CORRESPONDENCE 259 



London, 28 August, 1868. 

 Dear Boardman : 



I have just returned from Norwich where I have been to 

 attend the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science and have had a regular treat, as fully three thousand 

 people, English and foreigners, were there. I went down with 

 Professor Huxley on the 18th and the next day the proceedings 

 opened by a grand speech by the President, D. Hooker, which 

 touched chiefly on Darwin's theory and the relations now existing 

 between science and religion. The daily lectures and discussions 

 were carried on in some seven different section rooms, each devoted 

 to one branch of science and ruled by a sectional committee under 

 the general one. I was of course in section D, Zoology, and was 

 on the committee. Our president was Berkeley, a botanist, but we 

 had a good many bird papers. We generally met in the recep- 

 tion room, a large sort of club with all sorts of conveniences and 

 at ten A. M. the various committees met, and at eleven the rooms 

 were open for papers to be read, etc., which lasted till three, after 

 which we dined at some of the residents (as every one threw 

 their houses open to friends) and in the evening were soirees and 

 that sort of thing for members of the association. The pleasantest 

 evening was the Lion dinner day when all the celebrities of 

 section D and all foreign naturalists at all well known and 

 present meet together for a big spree and I can assure you that 

 old men (and young) whose names are well known in the scientific 

 world, such as Huxley, Lyndall, Newton, Lubbock, Pengelly, 

 Wallace, Gunther, etc., etc., were anything but the least noisy and 

 least inclined to join in the fun. I spent eight days there 

 altogether and was very sorry to leave as it was a very pleasant 

 way of getting knowledge. 



There were a lot of foreign professors there and amongst 

 them old Nilsson, the veteran Swedish naturalist and Lorell, the 

 Spiztbergen explorer with lots of Germans. 



Most of our bird men were there, but both Salvin and God- 

 man were unable to attend. However the " Ibis" brotherhood 

 mustered pretty strong and made headquarters at the house of a 

 brother "Ibis" resident there and the bird talk was, as you can 

 imagine, rather strong in that quarter, 



