SOCIAL LIFE 185 



that he could afford. I agreed to join him. We 

 worked hard to prepare ourselves, and made a large 

 sketch map, on which notes of every important 

 traveller bearing on the part in which we were 

 interested were entered at the locality they referred 

 to. It was desirable for him to have some experience 

 in surveying, and as I was going to the Isle of Wight, 

 we agreed to practise there. The first and only 

 attempt had an absurd ending. We found a strongly 

 railed field suitable for a commencement, into which 

 we got by climbing the fence, and prepared to 

 unpack, not particularly noticing the cattle in it ; but 

 one of them was a bull, who, after the manner of such 

 animals, advanced in so threatening and determined 

 a manner that we had to retreat from the brute as 

 best we could. 



This proved to be the end of our joint experiments, 

 for I was taken ill with what seemed at first to be 

 only a very bad sore throat, but which developed into 

 a singular form of quinsy of a dangerous character. 

 My old friends, Mr. Hodgson and Dr. Todd, were 

 unremitting in their attentions, and told me afterwards 

 that they were on the point of having my windpipe 

 opened, as I was nearly suffocating. At last, an 

 abscess which was situated in a gland on the upper 

 surface of the tongue, but far back near its root, broke, 

 and I breathed freely. I was soon able to swallow, 

 and gradually became convalescent, but Mr. Hodgson 

 peremptorily forbade further thoughts of Sinai. I 

 shall have to refer again to W. Spottiswoode. 



It has happened to me more than once to be nearly 

 suffocated, and to have been surprised at the absence 

 of that gasping desire for air that one feels when the 



