When I commenced this series of lectures, I did not think it necessary to preface them with a prologue, such as might be expected from a stranger and a foreigner; for during my brief stay in your country, I have found it very hard to believe that a stranger could be possessed of so many friends, and almost harder that a foreigner could express himself in your language in such a way as to be, to all appearance, so readily intelligible.  So far as I can judge, that most intelligent, and, perhaps, I may add, most singularly active and enterprising body, your press reporters, do not seem to have been deterred by my accent from giving the fullest account of everything that I happen to have said.

But the vessel in which I take my departure to-morrow morning is even now ready to slip her moorings; I awake from my delusion that I am other than a stranger and a foreigner.  I am ready to go back to my place and country; but, before doing so, let me, by way of epilogue, tender to you my most hearty thanks for the kind and cordial reception which you have accorded to me; and let me thank you still more for that which is the greatest compliment which can be afforded to any person in my position—­the continuous and undisturbed attention which you have bestowed upon the long argument which I have had the honour to lay before you.

    [1] The absence of any keel on the breast-bone and some other
        osteological peculiarities, observed by Professor Marsh,
        however, suggest that Hesperornis may be a modification of a
        less specialised group of birds than that to which these
        existing aquatic birds belong.

    [2] I use the word “type” because it is highly probable that many
        forms of Anchitherium-like and Hipparion-like animals
        existed in the Miocene and Pliocene epochs, just as many species
        of the horse tribe exist now; and it is highly improbable that
        the particular species of Anchitherium or Hipparion, which
        happen to have been discovered, should be precisely those which
        have formed part of the direct line of the horse’s pedigree.

    [3] Since this lecture was delivered, Professor Marsh has discovered
        a new genus of equine mammals (Eohippus) from the lowest
        Eocene deposits of the West, which corresponds very nearly to
        this description.—­American Journal of Science, November,
        1876.

BALTIMORE.

ADDRESS ON UNIVERSITY EDUCATION.[1]

The actual work of the University founded in this city by the well-considered munificence of Johns Hopkins commences to-morrow, and among the many marks of confidence and good-will which have been bestowed upon me in the United States, there is none which I value more highly than that conferred by the authorities of the University when they invited me to deliver an address on such an occasion.