enough, our intercourse might have dated from an earlier period by
nearly six years had I accepted an appointment to the "Rattlesnake"
offered me by Captain Stanley, which, but for my having arranged for a
journey to India, might have been accepted.

Returning to the purpose of our interview, the researches Mr. Huxley
laid before me were chiefly those on the Salpae, a much misunderstood
group of marine Hydrozoa. Of these I had amused myself with making
drawings during the long and often weary months passed at sea on board
the "Erebus," but having other subjects to attend to, I had made no
further study of them than as consumers of the vegetable life (Diatoms)
of the Antarctic Ocean. Hence his observations on their life-history,
habits, and affinities were on almost all points a revelation to me, and
I could not fail to recognise in their author all the qualities
possessed by a naturalist of commanding ability, industry, and power of
exposition. Our interviews, thus commenced, soon ripened into a
friendship, which led to an arrangement for a monthly meeting, and in
the informal establishment of a club of nine, the other members of which
were, Mr. Busk, Dr. Frankland, Mr. Hirst, Sir J. Lubbock, Mr. Herbert
Spencer, Dr. Tyndall, and Mr. Spottiswoode.

Just a month after this letter to his friend, the same year which had
first brought Huxley public recognition outside his special sphere
brought him also the greatest sorrow perhaps of his whole life. I have
already spoken of the sudden death of the little son in whom so much of
his own and his wife's happiness was centred. The suddenness of the blow
made it all the more crushing, and the mental strain, intensified by the
sight of his wife's inconsolable grief, brought him perilously near a
complete breakdown. But the birth of another son, on December 11, gave
the mother some comfort; and as the result of a friendly conspiracy