TKAVEL WITH HUXLEY 185 



I promised that I would if I did not go to America, of which 

 I have heard nothing more. 



This is modestly put ; in plain fact he had to wrestle hard 

 to overcome the invalid's stubborn desire to ' carry on.' A 

 special inducement was this visit to the volcanic region of the 

 Auvergne with Scrope's 1 classical volume, which they both 

 knew and admired, as a guide-book. 



They began their month's trip on July 2. * I will take 

 great care of Huxley,' he wrote to Darwin. He was loaded * 

 with doctor's orders as to what his friend should eat and drink 

 and avoid, how much to sleep and rest, how little to talk and 

 walk, orders 



that would have made the expedition a perpetual burden 

 had I not believed that I knew enough of my friend's dis- 

 position and ailments to be convinced that not only health 

 but happiness would be our companions throughout. 



And so it was. After the first few days, depression was 

 lightened ; mental recreation was found by picking up at a 

 bookstall a ' History of the Miracles of Lourdes,' which were 

 then exciting the religious fervour of France, and the interest 

 of her scientific public. He followed this up with keen interest, 

 getting together all accessible treatises on the subject, favour- 

 able or the reverse, and forming a very definite opinion as to 

 the nature of the original ' vision ' from which the rest followed. ' 



By the end of another week, he was equal to any expedition 

 they cared to make in the still primitive conditions of Central 

 France and its rural districts. Geology was an unfailing lure ; 

 and near La Tour on the Pic de Sancy they made what they 

 thought was a new discovery — namely, evidence of glacial 

 action in Central France ; striated stones, a seemingly glaciated 

 valley and huge perched blocks. (See ' Nature,' xiii. 31, 166.) 



1 George Julius Poulett Scrope, F.R.S. (1797-1876), a pioneer, with his 

 friend Lyell, of modern geology, though after the Reform Act of 1832 he devoted 

 himself principally to social reform. His two most important works were on 

 Volcanos and on the Geology and Extinct Volcanos of Central France, which ' is 

 still carefully read by every geologist who visits Auvergne.' He was awarded 

 the Wollaston Medal in 1867. 



