1934
Mar 7 - Mar 22
March 7, 1934.
T. G. H.; G. Snyder; Ada Turner; Harold Turner; W. Barrie; Mr. Reed; Dawn; Ethel Muir; Ewan; J. A. Hamilton; L. H.; Mercedes; Mary McLean, Secretary.
9:10 p.m. Sitting commenced.
On going into the séance room everybody seemed to have the giggles; the mediums were especially giggly, laughing and joking, switching each other's chairs, changing about places, and cutting up in general all over the room; they quieted down and sang. Dawn sings well tonight, and in tune. They are not long seated when:
Dawn: "There is a lady there standing beside the doctor; she is nicely built, long hair, rather fair, of a long neck."
T. G. H.: "Walter told us not to have any descriptions until after."
9:25 p.m. Dawn still singing.
L. H.: "There are cold breezes around us; there is someone working on my face. Norman is in trance. Gordon is in trance. Ewan is in trance."
(Dawn is now singing a solo in a very weak voice and is much out of tune, now.)
Dawn: "My, there is a lot of lights in the center of the room."
(Dawn receives a loud smack on the face, and we hear it.)
Dawn: "What is the matter? What did you hit me for?"
L. H.: Sh ... it wasn't Ewan; he is in a very deep trance."
Dawn: "He doesn't have to hit me on the face."
L. H.: "He didn't hit you, Dawn. He couldn't."
(Someone says "It was a materialized hand.")
Ewan: "Keep Ewan quiet for a little longer. Just try and keep everything as easy as you can. (He repeats these words four times.) "I don't want anything to take Ewan out of this condition before I take him deeper. I always have great difficulty in getting him past the first condition."
Dawn: "There are too many things around about me here to suit me."
Florence: "I felt them, too."
Ewan: "Dawn, don't take any notice of them ; I will take care of you; and for heavens sake keep quiet. The other medium must be quiet, too. I cannot control Ewan if there is anything to disturb his attention at all. I cannot hold him, I tell you."
9:35 p.m. "Dawn is completely under, now."
(T. G. H. removes both medium's coats on the instructions of Ewan.)
Ewan: "I wish Ewan would not come into this room in his vest. Get the circle to draw in a little closer."
9:45 p.m. Bell rings.
Ewan: "Have you got everything ready, Ham?"
T. G. H.: "Yes."
Florence: "Good evening."
All: "Good evening."
Ewan: "Will you give Katie good evening? That is all, thank you. You can now disperse and go to your homes. I hope you will get this photograph correctly, Ham. Are you sure you have got all your cameras in correct position?"
T. G. H.: "Well, I have the big camera in front, and the stereo at the side. I have got one stereo and two big cameras on ..."
Ewan: "I was just trying to make a joke with you, Ham."
T. G. H.: "You have got a sense of the ridiculous all right."
Ewan: "It is always merciful to cover a vacuum you know; give me a chance and I would give you a good one. You are doing good work, Lady; just keep it up."
Ewan groans. There is a peculiar clicking sound coming from Mercedes.
Ewan: "Ham, can you tell me what that is?"
T. G. H.: "I cannot. I think it is her tongue in her mouth, isn't it?"
Ewan: "I was going to give you another explanation."
T. G. H.: "I can do it, too."
Ewan: "No, you cannot, Ham, no, no; anyway, I didn't ask you to try. Have any of you people got anything else to do besides come here and sit around and gape? Some of you have got the most vacant expressions I ever saw; the only one who has any expression in his face at all is Hamish, and he is asleep."
Dawn: "Could you make your cabinet stationary?"
T. G. H.: "Solid? Well, it is screwed to the floor now."
Dawn: "Yes, I know it is; but could you support it? It moves about too easy. That creaking noise gets into the medium's ears and sort of brings about rather a nervous condition. If you could sort of put something against the sides that would keep it from moving backwards and forwards, you would hear sounds that would come to you; not that creaking you hear now, the sounds the cabinet makes, but other sounds."
Ewan: "Ham would not get them anyway."
Dawn: "They might register somewhere else then. You can put a stave, a support at the side, over to the side walls, and let the bottom of it touch here; and put a piece of rubber on it to keep it to the middle of the cabinet."
Ewan: "Get some 12 x 12, Ham, and that will keep it steady.
Dawn: "Have it wedged - away from the chairs. You can have it high up if you care to; you can put it almost to the top of your cabinet - place a piece of rubber at the end."
Ewan: "Don't you remember what we are agreed upon: that after this we would give our instructions to Ham by opposites?"
Dawn: "It would be all right if you place two layers or ledges of wood, one at the edge of the front, and one at the back. You could dovetail it into the cabinet, or you could make a wooden nail quite easily."
Ewan: "Of course, Ham, you will do it in complete darkness."
Dawn: "Not white light - a little red light. You can leave it until after you get your pictures, if you like."
T. G. H.: "I think I can do it at once."
Dawn: "Don't put any nails in the cabinet, unless you put wooden pegs in."
Ewan: "Get a chisel and chip a bit of your scalp, Ham."
Dawn: "The pegs you can nail the other side front ..."
Ewan: "She really means the other end. Now I have acted as interpreter quite a bit here. You have got to relax, Ham. You have got to get some supports around you. Oh, I am getting tired of this: tired of coming and talking to you and getting no response; you know, in the first place he used to be quite snappy, Ham."
T. G. H.: "Yes, how long ago is that?"
Ewan: "I would not like to tell all of these people here, but I should think about 36 years ago."
T. G. H.: "Yes, before you were born."
Ewan: "No, I was running about in bare feet."
Dawn: "Raise Mercedes' feet onto a foot-stool."
Ewan: "He didn't forget; he just didn't bother about it. If there isn't a foot-stool for Mercedes at your next sitting you will have to lie down and let her use you for one, or put her feet on your head. You see, this chair is on a level with her body, and you know as well as anyone else that this is not a very comfortable position for anyone to be in. It is necessary that her feet he raised a little ..."
T. G. H.: "Shall I lay the chair down?"
Ewan: "You can't lay it down: you have got your feet on it. Oh, Ham, Ham, how clever you are."
T. G. H.: "It will serve the two purposes. Yes, she can have her feet along the front rungs."
Ewan: "And you can have it at the back. That is very kind of you, Ham; and what do I get out of it? Come on, I can do it myself; it is no good asking Ham. I would rather go and do my own shuffling: he has always got so many excuses. There is only one person who can go to sleep here and not give a damn what happens. I wonder who it is, my friends. Well, it is myself. You know it is rather an awe-inspiring thought that there is only one out of all this crowd who can go to sleep with a clear conscience."
