to
God to allow me so much prosperity and happiness on my forty-fourth
birthday, and that I have been enabled to work so well. I trust he may
spare me for many more years to go on with my work."

The book abounds in droll stories, some quite new, and some already
given in his lectures and natural-history papers. He generally travelled
with some curious collections in his pockets or in bottles; and, whether
these were rats, vipers, snails, or frogs