HALF AND HALF.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 202, 24 August 1904, Page 11

HALF AND HALF.

Lord Avcbury, then Sir John Lubbock, tolls an amusing story against himself. The Bishop of London had boon talking of the. difficulty a self-Uiuht sJudcnt often met with w'non lie- tirst <-.icimnterod contractions, which a master could have explained in a moment, and hi* remarks recalled to Sir John an error into -which a contraction had led him- A friend, who was travelling round the world, sent him some specimens of unfamiliar marine intimitis, which he studied carefully and published an account of. One' of the specimens was quite iini'iue. Sir John had never seen its like before: but. unfortunately, hi* friend had in his m>l es said nothhigof its habitat, and he was anxious to giv* this information. At. last he thought he found it, for the label on the bottle in which the animal lyul been preserved and sent home was inscribed "h S. i W. "Evidently." thought Sir John, -'this j means that the animal was captured in a ppot half a degree west longitude, and half a degree south latitude." This statement he published, and it passed unchallenged till his friend came home nr.'l accosted him with: "My dear feli ]n\v, what on earth made you say I ( fnund 11i:it animal in the latitude and longitude you mentioned? I never was within :"00'miles of the place."' Sir John was surprised, bill; produced the bottle, and pointed to the label. "1 look the information from? this." he *aid. '"What else can 'h B. h W. mean?"' "Mran?' : was the reply, "why. it means that the animal is preserved in a mixture halV spirit and half water,"