10:10 p.m. "Can you go away and let us get on with our work? I cannot be bothered coming here to listen to you, you stupid fellow. Give me your prayers, not for myself, but for Ewan. He is going a hell of a way. No more shall be said, not another word. Well, my last gift to you, Ham, will be blessing on your bonny head; and my last piece of advice to you is: "read carefully your instructions". I can hardly hope that you will take them , though."
(Ewan starts groaning and kicking)
"Go on, go on, go on. Keep it up. She is in good condition, isn't she? No, I am just talking to Mercedes, not you, Ham; you haven't got another chair, have you?"
T. G. H.: "Yes, at the back of the room."
Ewan: "If you will give it to me I would get things fixed. You will have to get something better than this in the future."
T. G. H.: "I have the bed."
Ewan: "It takes up too much room. Mercedes, you can put your feet on top; this is quite all right, Ham"
(Seven minutes to go.)
Ewan: "There has been quite a little bit of work done."
Dawn: "I would like you all to be just in a little fresher condition at your next sitting; I don't want to talk, Lucy will talk."
Mercedes: "Good evening, my friends. I want to say to you that between this and your next meeting you must all rest. We have done good work as our friend has said; there has been quite a little bit of work and quite a lot of building. It has not been just so difficult tonight; but we have nothing finished that you can photograph; and you have all done very well, but you all just seem to be a little tired. Perhaps it is because it is a working day. Perhaps when you come back on the day of rest you will all be in a much fresher condition."
"I want you to carefully note and look over once more all the instructions that have been given to you within the last two weeks, especially those regarding Dawn, that they be looked over and complied with, and also those of Katie that Mercedes' clothing be loose.
"At this time I would ask that all who sit have a very light meal: just what they need to tide them over until they are released from the next sitting. I hope that you will all do this, friends; and we should be able to accomplish something ..."
"It should not be difficult to do without a little meal; Dawn should not find it hard ..."
Dawn: "Oh, no, just about ten potatoes and two pounds of steak, and six eggs, and two loaves of bread."
Mercedes: "I must ask you as a request from Katie that Ewan and Mercedes must have reclining positions during this process. She doesn't wish the couch in, for your room is too small; but you must try and think of something that will make these mediums comfortable."
Ewan: "Yes, their feet and the most part of their lower limbs must be raised from the floor. There is a building of cords between Ewan and Mercedes which must be attached, and yet we cannot have them sit together because it is essential that Dawn remain in the position that she is in just now."
T. G. H.: "Lucy, would it be alright if I took a red picture tonight?"
Lucy/Mercedes: "I cannot give you a sanction to that, friend. You would have to talk to Walter. I will ask him. What did you say, friend? Do you say "No"? I cannot hear you, friend. No, he does not wish you to take one just now; perhaps it would spoil ..."
T. G. H.: "Yes. Never mind."
Lucy: "We will try to build up something that you can take with your red light alone."
T. G. H.: "Yes, there has never been a red-light picture."
Lucy: "Of course, we promise a lot; but it is dealing repeatedly with a large group that changes, and it is so difficult to keep everything together. I would ask you to take the medium, Ewan; I said tonight and insist that he especially come refreshed and rested at your next meeting. He is not very well, and we would not wish to do anything that would be detrimental to his health, so that you must be very careful with him and very solicitous of him. I think that you could close now, friend, because we are quite pleased with tonight's work."
T. G. H.: "Lucy, would be alright if I sat out of the circle so that I could manage the cameras? I could sit back."
Lucy: "Oh, I think Walter would like you to be out of the circle alright; but I think you had better wait until he gives the sign. He knows what you are speaking of and he does not wish to use Dawn again to speak; and he will come at the beginning of your next sitting and tell you. Yes, I think you should close."
10:30 p.m. Sitting closed.
March 8, 1934.
Jack MacDonald; Lillian Hamilton; M. Hamilton (recorder).
Sterge speaks first.
Robert: "I'm just wishing I could take ye with me to see the sun-up at the Golden Gates. I think the first time I saw it, it must have been compared to Ulysses looking through the Pillars of Hercules, with the sun dying to the waters of the Mediterranean ... Ah, it's so very long since I saw that either, I think ..."
"The more experience I gain and absorb in this unphysical existence of which I am now a part, the more I learn to put a truer value upon what was to me before a somewhat problematical thing - the value of high thinking. Now, when I say high thinking, I don't mean high sentiments particularly; in fact, high sentiments are, I believe, a detriment to high thinking; undoubtedly they are a fine ground for higher thinking to have its roots placed, but beyond that I think they fail to aid except as a means of producing strength for the finer plant which will come forth from fertile and kindly soil. By higher thinking I also don't mean plumbing the problems of the universe - not quite that. I do, however, think that there are two classes of genuinely high thinking: one, the first, is a purely personal one, and quite self-contained; the second we receive from other people, and it is my belief that strong, unprejudiced helpful thoughts, even though intended to guide people, projected by a mind convinced of their reality and strength, are a most invigorating tonic and strengthening cordial to any mind reaching toward them and absorbing their vigor and wholly fine atmosphere.
"We ourselves, forcing ourselves individually to reach high inspiring unprejudiced conclusions, will find a great ennobling influence at work within our own lives, purging us of any desire to criticize the actions of others; that is, to criticize them in a prejudiced manner. I believe unprejudiced criticism has a place and it is valuable if one's personal feelings are kept out of the matter. Too often do we find that the criticism of an individual we know too well resolves itself into a leaf out of our own life's diary. It's not a criticism of his action, but we are only turning back the pages of our own diary and exhibiting a personal prejudice against that thing, that we have had in the past ..."
"... I wandered there, but it's all right."
Conversation.
"I often thought how much better it would be if we had more working saints and less saintly workers ..."
"... I feel about thirty now, just a little beyond the age of passion and not yet into the age of prejudice. I think I look about twenty-five, but I feel older. Within myself I know there are richer depths than I had at twenty-five ..."
"Appearance depends so much on the mind of the individual. I do not believe that the apparent age that I exhibit bodily would jibe with my age mentally. I feel six or seven years ahead of my objective representation! What I feel to be my mind appears to me to have a wisdom and poise about some six years of active experience beyond what appears to me to be my subjective outward self."
