cember, 1842, Darwin, waiting twenty-nine years, or until November, 1871, before noting the results; a trench was then dug across the field exposing a series of white dots or nodules; the original deposit of chalk being found on both sides of the trench at a depth of seven inches from the surface. Another portion of this field was spread with cinders in 1842, and twenty-nine years later the stratum was also found seven inches below the surface, so that Darwin assumed that the mould, exclusive of the turf, had been thrown up at an average rate of .22 inches per year.

These and other experiments resulted in the work, "Formation of Vegetable Mould," published in 1882. All experiments were carried on in the same methodical manner, exactness, conclusiveness, and simplicity being the characteristics of all the work of the great naturalist.

Appearance of Darwin-Continued Ill-Health-Daily HabitsChange in Musical and Literary Tastes-Affection

for His Children.

NE of the most speaking descriptions, or rather impressions, of Darwin, as he appeared late in life in his own home, has been given by Professor Haeckel, of Jena. He writes: "In Darwin's own carriage, which he had thoughtfully sent for my convenience to the railway station, I drove one sunny

morning in October through the graceful hilly landscape of Kent, that with the chequered foliage of its woods, with its stretches of purple heath, yellow broom, and evergreen oaks, was arrayed in its fairest autumnal dress. As the carriage drew up in front of Darwin's pleasant country-house, clad in a vesture of

ivy and embowered in elms, there stepped out to meet me from the shady porch, overgrown with creeping plants, the great naturalist himself, a tall and venerable figure, with the shoulders of an Atlas supporting a world of thoughts, his Jupiter-like forehead highly and broadly arched, as in the case of Goethe, and deeply furrowed by the mental plough of labour; his kindly mild eyes looking forth under the shadow of prominent brows; his amiable mouth surrounded. by a copious silver-white beard. The cordial, prepossessing expression of the whole face, the gentle mild voice, the slow, deliberate utterance, the natural and näive train of ideas which marked his conversation, captivated my whole heart in the first hour of our meeting, just as his great work had formerly, on my first reading it, taken my whole understanding by storm. I fancied a lofty world sage out of Hellenic antiquity-a Socrates or Aristotle stood before me."

While Darwin was an invalid in every sense, and a great sufferer, he did not receive credit for it. His herculean form and a ruddy countenance conveyed the impression of perfect health. In a letter to Dr. Hooker he says: "Every one tells me I look quite blooming and beautiful; and most think I am shamming, but you have never been one of those."

Generally Darwin wore a large black cloak and slouch hat, when indoors throwing a shawl around his shoulders and drawing over his shoes fur-lined slippers. His habits of work and a desire to economise time made him an early riser, and after a short walk he breakfasted about a quarter of eight, then retiring to his study, considering the hours previous

to half-past nine the most productive of the day. When the mail arrived, usually about ten o'clock, the letters were read to him, sometimes as he lay stretched upon the sofa, and often an unfinished novel was taken up and perused-a rest which he particularly enjoyed. After this diversion he would retire to his study again, refreshed and ready for work. At mid-day he usually went out for a stroll, either to see some friend in connection with his work or to the green-house where some of his experiments were being conducted. A favourite spot was the "Sand-walk,"-a path about a group of trees of his own planting. It was his custom to walk around this and kick aside a piece of flint from a heap at every turn, thus recording the distance covered. In his walks he almost always had an object. On one occasion he was seen standing like a statue for some time, fixed and immovable. He had stopped to watch a family of squirrels, the young of which urged by intense curiosity left the tree, and notwithstanding the chirping protests of their mother, ran up his legs and back. Early in the afternoon he generally attended to his correspondence, then rested upon the sofa smoking a cigarette, a habit which he contracted in South America among the Gauchos. He was also addicted to snuff-taking, which he deprecated and in a mild way endeavoured to keep in check. He once attempted to break up the habit, and resolved not to indulge in it at home, which one of his friends, a clergyman, called "a most satisfactory arrangement," as the latter kept a box in his study and Darwin often strolled in that direction.

After four o'clock he would take another walk, then work from half-past four till half-past five. In the evening he played backgammon with his wife, then usually reading some scientific work until the hour for retiring. He enjoyed good music though his ear was not correct, and in this respect and in his literary tastes he considered himself to be deficient, judging from the popular standard. Darwin tells us that he underwent a singular change in this connection as he advanced in years. We have seen that in his youth he was enthusiastically fond of the poets, Milton, Shakespeare, Shelley, Gray, and others, but soon after attaining the age of thirty, his desire for literature of this kind began to cease, until finally he could not endure poetry, while the historical plays of Shakespeare were found" intolerably dull." His taste for a certain class of music and art also failed, while his pleasure in novels, where the imagination was called into play, increased. Darwin considered it a loss of the higher æsthetic tastes, and an atrophy of that portion of the brain upon which they depended, and the fact that he still enjoyed histories, biographies, travels, and various abstruse works puzzled him not a little. In all probability, the five years of active association in so varied a field had blunted his sensibilities for the artificial unless it was of a highly exciting or imaginative character.

One might expect to find in a man whose daily life was a constant fight against suffering, and who worked with a regularity that was almost unparalleled, a break or flaw at times in the evenness of disposition, but Darwin's life was wonderful in its