76 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. IV 



He utilised a week's stay here characteristically 

 enough in an expedition to Waimate, the chief mis- 

 sionary station and the school of the native institutions 

 (a sort of Normal School for native teachers), in 

 order to judge of his own inspection what missionary 

 life was like. 



I have been greatly surprised in these good people 

 (he writes). I had expected a good deal of straiyht-haired- 

 ness (if you understand the phrase) and methodistical 

 puritanisrn, but I find it quite otherwise. Both Mr. and 

 Mrs. Burrows seem very quiet and unpretending straight- 

 forward folks desirous of doing their best for the people 

 among whom they are placed. 



One touch must not be allowed to pass unnoticed 

 in his appreciation of the missionaries' unstudied 

 welcome to the belated travellers, whose proper host 

 was unable to take them in : " tea unlimited and a 

 blazing fire, together with a very nice cat." 



By July 12, midwinter of course in the southern 

 hemisphere, they had rounded the Horn, and Huxley 

 writes from that most desolate of British possessions, 

 the Falkland Islands : 



I have great hopes of being able to send a letter to 

 you, via California, even from this remote corner of the 

 world. It is the Ultima Thule and no mistake. Fancy 

 % two good-sized islands with undulated surface and some- 

 times elevated hills, but without tree or bush as tall 

 as a man. When we arrived the 8th inst. the barren 

 uniformity was rendered still more obvious by the deep 

 coating of snow which enveloped everything. How can 

 I describe to you " Stanley," the sole town, metropolis, 

 and seat of government ? It consists of a lot of black, 