"Since age seems to be a faculty of the mind, I may grow up on you very suddenly ... we are as old as we want to be."
"I think that the man who has been active mentally does go back to his primest years mentally. After all, the reason for him receding from his prime years is a physical thing, and with that removed he can easily find his way back and beyond what he considers his prime in thought. There are some over here who did not have the opportunity, perhaps, to develop their thoughts (although they do go back to their keenest thinking period), yet most of all they seem to exhibit greater physical virility than we ... ultimately perhaps they will reach up and beyond us."
"Of course, the ability to think does not mean the ability to develop spiritual qualities. It might be something which would dwarf the spirit. One cannot develop the spirit unless one contemplates spiritual things. It is possible for a thinker to shut these things from his life, and more, shut them from the lives of others. Discernment, which is an offspring of thought, can give us spiritual qualities."
"The mind is a monarch, mighty, autocratic, ruthless, and gentle ..."
"Oh, I slipped away from that. It's just like skidding on the ice sometimes, one wee bump and you're off the track."
New control: "Jesus saves. Jesus will save! Will save the mind that has, poor impotent thing, that has enthroned and enshrined its doubts. There it sits and worships them. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Doubt is a God, a mighty God. It is often a child of ignorance, but it is too often enthroned by reason. Faith is a far finer thing than doubt. Doubt, however highly it is enthroned, is but a temporary kingdom. But the kingdom of faith, which knows no boundaries, no enthronements, no creeds nor countries, which permeates everything, as does the very essence of matter in itself, belongs to the timeless things. Faith is a great enduring; doubt is the great in-during absence of faith. Good night."
"Robert speaks: "I am back. That was my friend the minister. He did not give his name because he did not give all of his message. He tried to hold the medium but he could only give part of it."
"I'm going too, now. I'll be waiting for ye when we meet again. Goodnight and God bless ye."
Sterge returns and says "Au revoir."
March 11, 1934.
Dawn; Mercedes; Norman (Harold Turner); Mr. Reed; T. G. H. (to left of Dawn);(right of Dawn) J. A. Hamilton; Ada Turner; W. Barrie; G. Snyder; L. H.; Ewan; Mary Maclean, Secretary at back of room, outside circle.
First flash - teleplasmic mass "John King eyes". Signal given by Mercedes.
Second flash, residue. No signal given.
[The JOHN KING teleplasm. Mediums greatly distressed. Mercedes gives the signal to take the picture. Katie-Mercedes: "We have tried to give you a likeness of my father, John King." Signal is given for a second flash.]
[Ed. Note: There seems to be some disparity between the photo and the caption - the photo is a repeat of the "Leaf Teleplasm" - the photo has the lower caption "Mass of March 4, 1934."]
Sitting closes.
[There is a stereo photo with lower caption: March 11, 1943(34?). Stereoscopic View of the JOHN KING teleplasmic face.]
[There is a new caption under this photo: "Dawn; Mercedes, and Norman all in very deep trance. This was the final teleplasmic structure to be photographed by T. G. H.]
[ Photo of emerging teleplasm ]
[ Photo of John King ]
[ Photo ]
[ Photo ]
[ Photo of John King residue ]
[Article from John O'London's Weekly. Dated August 18, 1950]
[A full page with photo on John King "King of the Pirates", article by Trevor Henley.]
The sages who ponderously warn that Crime Does Not Pay would do well to see that there are no biographies of Sir Henry Morgan in the vicinity of their hearers. Fishing in a sea of blood, the son of a Welsh farmer that did himself a fortune which would make the winner of the first dividend in a football pool feel like a poor relation.
Pillage, rape, ransom, torture and the swindling of his followers out of their shares were the methods he adopted to acquire his wealth. Even his champions admit that he must have permitted to his merry men to submit their prisoners to ghastly cruelties, even if he took no active part himself; and he certainly was responsible for the use of nuns and priests at Puerto Bello, forcing them to carry the scaling ladders and act as a shield for the attackers.
Later, Morgan made his way so he effectively into the favor of Charles II that he was given a diamond-studded snuffbox and a knighthood, and made deputy-Governor of Jamaica. There he died 14 years afterwards, in an overpowering odor, not of sanctity, but of alcohol, "his monstrous belly pushing through his waistcoat."
The last scene of all which ended in this strange, eventful history is described by Philip Lindsay in an interesting new biography of Morgan: The Great Buccaneer (Peter Nevill, 16s.)
A state funeral with a salute of twenty-one guns above the regulation salute for celebrating Guy Fawkes' Day, St. George's Day or any other public holiday, making Sir Henry's death an extra-public holiday. Thus, to the thunder of cannon, he was borne on the slow cortège of death, the planters and merchants, bitterness and envy forgotten, following in their coaches, "having black ribbands, being very seemly dressed in black." All class of folk were there ... harlots weeping and bloodstained ruffians standing with a catch in their throats and tears in their eyes.
Goal of the greatest of the Buccaneers, Morgan owed much to L'Olonnais, his forerunner, a fiend, a genius, who enjoyed the reputation of tearing the hearts out of living Spaniards and eating them was still pulsing. Mr. Lindsay allows that this happened on but one occasion, but James Berney in his History of the Buccaneers of America, recently republished (Allen and Unwin, 18s.) suggests that it happened several times.
Says Mr. Lindsay:
Because of L'Olonnais's organization, his creation of both Army and fleet, and his method of dealing with captured towns, the ransoming and threats of burning, Morgan, when he appeared, found everything prepared for him to use. The Buccaneers were already disciplined; they had been given a brave tradition, and he had only to prove that he was inferior to non, to have an army under his banners prepared to walk with him into the cannon's mouth.
Scoundrels all they were, no doubt; but what an aura of romance has grown from them with the passing of the centuries! The bold, bad buccaneer exerts as strong a fascination for young and old as the highwaymen. Moreover, his place in history is better deserved. That ferocious riffraff put an effective break on Spanish aggrandizement in the Caribbean, and there is little doubt that it was entirely due to them that Jamaica remained in English possession.
It might even be said that in at least one respect we might profit by their example today. The rate of compensation for wounds was on a generous scale. It was agreed that for Morgan's expedition to Panama, a man who lost both arms was to receive eight slaves or 800 pieces of eight; for the loss of one arm or hand or one leg, 600 pieces of eight or six slaves; for the loss of both legs, 15 slaves or 1500 pieces of eight. Compare the financial reward allowing for the much higher value of money in the seventeenth century, with the approximate 2000 pounds pension total received for a hip joint amputation by a private soldier of today. How often such compensation was actually received is perhaps another matter.
