76 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HTJXLEY CHAP. Ill 



100 feet, and then fell down on the sides of the little 

 crater, which could be approached within fifty feet with- 

 out any danger. As darkness set in, the spectacle was 

 most strange. The fiery stream found a lurid reflection 

 in the slowly-drifting steam cloud, which overhung it, 

 while the red-hot stones which shot through the cloud 

 shone strangely beside the quiet stars in a moonless sky. 



Not from the top of this cinder cone, but from its side, 

 a couple of hundred feet down, a stream of lava issued. 

 At first it was not more than a couple of feet wide, but 

 whether from receiving accessions or merely from the 

 different form of slope, it got wider on its journey down 

 to the Atrio del Cavallo, a thousand feet below. The 

 slope immediately below the exit must have been near 

 fifty, but the lava did not flow quicker than very thick 

 treacle would do under like circumstances. And there 

 were plenty of freshly cooled lava streams about, inclined 

 at angles far greater than those which that learned 

 Academician, Elie de Beaumont, declared to be possible. 

 Naturally I was ashamed of these impertinent lava 

 currents, and felt inclined to call them "Laves mousseuses." 1 



Courage, my friend, behold land ! I know you love 

 my handwriting. I am off to Home to-day, and this 

 day-week, if all goes well, I shall be under my own roof- 

 tree again. In fact I hope to reach London on Saturday 

 evening. It will be jolly to see your face again. Ever 

 yours faithfully, T. H. HUXLEY. 



My best remembrances to Hirst if you see him before 

 I do. 



My father reached home on April 6, sunburnt and 

 bearded almost beyond recognition, but not really 

 well, for as soon as he began work again in London, 



1 Elie de Beaumont " is said to have ' damned himself to ever- 

 lasting fame ' by inventing the nickname of ' la science inoussante ' 

 for Evolutionism." See Life of Darwin, ii. 185. 



