But as soon as my agent read the MSS. he suggested that I should write a volume on the subject, which he was sure would be very attractive and popular, and for which he undertook to make arrangements both in England and America, and to secure me liberal terms. After a little consideration I thought I could do so, and terms were arranged for the book before the article itself was published. This enabled me to get together all the necessary materials and to begin work at once, and after six months of the stiffest reading and study I ever undertook, the book was completed in September, and published in November of the same year. In November of 1904 a cheaper edition was published, with an additional chapter in an Appendix. This chapter contained an entirely new argument, founded on the theory of organic evolution, which I had not time to introduce into the first edition. This argument is itself so powerful that, when compounded with the arguments founded on astronomical, physical, and physiological phenomena, it renders the improbability of there having been two independent developments of organic life culminating in man, so great as to be absolutely inconceivable.

The success of this volume, and the entirely new circle of readers it brought me, caused my publishers to urge me to prepare the present work, which I should otherwise have not written at all, or only on a very much smaller scale for the infomation of my family as to my early life.

Now it seems to me a very suggestive fact that my literary work during the last ten years should have been so completely determined by two circumstances which must be considered, in the ordinary sense of the term, and in relation to my own volition, matters of chance. If Dr. Lunn had not invited me to Davos, and if he had suggested "Darwinism" or any other of my special subjects instead of the "Science of the Nineteenth Century," I should not have written my "Wonderful Century "! I should not have had my attention so specially directed to great astronomical problems; I should not, when asked for an article, have chosen the subject of our sun's central position; and I should certainly never

have undertaken such a piece of work as my book on "Man's Place in the Universe," or the present autobiography. And further, without the accident of a perfect stranger calling upon me for reasons of his own, and that stranger happening to be a man who had been so marvellously cured by Dr. Salisbury as to induce me to adopt the same treatment, with similar results, I should never have had the energy required to undertake the two later and more important works. Of course, it may be that these are only examples of those "happy chances which are not uncommon in men's lives; but, on the other hand, it may be true that, "there's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them as we will"; and those who have reason to know that spiritual beings can and do influence our thoughts and actions, will see in such directive incidents as these examples of such influence.

Although I have now brought the narrative of my literary and home life up to the time of writing this Autobiography, there are a number of special subjects, which, for the sake of clearness, I have either wholly omitted, or only just mentioned, but which have either formed important episodes in my life, or have brought me into communication or friendly intercourse with a number of interesting people, and which therefore require to be narrated consecutively in separate chapters. These will now follow, and will, I think, be not the least interesting or instructive portions of my work.

CHAPTER XXXIV

EXCURSIONS AND EXAMINATIONS

WHILE endeavouring to give an account of all matters which occupied or interested me during the latter half of my life, I somewhat hastily concluded my MS. and sent it to press without any reference to two matters which were of some importance to myself, and one of them of some general interest. These are the various holiday excursions I took with my father-in-law, Mr. William Mitten, whose deep enthusiasm for nature and extensive knowledge of plants in general, and mosses in particular, rendered his companionship very congenial to me; and my work as an Assistant Examiner in Physical Geography and Physiography, which occupied me for three weeks or more every summer, almost continually for twenty-seven years. In order to make this record of my life more complete, I have added a supplementary chapter devoted to these two subjects.

My first excursion with Mr. Mitten was in August, 1867, to North Wales, his first visit to that beautiful district. We stayed a few days at Corwen, and our first walk on Sunday morning was along the road to the west up the valley of the Alwen. In about five miles we reached Pont-y-glyn, where a farm-road crossed a very deep ravine. This we descended and found the bottom full of curious hollows, with vertical rocks damp or dripping, overshadowed by trees and shrubs. Here the yellow Welsh poppy grew luxuriantly, as well as the globe-flowers and the subalpine Rubus saxatilis. But what delighted Mr. Mitten on this his first walk in Wales was the abundance of mosses and hepaticæ, and for a full hour he explored every nook and cranny, and every few

minutes cried out to me, "I've got another species I never gathered before," till I thought he would never tear himself away; and during several other visits to Wales in the Snowdon and Cader Idris districts, and in the Vale of Neath, I do not think he ever came upon a richer spot for his favourite group of plants.

The next day we took a much longer ramble along country lanes, which gradually led us on to the ridge of the Berwyn mountains, from 2500 to 2700 feet above sea level. At the highest summit, where a circle of precipices descends to a little tarn-Llyn-llyne-caws-my friend crept out along the face of the rocks to get some rare mosses, till he made me quite afraid for his safety. But he was very active and sure-footed, and always managed to get what he wanted. On the high peaty moors we found the creeping cloud-berry, and as we had strolled slowly, searching everywhere for plants and enjoying the scenery and the mountain air, it was late in the afternoon before we came to a deep valley where there were some houses, and as we had walked about eight or nine miles over high mountains since we last saw a house, we determined to go down and try to find a night's lodging. We were attracted by glimpses of a waterfall up this valley, and therefore made for the highest house we could see, a rather neat small farmhouse. By the time we had reached it the sun had set, and when we asked if we could have supper and lodging there, we were told it was impossible, as some titled person, I forget the name, was coming next day with some friends to shoot there, and everything was got ready for him. However, we told them we had walked over the mountains from Corwen and were very tired, and if we went down to the village we should have so much to walk back in the morning, that at last they agreed. I quite forget what kind of accommodation we had, but I rather think we slept on the floor. We had, however, a good supper, and breakfast next morning, when after getting a view of the waterfall, which Mr. Mitten sketched, we walked about three miles westward over a mountain ridge to a good but very wild road, which led us back through the village of Llandrillo to Corwen, a distance of about seventeen

miles, forming altogether one of the wildest mountain walks I have ever taken in our own country.

The waterfall we thus accidentally came upon is called Pistill Rhaiadwr, and is little known to tourists, as it is a long way from any beaten track, but it is undoubtedly the finest in Wales, and has a peculiar feature which is, I think, unique in the British Isles. Between the upper and the lower part of the fall the water passes under a natural arch of rock, along which it is possible to crawl, though when there is much water the arch is drenched with spray. The photograph here copied shows this remarkable feature, as well as the double fall, the upper one being about 150 feet high, the total height being 240 feet. George Borrow, in his "Wild Wales," considers this curious bridge to be a blemish, and remarks, "This unsightly object has stood where it now stands since the day of creation, and will probably remain there to the day of judgment. It would be a desecration of nature to remove it by art, but no one could regret if Nature herself, in one of her floods, were to sweep it away." The ancient geology and theology of this passage are very characteristic.

Two years later we had another excursion together, accompanied by my friend Geach, going first to Beddgelert, and then on to Pen-y-gwryd, where we found the little inn crowded, and had difficulty in finding the roughest accommodation. Next morning we started at five and had a most delightful walk up Snowdon by this very picturesque route. Reaching the summit with excellent appetites, we enjoyed our breakfast of coffee and bacon in the little hut on the top, and then, as it was a glorious day with floating clouds whose shadows below us were a delight, we spent an hour or more in the enjoyment of the splendid views, with the numerous lakes in almost all the surrounding cums and valleys which render this mountain especially interesting to the glacial geologist. Numbers of swifts were flying about over and around the peak, and when Mr. Mitten climbed out on some crags in search of rare mosses, they dashed about so close to his head as to cause him to retreat. After returning to Beddgelert we went up a small valley to find a very rare water-moss, which Mr. Wil