70 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. Ill 



Admiral Hornby, who sent him over to Tangier in 

 the Helicon, giving the Bishop of Gibraltar a passage 

 at the same time. This led him to note down, 

 " How the naval men love Baxter and all his works." 

 A letter from Dr. Hooker to Sir John Hay ensured 

 him a most hospitable welcome, though continual 

 rain spoiled his excursions. On the 21st he returned 

 to Gibraltar, leaving three days later in the Nyanza 

 for Alexandria, which was reached on February 1. 

 At that "muddy hole" he landed in pouring rain, 

 and it was not till he reached Cairo the following 

 day that he at last got into his longed-for sunshine. 



Seeing that three of his eight weeks had been 

 spent in merely getting to sunshine, his wife and 

 doctor conspired to apply for a third month of leave, 

 which was immediately granted, so that he was able 

 to accept the invitation of two friends to go with 

 them up the Nile as far as Assouan in that most 

 restful of conveyances, a dahabieh. 



Cairo more than answered his expectations. He 

 stayed here till the 13th, making several excursions 

 in company with Sir W. Gregory, notably to Boulak 

 Museum, where he particularly notes the " man with 

 ape " from Memphis ; and, of course, the pyramids, 

 of which he remarks that Cephren's is cased at the 

 top with limestone, not granite. His notebook and 

 sketch-book show that he was equally interested in 

 archaeology, in the landscape and scenes of everyday 

 life, and in the peculiar geographical and geological 

 features of the county. His first impression of the 



