1872 LETTER TO TYNDALL 73 



and absolute laziness of dahabieh life. A month of that 

 has completely set me up. I am as well as ever ; and 

 though very grateful to Old Nile for all that he has done 

 for me not least for a whole universe of new thoughts 

 and pictures of life I begin to feel strongly 



' the need of a world of men for me.' 



But I am not going to overwork myself again. Pray 

 make my kindest remembrances to Mrs. Arnold, and 

 believe me, always yours very faithfully, 



T. H. HUXLEY. 



Leaving Assouan on March 3, and Cairo on the 

 18th, he returned by way of Messina to Naples, 

 taking a day at Catania to look at Etna. At Naples 

 he found his friend Dohrn was absent, and his place 

 as host was filled by his father. Vesuvius was 

 ascended, Pozzuoli and Pompeii visited, and two days 

 spent in Rome. 



HOTEL DE GRANDE BRETAGNE, NAPLES, 



March 81, 1872. 



MY DEAR TYNDALL Your very welcome letter did 

 not reach me until the 18th of March, when I returned 

 to Cairo from my expedition to Assouan. Like Johnny 

 Gilpin, I " little thought, when I set out, of running such 

 a rig " ; but while at Cairo I fell in with Ossory of the 

 Athenaeum, and a very pleasant fellow, Charles Ellis, who 

 had taken a dahabieh, and were about to start up the 

 Nile. They invited me to take possession of a vacant 

 third cabin, and I accepted their hospitality, with the 

 intention of going as far as Thebes and returning on my 

 own hook. But when we got to Thebes I found there 

 was no getting away again without much more exposure 

 and fatigue than I felt justified in facing just then, and 

 as my friends showed no disposition to be rid of me, I 

 stuck to the boat, and only left them on the return 



