i86g PALEONTOLOGICAL WORK ,oc 



26 Abbey Place, /;;/)/ 8. 

 My dear Arnold — Look at Bishop Wilson on the sin of 

 covetousness and then inspect your umbrella stand. You will 

 there see a beautiful brown smooth-handled umbrella which is 

 not your property. 



Think of what the excellent prelate would have advised 

 and bring it with you next time you come to the club. The 

 porter will take care of it for me. — Ever yours faithfully, 



T. H. Huxley. 



The following letter shows how paleontological work 

 was continually pouring in upon him : — 



Jermyn Street, A/ay 7, 1869. 



My dear Darwin — Do you recollect recommending* 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 Cun- 

 ningham'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 Anoplotheriitm, 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 Professorship at 

 the Royal Institution. So he writes to Professor (afterwards 

 Sir William) Flower : — 



* See p. 297. 



