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SCENES OF UPROAR
EXTRAORDINARY INCIDENT
WHAT WAS IT?
NOCTURNAL RIOT IN REGENT STREET
(Special)
"The much-discussed meeting of the Zoological Institute, convened to hear the report of the Committee of
Investigation sent out last year to South America to test the assertions made by Professor Challenger as to the
continued existence of prehistoric life upon that Continent, was held last night in the greater Queen's Hall,
and it is safe to say that it is likely to be a red letter date in the history of Science, for the proceedings were of
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so remarkable and sensational a character that no one present is ever likely to forget them." (Oh, brother
scribe Macdona, what a monstrous opening sentence!) "The tickets were theoretically 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
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,' he said, `stand for
more than a moment between that vast assembly and the treat which lay before them. It was not for him to
anticipate what Professor Summerlee, who was the spokesman of the committee, had to say to them, but it
was common rumor that their expedition had been crowned by extraordinary success.' (Applause.)
`Apparently the age of romance was not dead, and there was common ground upon which the wildest
imaginings of the novelist could meet the actual scientific investigations of the searcher for truth. He would
only add, before he sat down, that he rejoiced--and all of them would rejoice--that these gentlemen had
returned safe and sound from their difficult and dangerous task, for it cannot be denied that any disaster to
such an expedition would have inflicted a well-nigh irreparable loss to the cause of Zoological science.'
(Great applause, in which Professor Challenger was observed to join.)
"Professor Summerlee's rising was the signal for another extraordinary outbreak of enthusiasm, which broke
out again at intervals throughout his address. That address will not be given in extenso in these columns, for
the reason that a full account of the whole adventures of the expedition is being published as a supplement
from the pen of our own special correspondent. Some general indications will therefore suffice. Having
described the genesis of their journey, and paid a handsome tribute to his friend Professor Challenger,
coupled with an apology for the incredulity with which his assertions, now fully vindicated, had been
received, he gave the actual course of their journey, carefully withholding such information as would aid the
public in any attempt to locate this remarkable plateau. Having described, in general terms, their course from
the main river up to the time that they actually reached the base of the cliffs, he enthralled his hearers by his
account of the difficulties encountered by the expedition in their repeated attempts to mount them, and finally
described how they succeeded in their desperate endeavors, which cost the lives of their two devoted
half-breed servants." (This amazing reading of the affair was the result of Summerlee's endeavors to avoid
raising any questionable matter at the meeting.)
"Having conducted his audience in fancy to the summit, and marooned them there by reason of the fall of
their bridge, the Professor proceeded to describe both the horrors and the attractions of that remarkable land.
Of personal adventures he said little, but laid stress upon the rich harvest reaped by Science in the
observations of the wonderful beast, bird, insect, and plant life of the plateau. Peculiarly rich in the coleoptera
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and in the lepidoptera, forty-six new species of the one and ninety-four of the other had been secured in the
course of a few weeks. It was, however, in the larger animals, and especially in the larger animals supposed
to have been long extinct, that the interest of the public was naturally centered. Of these he was able to give a
goodly list, but had little doubt that it would be largely extended when the place had been more thoroughly
investigated. He and his companions had seen at least a dozen creatures, most of them at a distance, which
corresponded with nothing at present known to Science. These would in time be duly classified and
examined. He instanced a snake, the cast skin of which, deep purple in color, was fifty-one feet in length,
and mentioned a white creature, supposed to be mammalian, which gave forth well-marked phosphorescence
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