1869 LETTERS TO DARWIN 449 



The following letter shows how paleontological 

 work was continually pouring in upon him : 



JERMYN STREET, May 7, 1869. 



MY DEAR DARWIN Do you recollect recommending 1 

 that the Nassau, which sailed under Capt. Mayne's 

 command for Magellan's Straits some years ago, should 

 explore a fossiliferous deposit at the Gallegos River ? 



They visited the place the other day, as you will see 

 by Cunningham's letter which I enclose, and got some 

 fossils which are now in my hands. 



The skull to which Cunningham refers, consists of 

 little more than the jaws, but luckily nearly all the teeth 

 are in place, and prove it to be an entirely new ungulate 

 mammal with teeth in uninterrupted series like Anoplo- 

 therium, about as big as a small horse. 



What a wonderful assemblage of beasts there seems to 

 have been in South America ! I suspect if we could find 

 them all they would make the classification of the 

 Mammalia into a horrid mess. Ever yours faithfully, 



T. H. HUXLEY. 



And on July 16, 1869, he writes again to 

 Darwin : 



To tell you the truth, what with fossils, Ethnology 

 and the great question of " Darwinismus " which is such 

 a worry to us all, I have lost sight of the collectors and 

 naturalists " by grace of the dredge," almost as completely 

 as you have. 



Indeed, the pressure was so great that he resolved 

 to give up the Hunterian Lectures at the College of 

 Surgeons, as he had already given up the Fullerian 



1 See p. 398. 

 VOL. I 2 G 



