But the vessel in which I take my departure to-morrow morning is even now ready to slip her moorings; I awake from my delusion that I am other than a stranger and a foreigner. I am ready to go back to my place and country; but, before doing so, let me, by way of epilogue, tender to you my most hearty thanks for the kind and cordial reception which you have accorded to me; and let me thank you still more for that which is the greatest compliment which can be afforded to any person in my position--the continuous and undisturbed attention which you have bestowed upon the long argument which I have had the honour to lay before you. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 1: The absence of any keel on the breast-bone and some other osteological peculiarities, observed by Professor Marsh, however, suggest that _Hesperornis_ may be a modification of a less specialised group of birds than that to which these existing aquatic birds belong.] [Footnote 2: A second specimen, discovered in 1877, and at present in the Berlin museum, shows an excellently preserved skull with teeth; and three digits, all terminated by claws, in the fore limb. 1893.] [Footnote 3: I use the word "type" because it is highly probable that many forms of _Anchitherium-_like and _Hipparion-_like animals existed in the Miocene and Pliocene epochs, just as many species of the horse tribe exist now, and it is highly improbable that the particular species of _Anchitherium_ or _Hipparion,_ which happen to have been discovered, should be precisely those which have formed part of the direct line of the horse's pedigree.] [Footnote 4: Since this lecture was delivered, Professor Marsh has discovered a new genus of equine mammals (_Eohippus_) from the lowest Eocene deposits of the West, which corresponds very nearly to this description.--_American Journal of Science,_ November, 1876.] End of Project Gutenberg's Lectures on Evolution, by Thomas Henry Huxley