M. ships. Darwin was twenty-two when
the _Beagle_ sailed for the Straits of Magellan; Hooker, also, was
twenty-two when he sailed for the Antarctic with Ross on the _Erebus_;
Huxley was but twenty-one when he set forth with Owen Stanley for
Australian waters to survey the Great Barrier Reef and New Guinea.
Each found in the years of distant travel a withdrawal from the
distracting bustle of ordinary life, which enabled him to concentrate
upon original work and to reflect deeply, unhampered by current
doctrines; each came back, not only deeply impressed by the elemental
problems of life, but "salted" with the sea and the discipline of the
sea.
It was good to live under sharp discipline; to be down on the
realities of existence by living on bare necessaries; to find
how extremely well worth living life seemed to be when one
woke up from a night's rest on a soft plank, with the sky for
canopy, and cocoa and weevily biscuit the sole prospect for
breakfast; and, more especially, to learn to work for the sake
of what I got for myself out of it, even if it all went to the
bottom and I along with it.
Huxley was not so well situated as either Darwin, the well-to-do
amateur who was naturalist to the expedition, or Hooker, the son of
a distinguished botanist, receiving many privileges from his father's
friend, Captain Ross, while officially he was but an assistant-surgeon
and second naturalist.
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