HABITS AND APPEARANCE. IO9 



and loved him an impression at once so vivid and so- 

 untranslatable into words. 



Of his personal appearance (in these days of multiplied 1 

 photographs) it is hardly necessary to say much. He was- 

 about six feet in height, but scarcely looked so tall, as he 

 stooped a good deal ; in later days he yielded to the stoop ; 

 but I can remember seeing him long ago swinging his arms 

 back to open out his chest, and holding himself upright with a 

 jerk. He gave one the idea that he had been active rather 

 than strong ; his shoulders were not broad for his height, 

 though certainly not narrow. As a young man he must have 

 had much endurance, for on one of the shore excursions from 

 the Beagle, when all were suffering from want of water, he was 

 one of the two who were better able than the rest to struggle 

 on in search of it. As a boy he was active, and could jump 

 a bar placed at the height of the " Adam's apple " in his neck. 



He walked with a swinging action, using a stick heavily 

 shod with iron, which he struck loudly against the ground, 

 producing as he went round the " Sand-walk " at Down, a 

 rhythmical click which is with all of us a very distinct re- 

 membrance. As he returned from the midday walk, often 

 carrying the waterproof or cloak which had proved too hot, 

 one could see that the swinging step was kept up by some- 

 thing of an effort. Indoors his step was often slow and 

 laboured, and as he went upstairs in the afternoon he might 

 be heard mounting the stairs with a heavy footfall, as if each 

 step were an effort. When interested in his work he moved 

 about quickly and easily enough, and often in the middle of 

 dictating he went eagerly into the hall to get a pinch of snuff, 

 leaving the study door open, and calling out the last words of 

 his sentence as he went. Indoors he sometimes used an oak 

 stick like a little alpenstock, and this was a sign that he felt 

 giddiness. 



In spite of his strength and activity, I think he must always 

 have had a clumsiness of movement. He was naturally awk- 



