38 



celebrated castle of Eltz, which was certainly one of the greatest 

 curiosities in Germany. It was built in such an out of the way 

 place that all invading armies had either missed finding it or 

 thought it too much out of the way to be worth investing. The 

 consequence was it had not been subjected to violence, and stood 

 much the same as it had done for hundreds of years. The con- 

 tents of the castle and the journey back to Moselkeru were 

 described ; then their last and briefest wandering by the Moselle, 

 which commenced early the succeeding morning. The lofty 

 banks of the river at this part approached each other very closely, 

 and in the early morning the weird appearance of the landscape 

 was enhanced by the curious condition of the river itself. It 

 looked as if it were heated by some subterraneum fire which 

 caused the steam to be rising from its surface in large quantities. 

 At first sight this was rather startling, but observing that the 

 same large flakes of vapour were coming down the sides of the 

 hills they saw that in reality it was clouds of dew descending to 

 the earth. This was the secret of the richness of the verdure on 

 the banks of the Moselle. They were assured no rain had fallen ' 

 on the Lower Moselle for several weeks, and yet the vines were 

 flourishing as if they had received a daily supply of rain. Below 

 Moselkern the river widened, and the banks were dotted by little 

 farmhouses surrounded by orchards. They saw a traveller with 

 his knapsack strapped to his back starting off to take this 

 delightful wander, and only wished they could do the same. 



CHARLES DARWIN'S LIFE AND LETTERS. 



By R. C. HOLT, F.R.C.S. March 6th, 1889. . 



This eminent Naturalist was born on the 12th February, 1809, 

 and died on the 19th April, 1882, after devoting his hfe to 

 trying to find out the various apparent paradoxes and inconsist- 

 encies in Nature. He was the son of a medical practitioner of 

 great repute in Shrewsbury. As a boy there was nothing very 

 marked about him. His school days were of a very ordinary 

 type; he was rather a dull boy at his classical studies ; he showed 

 great fondness for .animals, and all through his life he had the 

 power of attracting dogs from their masters. When quite a 

 little boy he used to try to make out the names of plants and 

 collect shells. His father intended him for a doctor and sent 

 him to study at Edinburgh, but this proving a failure, he was 

 sent to Cambridge with the intention of being ordained. Here 

 he wasted a great deal of time as far as his academical studies 



