g6 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, vii 



When we arrived at Ipswich there was a good deal of trouble 

 about getting- lodgings. My companions located themselves 

 about a mile out of the town, but that was too far for my " in- 

 dolent habits " ; I sought and at last found a room in the town 

 a little bigger than my cabin on board ship for which I had the 

 satisfaction of paying 30s. a week. 



You know what the British Association is. It is a meeting 

 of the savans of England and the Continent, under the presi- 

 dency of some big-wig or other, — this year of the Astronomer- 

 Royal, — for the purpose of exchanging information. To this 

 end they arrange themselves into different sections, each with 

 its own president and committee, and indicated by letters. For 

 instance. Section A is for Mathematics and Physics ; Section 

 B for Chemistry, etc. ; my own section, that of Natural History, 

 was D, under the presidency of Professor Henslow of Cam- 

 bridge. I was on the committee, and therefore saw the working 

 of the whole affair. 



On the first day there was a dearth of matter in our section. 

 People had not arrived with their papers. So by way of finding 

 out whether I could speak in public or not, I got up and talked to 

 them for about twenty minutes. I was considerably surprised 

 to find that when once I had made the plunge, my tongue went 

 glibly enough. 



On the following day I read a long paper, which I had pre- 

 pared and illustrated with a lot of big diagrams, to an audience 

 of about twenty people ! The rest were all away after Prince Al- 

 bert, who had been unfortunately induced to visit the meeting, 

 and fairly turned the heads of the good people of Ipswich. On 

 Saturday a very pleasant excursion on scientific pretences, but in 

 fact a most jolly and unscientific picnic, took place. Several hun- 

 dred people went down the Orwell in a steamer. The majority 

 returned, but I and two others, considering Sunday in Ipswich 

 an impossibility, stopped at a little seaside village, Felixstowe, 

 and idled away our time there very pleasantly. Babington the 

 botanist and myself walked in to Ipswich on Sunday night. It 

 is about eleven miles, and we did it comfortably in two hours 

 and three quarters, which was not bad walking. 



On Monday at Section D again. Forbes brought forward 

 the subject of my application to Government in committee, and 

 it was unanimously agreed to forward a resolution on the sub- 

 ject to the Committee of Recommendations. I made a speechi- 

 fication of some length in the Section about a new animal. 



On Thursday morning I attended a meeting of the Ray 



