DEPARTURE FOR AMERICA. 175 



necessary preparations for a six months' absence from 

 England had to he made; all this in the occasional 

 flying visits home, which were all that could be managed 

 in the three or four preceding weeks. But all was at 

 last completed, and on October 15th my father left 

 home, not to return until well on in the following 

 spring. The same evening he gave his Sheffield lecture, 

 on Ants, and on the next day reached Liverpool, to 

 embark at once upon the Cunard steamship Cephalonia. 

 On the following day the vessel left the Mersey, touch- 

 ing at Queenstown a few hours later, to pick up passen- 

 gers and mails; and by the morning of the 19th she 

 was well out at sea. 