The buccaneer has earned his high place in the annals of adventure largely because of his complete indifference to the odds arrayed against him - if the prospect of reward was sufficiently inviting - and to the brilliance of his exploits under such men as L'Olonnais, Morgan and Davis.
Take, for instance, the action of Pierre le Grand, who, in a small boat with twenty-eight men, boarded and captured a Spanish galleon, having previously bored holes in his tiny craft's bottom, to ensure the impossibility of retreat. Or Bartolomeo Portugues, who, with thirty men and four small guns, attacked a ship with twenty great guns and the force of seventy men. Beaten off repeatedly, he returned to the fray time after time until victory was won.
Morgan's assault on the south American mainland towns of Maracaibo and Gibraltar is a picturesque example of buccaneer strategy and daring. With fewer than a thousand men under his command he attacked the towns, which were strongly guarded by forts; taking them easily, as it happened, to the panicking of the inhabitants. Great booty was assembled, but its safe removal and the escape of the Buccaneers were made apparently impossible by the arrival of the large and heavily-armed Spanish ships which waited for them outside the narrow channel which was their only exit. Thus bottled up, retreat seemed hopeless, especially as the leader of the new force had repaired to protecting forts at the entrance and garrisoned it.
Morgan carefully prepared a fire ship, disguised so that it looked like one of his own vessels. With a skeleton crew, she had realistic dummy figures arranged about her decks, including one representing the buccaneer leader himself. She grappled with the largest of the Spanish ships before her true character was realized. Tar, pitch, brimstone, dry leaves and powder burst into a mighty flame and soon the two blazing hulks sank to the bottom. The second ship promptly ran herself ashore and her crew took to the woods, while the third was taken after a sharp fight. Thus the ... unbarred.
[There is a photo here of John King (Sir Henry Morgan - probably from a painting.]
There remained the fort to be passed. But Morgan did not hurry. More ransom money was extracted from the miserable inhabitants and much booty brought up from the sunken Spanish ship. Then, one day, the garrison in the fort saw boatload after boatload of buccaneers being taken ashore; the boats returning apparently empty for further human cargoes.
Actually, on the return journeys, the men lay concealed beneath the thwarts; but those in the fort, believing that the land attack was imminent, turned all their guns away from the sea. And so, says Philip Lindsay, when, "in the bright moonlight, Morgan and his men set sail for the last time for Maracaibo, there was barely more than a musket or two with which to aim at them ."
James and Burney assessed the value of the plunder from this expedition at 250,000 pieces of eight. One cannot doubt that most of the men did not retain their shares for long. Back in Jamaica many greedy hands would be outstretched and the prices of the ladies of easy virtue would be especially increased in honor of the return of the all-conquering heroes. And what did not go by such means would be gambled away. The same author refers to an occasion when Davis and Knight put into an island harbor to refit towards the end of a lengthy Pacific cruise. With shares of 5000 pieces of eight each, many of the men lost "all their money at play," and, unable to endure quitting the South Sea with empty pockets, they resolved to start all over again.
Scoundrels, murderers, torturers, the buccaneers certainly were, with no sense of patriotism, save the sense of hating their country's enemies. Yet they were also, though unwittingly in the vast majority of cases, empire builders.
As such, maybe, we should salute them .
March 14, 1934.
Ada Turner; Harold Turner; Dawn; Ethel Muir; Mercedes; L. H.; G. Snyder; J. A. Hamilton; T. G. H.; Ewan; W. Barrie; Dawn; Mercedes; Harold; Florence; T. G. H.; J. A. Hamilton; Ada Turner; Mr. Barrie; Mr. Snyder; Lillian M. Hamilton; Ewan.
9:08 p.m. Sitting commences.
9:17 p.m. Group number off.
9:21 p.m. Stool placed for Ewan's feet. Ewan early goes into trance. He sets up an argument with Dawn who is not yet in trance; but during the few minutes becomes mentally confused and finally silent. Ewan urges more singing together.
Dawn: "No." She continues her singing, and rather excitedly claps the hands and stamps the feet. In response to Ewan's quizzing, Dawn says, "My home's in Scotland, across the sea, the Pacific Ocean."
Ewan: "Talk about something else."
Dawn: "Ireland, for instance."
Ewan: "Don't compare yourselves to a crow; a noble creature."
Dawn: "I don't know what I'm talking about. Don't get me all worked up."
9:35 p.m. Ewan teases Dawn and gets her still more confused.
9:43 p.m. Mercedes (under control of Katie): "Good evening." She does not want to speak just now.
John/Ewan: "Something has gotten into these two tonight. Just let the other poor idiot go along. She will come when I beckon her with my finger. I've seen people get their finish for less than that."
Dawn: "I'm still here. (caringly).
Ewan: "Off course, you are part here."
Dawn (begins singing): "When the Great Red Dawn Is Breaking and the Sun Comes up like Gold."
Mercedes: (to Ewan) "Did you learn her to sing that song? Then make her sing it right."
John/Ewan: "I would get out my cutlass. I am considering which is the way to slit her up. Take the head off and stick it in a barrel."
Mercedes: "You didn't know he was a composer. Tell them at one of your songs."
John/Ewan: "Yes, about the time we cut their livers out."
Mercedes: "They sing it even in modern days."
T. G. H.: "I want to know what you have to say to us." (Referring to the last photo.)
Ewan: "You got that too soon."
Mercedes: "You fired a little too late. We were trying to have you use the signal through Florence. Dawn is generally either here or there, but tonight she would neither come nor go. We've got everything in good shape. Yes, Dawn has been given the order of the boot."
Ewan: "You tell them why."
Mercedes: "It is new work."
Dawn: "Have you got the chalk?"
Gordon: "I'm not going to stay here."
Mercedes: "Be a good boy and I'll come over."
Ewan: "Come on, Dawn. You've got to get accustomed to these new surroundings."
Mercedes: "We would not like to start this work unless your group thought we were going to go through with it." (Dawn is now standing.)
Ewan: "Place your hand on Ewan's left ankle. (To L. H..) Can you feel anything?"
Lillian Hamilton: "No, it is rigid."
Ewan: "As a matter of fact, Dawn, can you try again?" Dawn stands.
