BRITISH ASSOCIATION 127 



Would it had all been ten years ago, and then 

 assuredly I should have been of the party ! But my 

 travelling days are over. A curious question has occurred 



to me : Will the influx of all these British Asses ( 



) make up for the loss of the vanished Quagga ? 



Every one I have met is charmed with the whole 

 business, though I have heard of one man who got tired 

 of it. He is a divine and felt bound, I suppose, to take 

 a gloomy view of things. During his absence his con- 

 gregation prayed for him earnestly in a combination 

 from the form to be used at sea and that of the visitation 

 of the sick, — ^he is a bad sailor, — ^and I am told the result 

 was ludicrous ! * 



In 1875 Newton was a member of the Council of the 

 British Association, and he took, as always, much trouble 

 in seeking interesting papers for the Biological Section. 

 Writing to Mrs. Strickland (June 13, 1876) he drew up 

 the following imaginary programme for the Zoological 

 Section at the Bristol meeting : — 



Your countryman Mr. Alston is going to be Zoological 

 Secretary to Section D this year, and I am very glad of 

 it, for he will work it up well. In fact, his activity is so 

 great that I am able already to send you a list of some 

 of the proposed papers. If he gets them, we shall have 

 a crowd. 



Zoological Papers. 



1 The President's Address. On the Manufacture of Genera 



and Species. Eloge of the late Dr. 6iay. 



2 Mr. F. Buckland. On Fishery Wares and Fishery Weirs,^ 



illustrated by models of machinery and implements. 



The title of this paper, if objected to as belonging rather to 

 Section A, may be changed at the last moment, the material will 

 remain the same. 



3 Dr. Carpenter. On the Bore of the Bristol Channel in rela- 



tion to Deep Sea Soundings carried on by the author 

 (including the n -{- 1th chapter of an unpublished auto- 

 biography). 



* Letter to Col. H. W. Feilden, C.B., October 31, 1905. 



