ch. vil] 1836-1842. 153 



Dr. Mitchell so successfully silenced, or such a bucket of 

 cold water so dexterously poured down his back, as when 

 Darwin answered some impertinent and irrelevant questions 

 about South America. We escaped fifteen minutes of Dr. 

 M.'s vulgar harangue in consequence. . . ." 



Early in the following year (1838), he was, much against 

 his will, elected Secretary of the Geological Society, an 

 office he held for three years. A chief motive for his hesi- 

 tation in accepting the post was the condition of his health, 

 the doctors having urged " me to give up entirely all writ- 

 ing and even correcting press for some weeks. Of late any- 

 thing which flurries me completely knocks me up after- 

 wards, and brings on a violent palpitation of the heart." 



In the summer of 1838 he started on his expedition to 

 Glen Roy, where he spent "eight good days" over the 

 Parallel Roads. His Essay on this subject was written out 

 during the same summer, and published by the Royal 

 Society.* He wrote in his Pocket Book : " September 6 

 (1838). Finished the paper on ' Glen Roy,' one of the 

 most difficult and instructive tasks I was ever engaged on." 

 It will be remembered that in his Autobiography he speaks 

 of this paper as a failure, of which he was ashamed, f 



C. D. to Lyell. [August 9th, 1838.] 



36 Great Marlborough Street. 



My dear Lyell I did not write to you at Norwich, 

 for I thought I should have more to say, if I waited a few 

 more days. Very many thanks for the present of your 

 Elements, which I received (and I believe the very -first 

 copy distributed) together with your note. I have read it 

 through every word, and am full of admiration of it, and, as 

 I now see no geologist, I must talk to you about it. There 

 is no pleasure in reading a book if one cannot have a good 

 talk over it ; I repeat, I am full of admiration of it, it is as 



* Phil. Trans., 1839, pp. 39-82. 



t Sir Archibald Geikie has been so good as to allow me to quote a passage 

 from a letter addressed to me (Nov. 19, 1884) : " Had the idea of transient 

 barriers of glacier-ice occurred to him, he would have found the difficulties 

 vanish from the lake-theory which he opposed, and he would not have been 

 unconsciously led to minimise the altogether overwhelming objections to the 

 supposition that the terraces are of marine origin." 



It may be added that the idea of the barriers being formed by glaciers 

 could hardly have occurred to him, considering the state of knowledge at the 

 time, and bearing in mind his want of opportunities of observing glacial action 

 on a large scale. 