Ewan: "Now, go over it again."
At this moment my right arm (T. G. H.'s) was suddenly struck as by several drops of water. This moisture was also experienced by Mrs. Muir sitting on my right. The liquid proved to be highly fragrant perfume which was spattered over both of us.
Ewan: "It was very clever of us. We really took far more. It was like a spray."
Ewan is in the Cabinet, his feet up on the stool. Mercedes is in the cabinet, seated on the ground. Dawn's cloak is off.
Ewan: "Mercedes has now raised her two legs. T. G. H. placed them upon the stool. Now, we'll try another trick. I'm in command."
Dawn: "You're not the boss."
Ewan: "I've got the boss's chair. One night you are to be free of this tyranny of Walter Stinson. I proclaim that I have freed you from this tyranny."
Katie/Mercedes: "These are unfortunately one great mix up. Whose instructions? Katie's instructions?"
John/Ewan: (referring to Walter) "He is in irons. He is to do as he is told. (Referring to the perfume). That came from the Spanish Main, the West Indies."
Katie: "Tell them the right name for it."
John: "We got it from one of those ladies that got in on board our boat."
Katie: "Yes, you had an eye for the ladies."
Ewan: (to Walter): "Yes, you have to take orders from me. He is in the hole. We let them down at the end of a long rope and we let a bottle of water down every day and bread that was crawling with weavils. He did not like it at first but he smiles now and he says it is like cake. Get up (to Walter/Dawn). Get up again."
She gets up again.
Ewan: "Where is your note-taker tonight?"
T. G. H.: "I do not know."
John: "How are you getting on, Dawn?"
Dawn: "Fine."
John: "Can you do any other tricks for us? We've got to get to sea."
Katie: "Yes, we've got to get to sea. We have started on something entirely new. We are breaking away from Harbor and going out into open sea. We want the crew prepared to make any sacrifice, whether long or short, we must have the goodwill of this crew, and we will depend upon the support and loyalty of all as we did in the old days. We are not doing this alone but with the cooperation of Walter and friends. Give your kind thoughts and consideration to these instruments who come here. It is no mean task for them to sink their identity for something they do not understand. It is no joke. I asked for a combined "Yes" from all of you. We will do our part, if you will do yours. All these instruments will be used in their own way. We will keep you posted on progress. We hope conditions that are constructive and not destructive to obtain, and hope you will get what will go down in history."
Ewan: "Get a careful statement from them in regard to that perfume. You have not anything to show for it. Come on."
Dawn: "Shut up."
The sitting closed and one by one the mediums were released from trance and removed from the room. Last of all was Ewan, who was very deeply in trance and who for the latter few minutes was held under the control of Walter, who informed me that his control of Ewan on this occasion was the best yet and that he was quite confident of being able to succeed in the work they anticipated.
[Katie speaking through Mercedes after the regular séance.]
"You may think you know a great deal about light, and the different kinds of it. I won't say that, the way I see it, you know practically nothing of it. It is a subject which contains a vast amount of knowledge to be disclosed and utilized."
[Walter speaking through Ewan after the regular séance.]
"You have much work to do, Ham. You have barely begun this work; and it is to go on and on. In your life you will take it only a short distance. It will be carried on, however, for a very long time by others. The work you have started will be continued by others. It is a work of very great importance, and it must go on.]
Perfume Phenomenon.
March 15, 1934
[Letter from Dr. Hamilton to Mr. Francis A. Hilton - Detroit - Michigan:]
"... You will indeed be fortunate if you secure the services of a worthwhile medium for experimental work as indicated in your letter. In regard to questions asked, I will set out, briefly, points that suggest themselves:
Cameras: Use any Kodak or Plate camera. I prefer the latter since it gives opportunity to develop immediately after the experiment and thereby see results. I am using films also, however, either rolls or cut, which latter are as convenient as plates.
Lighting: Use any flash light, either high speed flash powder or the electric bulbs. Do not use the flood-light. They are too long in time of exposure for the substance to withstand.
Proximity to medium:
Place the light about six to eight feet from the medium and the camera bout the same distance away or slightly closer.
Moment to shoot:
This is done upon a signal which comes from the controls through the entranced medium. We have a group of five or six in trance simultaneously and any one of these may be chosen to give the signal. The signal may be by the automatic voice or by the direct voice or it may be by bell ringing of a bell box placed high above the group of mediums within the cabinet. At times we are told to "shoot when you like".
Development:
Use an ordinary developer suited as recommended by the Plate makers.
Plates: Use any brand of highly sensitive emulsion as are used in ordinary photo studio portrait work.
Size: I prefer 5 x 7 cameras as they give a negative that is of generous size from which to work with prospect of good detail.
Precautions against fraud:
These should be permitted by any genuine medium. Any hesitancy about submitting to reasonable fraud proof tests may be a sign that the integrity of the medium may be open to question. On the other hand, tests may be imposed which make these phenomena impossible. A happy middle course which satisfies genuineness but which does not preclude the phenomena must therefore be determined. In our case, the first number of photographs taken were established by the cooperation of the control who, through the entranced medium, just before the extrusion of the teleplasm, requested inspection of the medium's face, head and shoulders to determine that there was no substance then present upon it. From the beginning, and throughout, the hands of the medium, both right and left, were continuously held by individuals whose word was responsible, and who later made sworn declarations to the effect that they had not at any time released the hands or made it possible for any trickery or fraud to be perpetrated. Cooperation of the control is of course imperative. It comes through automatic voice of one or other of the entranced mediums within the group. It may be also through the direct voice. Under no circumstances attempt to feel the face of the medium when teleplasm is out unless it be that you have the definite permission from the control of a thoroughly reliable medium to do so. Only persons so designate must be considered at liberty to make such an examination.
Sitting:
Lillian Hamilton; Jack MacDonald; M. Hamilton (recorder).
Sterge speaks first, as usual.
New control manifests. Mutters something in Latin which I do not catch. Then says:
"What we have demonstrated is the strength of the mind and the will. That is the translation: 'Will triumphs in demonstration' ... I am behind you ... before you in life, behind you in the greater Life, in the demonstration of the indestructibility and the survival of the human personality after bodily death. A period of silence on the part of the surviving personality does not mean that he is leaving unfinished work he had embarked on previously. It may mean a period of progression, a period of rest, a period of gathering knowledge, or preparation ... You will see more of this in about a month's time; fortunately, not as you believe, through one solitary individual. Through three will it come, and with force will it be given. It will not come as you think and it will not come from whom you think." (Spoken in a loud whisper, giving the impression of a very forceful character).
