268 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP, xv 



Dr. Guillemard has kindly sent me a lot of valuable informa- 

 tion ; but as I suggested to my boy yesterday, he may find York- 

 shire air more wholesome than that of the Canaries, and it is 

 ten to one we don't go after all. Ever yours, T. H. H. 



To HIS YOUNGER SON 



EASTBOURNE, Jan. 30, 1890. 



You DEAR OLD HUMBUG OF A BOY Here we have been 

 mourning over the relapse of influenza, which alone, as we said, 

 could have torn you from your duties, and all the while it was 

 nothing but an attack of palpitation such as young people are 

 liable to and seem none the worse for after all. We are as 

 happy that you are happy as you can be yourself, though from 

 your letter that seems saying a great deal. I am prepared to be 

 the young lady's slave; pray tell her that I am a model father- 

 in-law, with my love. (By the way, you might mention her 

 name; it is a miserable detail, I know, but would be interesting.) 

 Please add that she is humbly solicited to grant leave of absence 

 for the Teneriffe trip, unless she thinks Northallerton air more 

 invigorating. Ever your loving dad, T. H. HUXLEY. 



On April 3, accompanied by his son, he left London 

 on board the Aorangi. At Plymouth he had time to meet 

 his friend W. F. Collier, and to visit the Zoological Station, 

 while, "to my great satisfaction," he writes, " I received a 

 revise (i.e. of ' Capital the Mother of Labour ') for the May 

 Nineteenth Century from Knowles. They must have looked 

 sharp at the printing-office." 



It did not take him long to recover his sea-legs, and he 

 thoroughly enjoyed even the rougher days when the roll- 

 ing of the ship was too much for other people. The day 

 before reaching Teneriffe he writes : 



I have not felt so well for a long time. I do nothing, have 

 a prodigious appetite, and Harry declares I am getting fat in the 

 face. 



Santa Cruz was reached early on April 10, and in the 

 afternoon he proceeded to Laguna, which he made his 

 headquarters for a week. That day he walked 10 miles, 

 the next 15, and the third 20 in the course of the day. 

 He notes finding the characteristic Euphorbia and Heaths 



