WASHINGTON TO SAN FRANCISCO 145 



of the world, considerably more than a thousand species hav- 

 ing been described. 



On Friday, April 22, I returned to Cincinnati to deliver 

 my lecture on " The Colours of Animals " for the Natural 

 History Society. The audience was, however a small one, 

 and the lantern very bad, so that the slides were not shown 

 to advantage, but the subject was evidently so new to the 

 hearers that they were much interested. The next evening 

 I gave the same lecture at College Hill, fifteen miles out of 

 town. I had tea with Dr. and Mrs. Myers, who were pleasant 

 and sympathetic people. Dr. Myers told me that he had be- 

 come a sceptic through Spencer and Darwin, but is regain- 

 ing belief through spiritualism. Here I had a good lamp, and 

 everything went off well ; but I only received one hundred 

 dollars for the two lectures, out of which I had to pay fifteen 

 dollars for the lamp and operator at the last one, so that 

 my net receipts only paid my hotel bill. But I had a very 

 pleasant visit, and met a number of intelligent people. 



My next engagement was at Bloomington, Indiana, where 

 I was to lecture on the Darwinian theory to the university 

 students. I stayed with Dr. Branner, the professor of geology, 

 who had spent many years in Brazil, so that we had a com- 

 mon interest. He showed me his drawings of palms, and 

 photographs of Brazilian scenery. The university here, like 

 all colleges and schools in the West, is open to both sexes. 

 They meet in the classes, in lecture rooms, and in debates on 

 a perfect equality, and Mrs. Branner thinks the results are 

 entirely beneficial. The next morning Dr. Branner took me 

 a long drive through the country. The rocks were of Car- 

 boniferous age, and were of limestone, and sandstone in nearly 

 horizontal strata, leading to pretty undulations of hill and val- 

 ley, with abrupt slopes. We passed through some fine tracts 

 of forest, but there were very few flowers, though the red 

 maples in the woods, and the white Amelanchier canadensis 

 were pretty. 



Returning at 3 p. m. we found that my large roll of dia- 

 grams, which could not be brought as passengers' luggage, 

 had not arrived, and I could not well give my lecture without 