Medium whistles. Sterge speaks.
L. H.: "Was the speaker F. W. H.?"
Sterge: "Yes. He says he is Frederic Myers, and he says he gave you his message in the first part."
Medium becomes silent. New control speaks:
"No, mate, no comrade, Lucy knew ... she lived on the wild moor ... He urged me to speak ... He is saying to speak. (The s's become slurred so that they sound like z's) ... So I speak to you at the point of view of several years ... oh, many, many years over here ... I be here for years and years ... I like it here ... it is nearer to God than I hoped it would be. I supposed God sits on a throne ... but I said God could be found in trees and the stones and the running water ... I said the great God was in everything. He is in everything... He is a great Power. My faith was expanded into loftier realms than I could have imagined even in the most inspired flights of fancy to which I was wont to lift my soul. It is pure delight to be in this life. The music of the spheres at times comes down to us as a siren song urging us onward and upward to the great fountain-head of spirit which is the true seat of God."
"We may have had other lives before but that does not seem to me to matter ..." (Reincarnation)
It is that we have great life ahead of us. Perhaps, as we have lived before, even so we know and the memory is the peg by which we hold on to ourselves in the climb of life, and it keeps us from sliding back. Ah me ..."
Arthur speaks very briefly.
Robert first greets us, and then speaks of his work:
"I have been trying for some time to build up an organization to continue with dictation, but I don't seem to quite make it. So I haven't commenced any serious dictation, and it will not proceed until I have brought about a condition where I can do justice to the material I have prepared ...Unless conditions are quite right for the material I have, then the poor things never go very far, but stay in the ground and get watered with my tears. And of course, salt water is not particularly fertile ..."
"Robin Hood was always one of my favorite heroes. I think he always is, always has been, always will be, the hero or youth, and as he is now quite a legendary figure; and as time goes on will become more so, and we will read in the books of the learned, grand glorious stories of Sherwood Forest and of the grand men in Lincoln Green. And we will read great gay songs of the outlawed chieftain, the great powerful man with his bows and arrows and his loyal followers roving the aisles of Sherwood, relieving their rich of their gold and jewelry and giving to the poor and oppressed. Savage perhaps, and sentimental they were, but we who love small deeds done in the great way cannot help but admire the bold chieftain who lived dangerously, cared greatly, and loved to death.
"It always was such fun to imagine it ... We would suddenly set off to great old Sherwood Forest, walking down the road with some mighty monarchs of trees on either side, with branches interlacing overhead forming a tent above one. Somehow to me it was always in the merry month of May, just before the break of day, for then was the Hawthorne blooming on the still May morning, and the mists clung among the low places, and you could hear away in the vale the horn call, so thin and silvery clear, glancing from tree to tree, just like something from fairyland it was wound. To me that was always the trumpet of the bold robber chief, wound at dawn and singing through the trees. Just as the cock calls to the rising sun, so did the bugle of my chief greet the dawn. And from everywhere, swift as fallow deer, came tall lean men, clothed in Lincoln Green, bows on their backs, staffs in their hands. A jolly gay bunch they were, and all part of this enchanted forest. I suppose it was the forest of my youth. I can see them all there - Friar Tuck, the Chief, the priest who could punch, and Little John who was so grand and tall ... and camps where the brown ale flowed and waxed threads were wrapped closely around smooth shafts, binding new feathers to the arrows ... and there were grand doings on the King's Highway ... ah ..."
"Oh, that's no good! That's not what I wanted to say ... That was all right, but it was not what I wanted to give you. It's puerile. It's no' got the spirit of what I wanted to say at all. Oh dearie me ..."
Medium becomes silent. Suddenly he bangs the floor with his foot, and Walter speaks, or rather shouts:
"I'll show these men how to control! (Stamps floor). There's non of this namby-pamby damned sissy stuff with me! Choke it out of them! That's the way! (Medium makes choking sound). If they won't control, I will! I'll dominate him or I'll break his neck, I tell you! (Medium chokes). Just like the turkey at Christmas time! (Medium stands up and turns around several times, on the one spot.) You would think he was being initiated into a lodge ... I'll make a medium out of him or bust him! I'll split him opened just like a herring! (Medium bends forward in chair until his head is on the floor.) What is it got its head where its tail ought to be? ... A medium! Ah, we'll fix him ... He's going to be good from now on ... That's it. I'm the boss ... I think you feed him too well. Give him a diet of milk and water. I think it would be better if you sat before meals. It's too somnolent ... tell him unless he goes into a good trance he won't get anything to eat. That'll put him right down ... So long."
Sterge: "The gentleman who came through was a poet of considerable renown. He did not speak very well, owing to the medium's condition. He does seem to have some queer accent. He was brought by Stevenson to fit in with his work. However, he says that will come out later ... au revoir."
March 16, 1934
University Students Science Club - around one hundred present - interest keen.
March 18, 1934.
Mr. Reed; L. H.; T. G. H.; Ethel Muir; Ada Turner; Harold Turner; Dawn; Mercedes; G. Snyder; Ewan; W. Barrie; J. A. Hamilton.
Signal for flash. No mass - negative result.
8:55 p.m. Sitting commenced. Singing.
Mercedes: "I will just read another chapter: a story about the sea. I am just going to read to the end of the chapter, and then I am going to go to bed. I dream when I am in bed, dream about the seas and about the ships that I'm going to sink; I can do wonderful things when I'm dreaming."
T. G. H.: "Well, why do we sink the ships?"
Mercedes: "Just because I like to think them and all the men that are on them , the pirate ships; and when I dream I see all the places that I am going to see some day. There was a little man here and he said he was on a boat, too, a big boat when it went down; it was a big boat, but it went down just the same. The sea does not make any favorites. No, it is cruel."
(Someone says it is Robert Louis Stevenson)
There is a lot of strange men here, too. I was looking at your room in your place. I saw the little woman the other day. Yes, I was speaking to her, too. I gave her a real nice picture; she will maybe tell you. She may remember. I am tired; I think I will go to bed now."
T. G. H.: "You do get tired, then ..."
Mercedes: "Yes, when I come to the earth plane, I do. I am not tired when I am away from here. If you will give me permission I am going to write. I want to give you a little bit of proof about something you're already getting. Don't forget, I will come back again. Don't forget that He leadeth you beside the still water, and by the green pastures, and keep supplied with your bread. Don't forget that. Goodbye."
