46 THE GREAT AUK 



to inspect Owen's dissection of a Great Bustard, I found 

 Huxley there, who asked me what I wanted. He told 

 me I should most likely find it in such and such a place. 

 Ascending to the topmost gallery of the innermost room, 

 a glass case with birds' eggs met my eye. After looking 

 at one or two grimy Ostrich's and deformed Turkey's 

 which might have belonged to John Hunter, I saw, as I 

 thought, a nice model of a Great Auk, next to it was a 

 prickly hen's, and then, on, on, on, as far as the eye could 

 reach. Great Auk's ! ! To cut it short, there were ten, 

 nearly all in excellent preservation, though one or two 

 are a little broken. Of course, I hardly obtained credence 

 from my friends ; but next day I took Tristram and 

 Sclater and Simpson, and we all four had the case opened 

 and handled the eggs which are neatly sealing-waxed on 

 to boards. 



As soon as my first emotions by the way were over I 

 called out over the railing to Huxley and told him what 

 I had discovered ; whereupon to the astonishment of 

 some grave-looking medical students in spectacles, he 

 answered back that I was like Saul who went out to seek 

 his father's asses and found a Kingdom ; to which I could 

 only respond that I hoped I should, like my illustrious 

 prototype, succeed in gaining possession of my discovery. 

 How they came there I don't know, but expect to make 

 out ; no doubt they are Iceland. I always was sure of 

 more being in England than I could trace.* 



Not one of those ten eggs did find its way into 

 Newton's hands, but his collection, now belonging to the 

 University of Cambridge, ultimately contained seven 

 eggs of the Great Auk, the largest number in any collec- 

 tion. Two had belonged to John WoUey, one was the 

 specimen obtained from Mr. Calvert, and four were 

 presented to Newton by Lord Lilford in 1888. These 

 latter four eggs had been sold in Edinburgh only eight 

 years previously for the ridiculously small price of 



* Letter to Edward Newton, Christmas Day, 1861. 



