io6 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. XXIX.] 



colours, warning colours, and mimicry, and for these I 

 had to obtain a series of lantern slides coloured from nature, 

 so as to exhibit the most striking examples of these curious 

 and beautiful phenomena. All this took a great deal of time, 

 and the maps and diagrams forming a large package, about 

 six feet long in a waterproof canvas case, caused me much 

 trouble, as some of the railways refused to take it by passenger 

 trains, and I had to send it as goods ; and in one case it got 

 delayed nearly a week, and I had to give my lectures with 

 hastily made rough copies from recollection. 



The lectures I finally arranged for the Lowell course were 

 eight in number, to be given twice a week in November and 

 December. As these lectures formed the groundwork for my 

 book on Darwinism, I will here give their titles — 



1. The Darwinian Theory : what it is, and how it has been 

 demonstrated. 



2. The Origin and Uses of the Colours of Animals. 



3. Mimicry, and other exceptional modes of Animal 

 Coloration. 



4. The Origin and Uses of the Colours of Plants. 



5. The Permanence of Oceans, and the relations of Islands 

 and Continents. 



6. Oceanic Islands and their Biological History. 



7. Continental Islands : their Past History and Biological 

 Relations. 



8. The Physical and Biological Relations of New Zealand 

 and Australia. 



Shortly before I left England I gave the lecture on 

 " Darwinism " to the Essex Field Club in order to see how 

 my diagrams of variation struck an intelligent audience, and 

 was fairly satisfied with the result. 



I left London on October 9 in a rather slow steamer in 

 order to have a cabin to myself at a moderate price, and 

 landed at New York on the 23rd, after a cold and disagree- 

 able passage. A sketch of my American tour will be given 

 in the following chapters. 



