222 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xiii 



I am sorry to hear you are troubled by your ears. I am so 

 deaf that I begin to fight shy of society. It irritates me not to 

 hear; it irritates me still more to be spoken to as if I were deaf, 

 and the absurdity of being irritated on the last ground irritates 

 me still more. 7 



I wish you would start that business of giving a competent 

 young botanist with good legs f ioo to go and study distribution 

 in the Engadine — from the Maloja as centre — in a circle of a 

 radius of eight or ten miles. The distribution of the four prin- 

 cipal conifers, Arolla, pine larch, mountain pine and spruce, 

 is most curious, the why and wherefore nowise apparent. 



I am very sorry I cannot be at x on Thursday, but they 

 won't let me be out at night at present. — Ever yours, 



T. H. Huxley. 



4. Marlborough Place, Oct. 28, 1888. 



My dear Foster — No fear of my trying to stop in London. 

 Hames won't have it. He came and overhauled me the other 

 day. As I expected, the original mischief is just as it was. One 

 does not get rid either of dilatation or its results at my time of 

 life. The only thing is to keep the pipes clear by good conditions 

 of existence. 



After endless discussion we have settled on Brighton for 

 November and December. It is a hateful place to my mind, but 

 there is more chance of sunshine there (at this time) than any- 

 where else. We shall come up for a week or two on this side 

 of Christmas, and then get away somewhere else out of the way 

 of the east winds of February and March. 



I do not think that the Hazlemere country would do for us, 

 nor indeed any country place so long as we cannot regularly set 

 up house. 



Heaven knows I don't want to bother about anything at 



present. But I should like to convince that he does not 



yet understand the elements of [his subject]. What a copious 

 inkspilling cuttlefish of a writer he is ! — Ever yours, 



T. H. Huxley. 



4 Marlborough Place, London, N.W., 

 Nov. 2, 1888. 

 My dear Skelton — Best thanks for the second volume of 

 Maitland of Lethington. I have been in the Engadine for the 

 last four months, trying to repair the crazy old " home I live 

 in," and meeting with more success than I hoped for when I 

 left home. 



