8 HUXLEY 



The conditions on board the Rattlesnake contrasted 

 ill with the luxurious equipment of exploring ships 

 since her time. She was a man-of-war of the old 

 class ; her seams were leaky ; the berths swarmed 

 with cock-roaches, and the biscuits with weevils. The 

 Admiralty refused to supply any books, and in the ab- 

 sence of proper apparatus for sifting the contents of 

 the dredge, Huxley had to adapt a wire meat-cover. 

 The ship carried an official naturalist, whose chief care 

 was to collect objects for museums, leaving to Hux- 

 ley's willing hands the dissection and examination of 

 the specimens brought up from the deep sea. 



The first long stay was made at Sydney, where 

 Huxley met his future wife, Henrietta Annie Heath- 

 orn. For her he was " to serve longer and harder 

 than Jacob thought to serve for Rachel," of whom, 

 in immortal words, the poet-chronicler says, " seven 

 years seemed unto him but a few days for the love he 

 had to her." 1 Huxley had his reward in forty years 

 of the closest and most helpful fellowship. 



The nature and import of the work accomplished 

 by him during the voyage, which came to an end in 

 November, 1849, w ^ be dealt with in the next chap- 

 ter. Here it suffices to say that while sundry reports 

 on marine creatures, which were sent to the Linnean 

 Society, were pigeon-holed, better fortune attended a 



1 Genesis xxix. 20. 