9:20 p.m. Mercedes: "Good evening. At last he has got ready, the man with the globes. Yes, he has got the very biggest one ready; says he can take four people in it. He is going to put on a pair of white gloves before he touches it; he has got batteries and tubes ..."
T. G. H.: "Does he keep them in this room, too?"
Mercedes: "I don't know whether I am in this room are not; but whether they want to go or not, he is going to put them in; some of them should be able to tell you who he takes. No, no, no, you go. I would not go in there, not if you were ... no, you go. I would not go if you gave me everything you possessed ..."
Ewan: "They are all off together; don't take any notice, Ham. Shut it. Shut it."
Mercedes: "Oh, don't press the button; now we are away."
Ewan: "A good opportunity to take this out of here. What have you got here?"
Mercedes: "Good evening."
All: "Good evening, Katie."
Mercedes: "I had a little difficulty there in getting Mercedes. That gentleman wanted to take her away. He had plans to take these four mediums away with him. He seemed to be quite disappointed. I don't know his object in bringing these things here; they are very real to the mediums. They bring them in front of them and they asked them to go with them ; but the gentleman is very disappointed. I don't think he will come back again. Remove the medium's cloak, please."
Ewan: "And watch where you put your big beetle-crushers, Ham."
T. G. H .(removing cloak): "Do you want the cloaks right off their arms?"
Walter/Ewan: "Oh, no. I want them tied around their necks. Tie them in knots, Ham, and tie something around their wrists. You won't get Dawn's off because she has pinned it in front - damn her - take it away, take it right away. You should see that there are no pins in her clothes, Ham. That pin is not necessary; just take the pin and say nothing to her before she comes in."
Mercedes: "I think everything is alright so far; if there are any further instructions we will give them to you through one of the other mediums."
Ewan: "Tell us what you have got on your mind now."
Mercedes: "No, I am just going to tell you what to do ... that is all."
Ewan: "Just give me instructions, eh? She can't tell you because she can't stay with Mercedes, because she has got to go away, you would like to know where she is going, would you not, Ham? The question you would like to ask you could not screw up the courage to ask?
(Someone calls, LIGHT.)
9:30 p.m. Dawn asks "Could the light not be made a little stronger?"
(Immediately someone says "Light" again and it is again turned on.)
Dawn: "I want you to fix just one or two cameras to face right into the cabinet. I want you so that you can take the back of the cabinet; it is not a picture, it is a drawing I am going to put back here for you."
"I just want to fix one camera, but I don't want more than two cameras, you understand. Don't place it, just focus it directly in the center of the cabinet so that it will be nearer the top of the back."
Ewan: "And don't forget to put something in front, Ham."
Dawn: "There might be nothing; but I am just going to try; it is just a little experiment. I want a blackboard and a crayon, black pencil, thick lead. I wish you would bring me in one, will you?"
T. G. H.: "Yes."
Ewan: "Don't you ask questions, Dawn, you confuse the mediums; if you will just wait a minute."
Dawn: "Well, I was just thinking ..."
Ewan: "Don't think. Your brains are all deteriorating with thinking; she is supposed to make a drawing on the top of your head, Ham."
Dawn: "No, I might be able to draw on the ectoplasm. I might be; I don't know that I can. I have to use the hands of the medium and the pencil might not do it: so I wanted the pencil and the chalk both, you understand; and I will just ask the medium whichever one I want to use. All you have to do is be ready to take the picture."
T. G. H.: "The minute you give the signal ..."
Dawn: "There will be no signal. You will just be told to take a picture. It won't be like getting a photograph of ectoplasm: it will be on the wall of the cabinet, a photograph of some kind, maybe yourself, on the cabinet."
Ewan: "We will draw a picture of everybody; and those who don't want their picture taken can stop outside, but don't get excited over it because it is something that has never been done yet."
Dawn: "I would like you to put a little striping around the pencil, of luminous paint; then you can all see the workings."
Ewan: "Do you think you could put a little luminous paint around your forehead and your nose, Ham, so she could see better for drawing it?"
Dawn: "I want you to know, friend, that I am very much in earnest about this."
Ewan: "Well, aren't I trying to give you all the help I can, and who is going to do it for you?"
Dawn: "I don't know yet."
Ewan: "David, perhaps ..."
Dawn: "I don't know if David could do that, yet."
Ewan: "David couldn't do you justice like I could. Oh, I would give you a portrait ... it would be your soul. I would draw Ham -- and I would need black chalk for that. You could not tell one from the other. Two round circles ... do you know what that signifies? Well, it is not what you think it is at all. It means two things that never come to an end.
9:45 p.m. Ewan: "Come on, don't go away like that."
(Dawn asks some questions about the cameras and says she might draw somebody; says it is new work that is going to be done - that it has never been done in all the history of the world.)
Dawn control: "I cannot be sure that I can use this medium; but I think I can, and I would have to get the permission of David. You will have to get the medium out of the light of the cameras. I will take her right away unless you want her."
T. G. H.: "Well, she would have to stand with pencil in hand."
Dawn: "No, she would not. Things would get in an awful muddle if she did. No ... because you would not be able to get the full view, just of her back, and she is a big medium."
"And I want you to not talk about this outside the circle, please."
Ewan: "Well, the great Walter has just been called. For once he has got to get down quite a few rungs and climb up again. Well, good evening, glad to see you all looking so happy. It is very encouraging."
Ewan goes on to say, here, how glad he is to come to this circle always. He rambles on in a lot of like talk.
Then suddenly Dawn comes out of the cabinet and Ewan goes in. Ewan says he can see quite well in the dark. They never stop talking while they are making the change
Ewan: "There, I have got a good set now. The little woman is very brave. She has gone completely away, Ham. I have never known her to go quite so far. If I could only get you as I have got Dawn."
Mercedes and Ewan carry on a conversation. He says he has got number one and two and he is going to get number three, and she says he is not.
Ewan says "Dawn has gone a long way: she has gone so far that she is just like a big piece of meat hanging up in a butcher shop. She is as dead as she can be, Ham, just short of being as dead as you."
Mercedes repeats several times: "You cannot get me."
Ewan: "Just wait and see."
Mercedes: "You cannot get me because I am not there for you to get, see?"
She says the reason he cannot is because the spring that controls her is broken and he cannot find the spring to draw the pocket.
