The journey from New Zealand here has been upon the whole favourable; no gales—­quite the reverse—­but light variable winds and calms.  The latter part of our voyage has, however, been very cold, snow falling in abundance, and the ice forming great stalactites about our bows.  We have seen no icebergs nor anything remarkable.  From all I can learn it is most probable that we shall leave in about a week and shall go direct to England without stopping at any other port.  I wish it may be so.  I want to get home and look about me.

We have had news up to the end of March.  There is nothing of any importance going on.  By the Navy list for April I see that I shall be as nearly as possible in the middle of those of my own rank, i.e.  I shall have about 150 above and as many below me.  This is about what I ought to expect in the ordinary run of promotion in eight years, and I have served four and a half of that time.  I don’t expect much in the way of promotion, especially in these economic times; but I do not fear that I shall be able to keep me in England for at least a year after our arrival, in order to publish my papers.  The Admiralty have quite recently published a distinct declaration that they will consider scientific attainments as a claim to their notice, and I expect to be the first to remind them of their promise, and I will take care to have the reminder so backed that they must and shall take note of it.  Even if they will not promote me at once, it would answer our purpose to have an appointment to some ship on the home station for a short time.

[The last of the Falklands was seen on July 25; the line was crossed in thirty-six days; another month, and water running short, it was found necessary to put in at the Azores for a week.  Leaving Fayal on October 5, the “Rattlesnake” reached Plymouth on the 23rd, but next day proceeded to Chatham, which, thanks to baffling winds, was not reached till November 9, when the ship was paid off.

CHAPTER 1.5.

1850-1851.

[In the Huxley Lecture for 1898 ("Times,” October 4) Professor Virchow takes occasion to speak of the effect of Huxley’s service in the “Rattlesnake” upon his intellectual development:—­

When Huxley himself left Charing Cross Hospital in 1846, he had enjoyed a rich measure of instruction in anatomy and physiology.  Thus trained, he took the post of naval surgeon, and by the time that he returned, four years later, he had become a perfect zoologist and a keen-sighted ethnologist.  How this was possible any one will readily understand who knows from his own experience how great the value of personal observation is for the development of independent and unprejudiced thought.  For a young man who, besides collecting a rich treasure of positive knowledge, has practised dissection and the exercise of a critical judgment, a long sea-voyage and a peaceful sojourn among entirely new surroundings afford an invaluable