Twelve miles to the south, the first or southerly range is lifted into view in Block Island. The sea covers the next thirty miles on the line of continuation of these two series of hills, but both emerge again, the northern forming the Elizabeth Islands and traversing the west-to-east portion of Cape Cod; while the southern moraine forms No-Man's-Land, the crest of Gay Head, and prominent ranges of hills in the northwestern part of Martha's Vineyard, extending northeast nearly to Vineyard Haven. Here it is lost, but it reappears on Chappaquiddick and Tucanuck Islands, and in Saul's Hills and Sankaly Head on Nantucket.
Professor Huxley on Bathybius.—In seconding the vote of thanks to Professor Allman at the close of his able address on protoplasm, delivered at the late meeting of the British Association, and elsewhere printed in this number, Professor Huxley alluded as follows to his past and present views regarding Bathybius: "It is my business to recollect, on the present occasion, that I have come to praise Cæsar, and not to bury him under any mountain of talk of my own; and I will, therefore, not venture to dwell upon any of those very large topics upon which he has dwelt with so much fairness, with so much judgment, and with so remarkable a knowledge of the existing information respecting them. But I will ask you to allow me to say one word rather on my own account, in order to prevent a misconception which, I think, might arise, and which I should regret if it did arise. I dare say that no one in this room, who has attained middle life, has been so fortunate as to reach that age without being obliged now and then to look back upon some acquaintance, or, it may be, intimate ally of his youth, who has not quite verified the promises of that youth. Nay, let us suppose he has done the very reverse, and has become a very questionable sort of character, and a person whose acquaintance does not seem quite so desirable as it was in those young days: his way and yours have separated; you have not heard much about him; but eminently trustworthy persons have assured you he has done this, that, or the other; and is more or less of a black sheep, in fact. The President, in the early part of his address, alluded to a certain thing—I hardly know whether I ought to call it thing or not—of which he gave you the name Bathybius, and he stated, with perfect justice, that 1 had brought that thing into notice; at any rate, indeed, I christened it, and I am, in a certain sense, its earliest friend. For some time after that interesting Bathybius was launched into the world, a number of admirable persons took the little thing by the hand, and made very much of it, and, as the President was good enough to tell, you, I am glad to be able to repeat and verify all the statements, as a matter of fact, which I had ventured to make about it. And so things went on, and I thought my young friend Bathybius would turn out a credit to me. But, I am sorry to say, as time has gone on, he has not altogether verified the promise of his youth. In the first place, as the President told you, he could not be found when he was wanted; and, in the second place, when he was found, all sorts of things were said about him. Indeed, I regret to be obliged to tell you that some persons of severe minds went so far as to say that he was nothing but simply a gelatinous precipitate of slime, which had carried down organic matter. If that is so, I am very sorry for it, for, whoever else may have joined in this error, I am undoubtedly primarily responsible for it. But I do not know at this present time of my own knowledge how the matter stands. Nothing would please me more than to investigate the matter afresh in the way it ought to be investigated, but that would require a voyage of some time, and the investigation of this thing in its native haunts is a kind of work for which, for many years past, I have had no opportunity, and which I do not think I am very likely to enjoy again. Therefore my own judgment is in an absolute state of suspension about it. I can only warn you what has been said about this friend of mine, but I can not say whether what is said is justified or not. But I feel very happy about the matter. There is one thing about us men of science, and that is, no one who has the greatest prejudice against science can venture to say that we ever endeavor to conceal each other's mistakes. And, there-
