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me before this. I have waited to be able to tell you everything as definitely as possible. Mary and Jeanie are now home, both looking a great deal better, and in all respects improved. Their arrival sets me free to set off when I choose. Now, I am not coming up directly by one of the Leith and London Steamers, but by Hull. I shall arrive there on Sunday evening, stay all night with our old friends, leave on Monday morning, and be in London on Tuesday afternoon or evening. . . I am in no mood for writing, have been so knocked about, have so much to do, been so late up, and am so sleepy, that I shan't write a word more. Everything it is desirable you should know, I keep for oral communication.-Believe me your very affectionate, loving, sleepy brother, "GEORGE."

A week later we have the following to his mother :

"George Inn, Hull, Monday, 17th September.

"The best of friends are often bad advisers, and so it has proved in my case; for the 'Innisfail,' instead of arriving in Hull on Sunday at twelve o'clock noon, did not get in till one o'clock at midnight of Sunday, and nobody got ashore till this morning.

"On Saturday, up to eleven o'clock, P.M. when 'I turned in,' the weather was most delightful, and the voyage in all respects very pleasant. I did not fall asleep for an hour, and then I tumbled over into a doubtful snooze. I believe there was a sensitiveness among all present to any alarm, from the late accident on the station; and, accordingly, when the engine stopped at two o'clock in the morning, I and many others awoke. I did not know what hour it was then, and being aware that a gentleman and lady were going ashore at Scarborough, I thought it would be

the boat stopping to let them out. One of our number, however, got up and went on deck, and learned that some pin in the engine had broken, and caused the stoppage. However, it was deemed so trivial that he went to bed again, and we began to talk about steamboats and accidents, and the like. Now, you must notice that I slept in a room containing four berths, three of which were occupied by Englishmen, the fourth being occupied by your Scotch son George. I was soon embroiled with the whole three about the nature of the last accident: and when I pushed one of them too hard, he began his speech by telling me, that 'we in arguing in England do so and so,' implying a full anxiety to show he knew my nation, and hated it. However, disregarding the taunt, I baffled them all, and was not a little amused next morning, when a surgeon of dragoons, who had lain in some corner or other within earshot of us, remarked to one of them on the amusement he had had listening to our conversation, adding, "There was a great deal of eloquence in it at times.' I take the credit of all the eloquence to myself, the precious triumvirate can divide the remainder of the praise among them. I and the surgeon enjoyed a laugh at them afterwards. All that is episodical. After talking a while, I thought I heard the steam cease blowing, which is always dangerous if the steamboat be still, and I immediately dressed and went on deck. The steam, however, was blowing away all right, but one of the engines was completely maimed. The whole crew were at work unshipping the broken engine, a work of nearly two hours, during which time we were lying off North Shields, on the Sunderland coast. The night was most beautiful, the water as still as a mill-pond, which was well for us. Had the wind blown hard, it would have been scarcely possible for

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us to have managed; and had the gale blown on the shore, nothing could have saved us but casting anchor, which cannot always be done on these coasts. As it was, we not

only lost two hours in absolute inaction, but being palsied of one side, we could only creep along at five or six miles an hour, so that it was one o'clock last night before we reached Hull."

CHAPTER IV.

RESIDENCE IN LONDON-DEGREE OF M.D.

"In this theatre of man's life, it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers-on."-PREFACE TO BACON'S 'Advancement of Learning.'

In the renewal of the joyous companionship of former times, the brothers were truly happy. "I can't tell you half what I have seen," George's first letter to his mother says. "I've been at the British Museum, and gazed with delight at the splendid fossils, the huge crocodile-like monsters of the ancient deep, and one specimen I wished you had seen of those marks of beasts' feet which you used so much to laugh I called on Professor Graham, and received a most courteous reception. We talked together for an hour and a half. I told him some of my speculations, and he smiled, as all older and wiser heads always do. I was invited to come to the laboratory whenever I listed; but the distance is tremendous, at least six miles from Daniel's place.

at.

"I dined last night with Professor Graham, and I spent a very happy evening among a circle of young chemists. I stayed behind them all, and had a long talk with him, from which I learned a great deal, not reaching home till one o'clock, so great are the distances.

"I am afraid I shall not see Faraday. He's not in town at present, and his lectures are not begun; nor shall I be

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present at a meeting of the Royal or any other of the Societies. This is just the worst period of the year for all these things. Some of them begin in November, the majority not till February, the beginning of the fashionable season, when the titled people return to town. I must, therefore, depart without seeing these men and things. Yet there is still a chance of seeing Faraday; but I fear none of beholding the Queen."

At the close of a month, when about to return to Edinburgh, the offer of a place as unsalaried assistant in the Laboratory of Professor Graham, now Master of the Mint, but then Professor of Chemistry in University College, caused a complete change in George's plans. The advantages it offered were too great not to weigh strongly with him, as in no place in this country could better opportunity present itself for acquiring a knowledge of analysis and the other branches of Chemistry. He wrote to consult friends at home, saying to his mother-"I will not make a vain parade of the grief my non-return will give me. A thousand links of the dearest kind which nothing here can make up for, draw me to Scotland or Edinburgh; but you, I am sure, would be the first to say 'go.'"

The week of suspense caused by the tardy postage of those days was happily ended by the receipt of the desired permission to remain. He accordingly had to make arrangements for a lengthened, but not unwelcome, stay in London. His residence there extended over five busy months. The advantages of his position were by no means so great as he had anticipated, and on the whole, his sojourn in the great city was in many ways unsatisfactory to him. But with his eager temperament, his wide sympathies, and his openness to influences of all kinds, we cannot doubt that he was in many ways benefited by the experiences