1860-61 AT LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S 113 



broke Lodge. The floor was literally strewed 

 with despatch boxes ! and he looked like the 

 hardest- worked man in the realm. Lady John 

 told me an amusing anecdote of the younger 

 children. Their pet jackdaw had died, so they 

 hoisted a black flag on a little castle in the garden, 

 and the youngest confided to Mamma " that they 

 had determined not to play at ' railroads ' for a 

 whole week ! " — a beautiful kind of Court-mourn- 

 ing devised by the little dears. The "Times" 

 has given my " Palaeontology " a review.' 



At the end of this year David Livingstone 

 wrote a long letter to Owen, from which some 

 extracts are given here : — 



Senna : December 29, i860. 



' My dear Friend, — . . . By the way, Mr. 

 Darwin's book upsets my ideas somewhat. There 

 does not seem to be any great struggle for exist- 

 ence going on in this wide continent. There is 

 room enough and to spare for both man and 

 beast. The latter seem to live quite jovially, and 

 often attain old age. They are subject to various 

 diseases — whole herds are sometimes swept off by 

 epidemics, and we meet with diseased animals 

 constantly. Disease does not select or elect to 

 leave the strongest, for it cuts off the ox and horse, 

 and leaves the goat and sheep. . . . My thoughts, 

 however, may only show my ignorance ; for the 

 book itself has not yet come this length. I speak 

 vol. 11. 1 