Ewan: "Do you know, Ham, what has gone wrong?"
T. G. H.: "I have no means of telling."
Ewan: "Well, I am going to propound you a question, and be very careful how you answer it. How would you like to get a photograph of number three that came to you while Dawn was completely out of the cabinet? If I could get Dawn just a little bit further I could give you a photograph from him."
Mercedes (crows like a cock): "The cock crew once too often from number two, but he could not get number three. (All three of them crow.)
Ewan: "Ham says we are to change our repertoire, as it were; but it is kind of hard to sing when you have got your mouth round inside your other ear, I think. If you would all sing it could get Ewan quite far away."
10:03 p.m. Mercedes says they are all hanging up on hooks in a butcher shop, side by side; that John King is the butcher, and he has a beautiful smile on his face. She rambles along, talking about meat and hooks and things, and suddenly says:
"The public need to be wakened up; we must give them something to waken them up to put psychics on the map. No use of giving them photographs of a lot of people lying around stiff like meat hanging in butcher shops."
10:10 p.m. Mercedes says he has put all the meat away and has gone to his lunch - will be back in four hours.
Mercedes: "This little girl that comes here, she is very busy; she is doing all the work."
Ewan: "Come on, come on, come on."
He says they are all going into the refrigerator and that it is very cold. They shiver and teeth clatter. Ewan commences gasping for breath, and says: "Have you got everything ready?"
T. G. H.: "Yes."
10:15 p.m. And Ewan is breathing very loudly.
Dawn: "Fire!" Flash is taken.
After one minute, another is taken. Immediately another, and T. G. H. says he is taking an infra-red. These three follow one another rapidly. Mercedes coughs.
Mercedes: "You will get a good laugh, doctor, at the two hunks of meat walking out the door."
Dawn: "Yes, if you caught them in time."
Mercedes: "If you had been able to get number three there would have been no doubt at all; but you could not get number three. Too bad, isn't it?"
Ewan crows like a rooster.
Ewan: "I have got a good production of ectoplasm coming from this creature; but I do not know if I could hold it."
T. G. H.: "You put it up in the way, and I will flash it."
Ewan: "I cannot just - I have got him pretty good, Ham. I cannot tell you how much more, but I am getting good control. I have never had them before like this; but a partial control of the mechanism is not working. Could you hear what was going on in the cabinet?"
T. G. H.: "Not altogether."
Ewan: "Just before Dawn gave you the signal."
T. G. H.: "No, I didn't."
Ewan: "All right; it will keep, Ham. We will give you it again. I meant the influences that were going on in the cabinet. There was no muscular spasm, Ham; that was just me getting wind up, getting my ... aereated. You know you have got to use them sometimes like a pair of bellows; but you have got to get them going first - but you know I couldn't do it, Ham, for this medium was not controlled."
Mercedes: "Close your circle."
10:27 p.m. Ewan: "The long years of experiment, Ham, are coming to an end. I am going to give you some real work, now. I've got them so good."
Dawn: "I want to go home."
Circle closed.
March 22, 1934
Psychological Club (University. ) Meets at home of Professor Wright, Professor of Psychology - 40 present.
Sitting:
Jack MacDonald; Lillian Hamilton; T. G. Hamilton; M. Hamilton (recorder).
7:30 p.m. sitting commences.
8:25 p.m. sitting closes.
Sterge, as usual, speaks first. Greets T. G. H. as the guest of the evening.
Medium whistles, then stands, breathing heavily. New control(Black Hawk) speaks, slowly, firmly in a deep throaty voice:
"I will not use my customary signature tonight, when I come. It is not good he have his hands above his head more than necessary. I mean him! (T. G. H.). Not good! ... You rest! No put hands above head, not unless you have to ... not after meals, no! No, no do that!"
"Sometime soon in your circle comes a surprise from one who is within and yet without your circle ... Speech without tongue ...(whistles five or six times). Speech without tongue ... soon!" (Breathes heavily and then sits down.)
Medium is silent for a moment. Then a new control speaks, quiet and gentle tone of voice:
"Peace I give unto you, abounding peace and abiding peace. I give you tranquility of mind, tranquility of spirit in the busy moments of your life and within the quiet retreats that fall to your lot in the less hurried moments. I give you not the tranquility that comes from inactivity and from the lack of thought-motion; rather I give you that peace which is detached, which detaches other things from one's self and which enables us ... to work disturbing thoughts through our minds without disturbing either our minds or our lives. That is a form of peace which is born of detachment but which I pray you have. For when I say I give I mean I pray. I give you that peace of detachment which allows us to filter thoughts or ideas through our minds without coloring them with our thoughts, for we do these things so very often; and for a type of peaceful judgment I pray for you. And more closely at hand I pray for peace, tranquility, rest from this unquiet progressive inspiration in your circle here ... Quiet ... I pray for you ..."
Medium becomes silent, with head bowed down. Then leans back in his chair.
Sterge speaks: "I don't know who that was. He looks strange to me. He is, I feel, a minister, but I would not say whether he is on our side or yours. There is something strange about him. Perhaps he will come some time again. I do not know even his name."
Control changes. Robert speaks:
"I'm here now, and I'm perfectly fine the night ... I'm afraid the last time my crown fell slightly askew over my eyes but I've got it back on again ..."
"I am going to take ye to the cliffs of the night."
"Ye mind when I was young, - no so very young, but young in that I was still running wild - we used to hunt for birds nests. And we used to find nests of birds in the heather, on the moors, in the rocks and some in the trees ... But these were eggs that anyone could find, anyone who kept their eyes open. But the really rare birds, and the really difficult eggs to obtain were those of the gulls, secreted in clefts and in the crags and cliffs, sometimes over the ocean, sometimes crags and quarry walls, but always the best was to be had in the most difficult places. The commonplace eggs could be had by anyone for little effort, but to obtain eggs of a difficult and unattainable species one had to scale the un-assailable places, where danger lurked, where careful treatment and wise, far-seeing precaution were necessary, as well as difficult climbing. To secure a covey of these rare eggs, one had to climb down or up by means of dangerous handholds on the rocks; or if the situation of a nest be in a sheer cliff, let oneself down by a rope, secured at the top, or apportioned out and lowered by an individual who assisted you. Both cases were highly dangerous especially until one had attained some experience in the matter of bird-nesting. The average collector never secured the better specimens, since he did not venture from the trodden paths, from the level fields of heath, and from the wild moors.
