[It was not a large party that assembled at the George Huxleys for the wedding, but all were life-long friends, including, besides the Fanning clan and Mrs. Griffiths, an old Australian ally, Hooker, Tyndall, and Dr. and Mrs. Carpenter.  There was none present but felt that abundant happiness was at least well earned after eight years of trial, and still more that its best guarantee was the firm loyalty and devotion that had passed through so many dangers of absence and isolation, so many temptations to renounce the ideal course under stress of circumstance, only to emerge strengthened and ennobled by the stern discipline of much sacrifice.

Great as was his new happiness, he hardly stood in need of Darwin’s word of warning:  “I hope your marriage will not make you idle; happiness, I fear, is not good for work.”  Huxley could not sit idle for long.  If he had no occupation on hand, something worth investigation—­and thorough investigation—­was sure to catch his eye.  So he writes to Hooker from Tenby:—­]

15 St. Julian’s Terrace, Tenby, August 16, 1855.

My dear Hooker,

I am so near the end of the honeymoon that I think it can hardly be immodest if I emerge from private life and write you a letter, more particularly as I want to know something.  I went yesterday on an expedition to see the remains of a forest which exists between tidemarks at a place called Amroth, near here.

So far as I can judge there can be no doubt that this really is a case of downward movement.  The stools of the trees are in their normal position, and their roots are embedded and interwoven in a layer of stiff blue clay, which lies immediately beneath the superficial mud of the shore.  Layers of leaves, too, are mixed up with the clay in other parts, and the bark of some of the trees is in perfect preservation.  The condition of the wood is very curious.  It is like very hard cheese, so that you can readily cut slices with a spade, and yet where more of the trunk has been preserved some parts are very hard.  The trees are, I fancy, Beech and Oak.  Could you identify slices if I were to send you some?

Now it seems to me that here is an opportunity one does not often have of getting some information about the action of sea water on wood, and on the mode in which these vegetable remains may become embedded, etc. etc., and I want to get you to tell me where I can find information on submerged forests in general, so as to see to what points one can best direct one’s attention, and to suggest any inquiries that may strike yourself.

I do not see how the stumps can occur in this position without direct sinking of the land, and that such a sinking should have occurred tallies very well with some other facts which I have observed as to the nature of the bottom at considerable depths here.

We had the jolliest cruise in the world by Oxford, Warwick, Kenilworth, Stratford, Malvern, Ross, and the Wye though it was a little rainy, and though my wife’s strength sadly failed at times.