retically confined to members and their friends, but the latter is
an elastic term, and long before eight o'clock, the hour fixed for the
commencement of the proceedings, all parts of the Great Hall were
tightly packed. The general public, however, which most unreasonably
entertained a grievance at having been excluded, stormed the doors at a
quarter to eight, after a prolonged melee in which several people were
injured, including Inspector Scoble of H. Division, whose leg was
unfortunately broken. After this unwarrantable invasion, which not
only filled every passage, but even intruded upon the space set apart
for the Press, it is estimated that nearly five thousand people awaited
the arrival of the travelers. When they eventually appeared, they took
their places in the front of a platform which already contained all the
leading scientific men, not only of this country, but of France and of
Germany. Sweden was also represented, in the person of Professor
Sergius, the famous Zoologist of the University of Upsala. The
entrance of the four heroes of the occasion was the signal for a
remarkable demonstration of welcome, the whole audience rising and
cheering for some minutes. An acute observer might, however, have
detected some signs of dissent amid the applause, and gathered that the
proceedings were likely to become more lively than harmonious. It may
safely be prophesied, however, that no one could have foreseen the
extraordinary turn which they were actually to take.

"Of the appearance of the four wanderers little need be said, since
their photographs have for some time been appearing in all the papers.
They bear few traces of the hardships which they are said to have
undergone. Professor Challenger's beard may be more shaggy, Professor
Summerlee's features more ascetic, Lord John Roxton's figure more
gaunt, and all three may be burned to a darker tint than when they left
our shores, but each appeared to be in most excellent health. As to
our own representative, the well-known athlete and international Rugby
football player, E. D. Malone, he looks trained to a hair, and as he
surveyed the crowd a smile of good-humored contentment pervaded his
honest but homely face." (All right, Mac, wait till I get you alone!)

"When quiet had been restored and the audience resumed their seats
after the ovation which they had given to the travelers, the chairman,
the Duke of Durham, addressed the meeting. 'He would not,'