86 ARDENMOHR. 



what : it was simply a bunch of teal, beautifully 

 roasted under Burmah's special care. For the proper 

 appreciation of wild-fowl, the appetite should not be 

 palled by pieces de resistance before. A pie of wild 

 berries from the hill, and a cheese omelette, finished 

 the carte ; and Fred, who had devoured a couple of 

 the miniature ducks, begged publicly to express his 

 sense of the merits of the caterer, and to drink his 

 health. 



After dinner Major Duncan again looked at the 

 stones I had brought in the morning, and as we got 

 on to gossip on geology, he explained by coloured 

 sections the various strata, and touched somewhat on 

 Darwin's theory of natural selection. 



" Do you accept that theory, Abbott ? " asked 

 Ward. 



" Not quite, yet; it is specious, but unproved; 

 even if it did not make against so many of one's 

 religious ideas, or prejudices, as they may be called 

 by these new lights." 



"I am pleased you say so," said Hope. " I do not 

 pretend to scientific knowledge in this theory, but I 

 might ask where are the remains of these gradua- 

 ting animals? We find in abundance those of the 

 lower grade, and all up to the most perfectly organ- 



