Tramp! tramp! they come, the ministers of death, At their approach the boldest holds his breath: “Your money and your life!” they gleeful cry-- And awestruck patients pay their fees and die. 5. These ghouls thy children are: nor these alone, O bounteous mother, hail thee as their own! Nursed in thine arms, the vacant--void no more-- In countless numbers issue from thy door! 6. Confusion tightly pack’d within each brain-- Or air, compress’d, distending the inane, Thine is the gas they own, and thine the lead, The tongue untiring, and the addled head. 7. To pulpit and to platform see them fly, For, wind-distracted, they must speak or die; Bored and perplex’d the audience shifts about, Those only happy who can snooze it out. . . . . . 11. But I, unlucky, whither shall I go, Who of this lore of thine so little know! What academic prize to me shall fall, Content to know a little, and not all! 12. Forgive me, O my mother, if I still Keep some brain-space for after years to fill! Nor chide if I decline this awful cram Of unassorted victuals for exam! The spring brought also the offer of the honorary fellowship of the Geological Society of Stockholm. In August he started for New York, this being his first journey across the Atlantic. He enjoyed the voyage very much, being one of the very few passengers who were able to appear at meals during a stormy period met with soon after leaving Ireland. Later the weather improved and the party became very lively, Prof. Geikie participating in all the entertainments and gaiety which went on. “I feel already 20 per cent. better in mind and body,” he says; “twenty years younger am I too, or I would not enjoy such high jinks as go on here.” Several friends were made on the ship, and one of these, a Boston gentleman, showed much kindness to Prof. Geikie on his arrival in New York. Thanks to him, it was possible to see something of the city during a brief stay there, the incidents including a visit behind the scenes of a theatre, where the stage manager announced that he had read _The Great Ice Age_. From New York the journey was continued to Chicago, which did not make a very favourable impression, and on to St Paul, much of geological interest being seen _en route_. From St Paul the party went to Winnipeg, the furthest point west reached. The crossing of the prairies made a great impression on Prof. Geikie. He says:--