198 IDLE DAYS IN PATAGONIA 



I have known to whom the above description would 

 apply in every particular; a man whose intellec- 

 tual and moral nature was of the highest order, 

 and who perished at the age of thirty, a martyr 

 to the cause of humanity. 



How very strange, then, that savage man should 

 have been endowed with this eye unsuited to ex- 

 press the instincts and passions of savages, but 

 able to express the intelligence, high moral feel- 

 ings, and spirituality which a humane civilization 

 was, long ages after, to develop in his torpid 

 brain! A fact like this seems to fit in with that 

 flattering, fascinating, ingenious hypothesis in- 

 vented by Wallace to account for facts which, ac- 

 cording to the theory of natural selection, ought 

 not to exist. 



In answer to the question, What is the color of 

 the British eye? so frequently asked, and not yet 

 definitely settled, I wish, in conclusion, to record 

 my own observations here. I have remarked a 

 surprisingly great difference in the eyes of the 

 two classes into which the population is practically 

 divisible the well-to-do class and the poor. I 

 began my observations in London there is no bet- 

 ter place ; and my simple plan was to walk along 

 the most frequented streets and thoroughfares, 

 observing the eyes of every person that passed 

 me. My sight being good, even the very brief 

 glance, which was all that could be had in most 

 cases, was sufficient for my purpose; and in this 



