[1] His spare time was spent at low tide amongst the rocks of St Clement’s Bay, where the wealth of marine life in the pools fascinated him.

Papers which he contributed to "Science Gossip" brought him English correspondents, many of whom crossed to Jersey to obtain his help in collecting specimens.

Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace frequently wrote to him about topics of marine zoology.

With his son-in-law, James Hornell, he built in 1891 a biological station at Havre Des Pas with aquarium tanks for the study of marine life and the supply of living specimens to students.

[1] A Jersey Oyster Culture Company was formed and quantities of spat from Auray were placed in cage traps near Green Island, but the site proved insufficiently protected against storms, and the enterprise failed.