1876 LETTER TO MR. KING 205 



most wonderful thing I ever saw. I wish I could spare 

 three weeks instead of one to study it. 



To-morrow evening we are to have a dinner by way 

 of winding up, and he has asked a lot of notables to meet 

 me. I assure you I am being " made of," as I thought 

 nobody but the little wife was foolish enough to do. 



On the 16th he left to join Professor Alexander 

 Agassiz at Newport, whence he wrote the following 



letters : 



NEWPORT, Aug. 17, 1876. 



MY DEAR MARSH I really cannot say how much I 

 enjoyed my visit to New Haven. My recollections are 

 sorting themselves out by degrees and I find how rich my 

 store is. The more I think of it the more clear it is that 

 your great work is the settlement of the pedigree of the 

 horse. 



My wife joins with me in kind regards. I am yours 

 very faithfully, T. H. HUXLEY. 



To MR. CLARENCE KING 



NEWPORT, Aug. 19, 1876. 



MY DEAR SIR In accordance with your wish, I very 

 willingly put into writing the substance of the opinion 

 as to the importance of Professor Marsh's collection of 

 fossils which I expressed to you yesterday. As you are 

 aware, I devoted four or five days to the examination of 

 this collection, and was enabled by Prof. Marsh's kindness 

 to obtain a fair conception of the whole. 



I am disposed to think that whether we regard the 

 abundance of material, the number of complete skeletons 

 of the various species, or the extent of geological time 

 covered by the collection, which I had the good fortune 

 to see at New Haven, there is no collection of fossil verte- 

 brates in existence which can be compared with it. I 



