LAKE TITICACA 127 



death to lose my wife, who died very suddenly from a 

 violent attack of pneumonia. I had made, previous to 

 father's illness, all my arrangements to pass the winter 

 at Nassau on the Bahamas, and I anticipated much 

 profit and good work from a prolonged visit there. But 

 alas, now all seems of very little consequence, and I am 

 utterly unable to get reconciled to an existence which 

 is well-nigh intolerable, and from which all the main- 

 springs which usually act upon men of our age, are 

 taken away ; at present I can find no incentive for any- 

 thing and I can only hope that in the course of time 

 my interest in my children and in my work may ulti- 

 mately reconcile me to a sort of passive life. I shall try 

 and carry out, to the best of my abilities, the many 

 plans regarding Penikese and the Museum which were 

 started by my father, and I shall at least have the mel- 

 ancholy satisfaction of knowing that in his case at least 

 his views, whether right or wrong, and his dearest 

 wishes, will be faithfully executed, and that I may raise 

 a monument to him expressing what he hoped to be able 

 to show, better perhaps than he himself would have 

 done, because I shall not be constantly drawn aside by 

 new plans and shall not have the incessant temptation 

 of remodelling as I go along. 



In some way, men who have made their mark in 

 the history of science disappear from the very history 

 of the centres where they have been most active, be- 

 cause their successors are always in such a hurry to show 

 how much wiser and more learned they are than their 

 predecessors. To prevent this I will consent to saddle 

 myself with a great deal of executive work which must 

 of necessity curtail my own plans of work ; but that 

 which before seemed to me of so great importance mat- 



