86 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY cHAP. IV 



where else — Malvern possibly — out of the east winds of 

 February and March. 



I do not like this nomadic life at all, but it appears to 

 be Hobson's choice between that and none. 



I am sorry to hear you are troubled by your ears. I 

 am so deaf that I begin to fight shy of society. It 

 irritates me not to hear ; it irritates me still more to be 

 spoken to as if I were deaf, and the absurdity of being 

 irritated on the last ground irritates me still more. 



I wish you would start that business of giving a 

 competent young botanist with good legs £100 to go and 

 study distribution in the Engadine — from the Maloja as 

 centre — in a circle of a radius of eight or ten miles. The 

 distribution of the four principal conifers, AroUa pine, 

 larch, mountain pine and spruce, is most curious, the 

 why and wherefore nowise apparent. 



I am very sorry I cannot be at x on Thursday, but 

 they won't let me be out at night at present. — Ever yours, 



T. H. Huxley. 



4 Marlborough Place, 

 Oct. 28, 1888. 



My dear Foster — No fear of my trying to stop in 

 London. Hames won't have it. He came and over- 

 hauled me the other day. As I expected, the original 

 mischief is just as it was. One does not get rid either 

 of dilatation or its results at my time of life. The only 

 thing is to keep the pipes clear by good conditions of 

 existence. 



After endless discussion we have settled on Brighton 

 for November and December. It is a hateful place to 

 my mind, but there is more chance of sunshine there (at 

 this time) than anywhere else. We shall come up for a 

 week or two on this side of Christmas, and then get away 

 somewhere else out of the way of the east winds of 

 February and March. 



