WORK OF THE PERIOD. 



297 



The article '' Geology," in the Admiralty Manual of Sci- 

 entific Enquiry (1849), pp. 156-195. This was written in the 

 spring of 1848. 



"On British Fossil Lepadidae," ' Geol. Soc. Journ.' vi., 

 1850, pp. 439-440- 



" Analogy of the structure of some Volcanic Rocks with 

 that of Glaciers," ' Edin. Roy. Soc. Proc' ii., 185 1, pp. 17-18. 



Professor Geikie has been so good as to give me (in a 

 letter dated Nov. 1885) his impressions of my father's article 

 in the 'Admiralty Manual.' He mentions the following 

 points as characteristic of the work : — 



" I. Great breadth of view. No one who had not prac- 

 tically studied and profoundly reflected on the questions dis- 

 cussed could have written it. 



" 2. The insight so remarkable in all that Mr. Darwin 

 ever did. The way in which he points out lines of enquiry 

 that would elucidate geological problems is eminently typical 

 of him. Some of these lines have never yet been adequately 

 followed ; so with regard to them he was in advance of his 

 time. 



''3. Interesting and sympathetic treatment. The author 

 at once puts his readers into harmony with him. He gives 

 them enough of information to show ho.v delightful the field 

 is to which he invites them, and hov/ much they might ac- 

 complish in it. There is a broad sketch of the subject 



address on the enclosed letter and post it. It is chiefly to enquire in what 

 paper he has described the Boulders on Arthur's Seat. Mr. D. Mihie in 

 the last Edinburgh * New Phil. Journal ' [1847], has a long paper on it. 

 He says : ' Some glacialists have ventured to explain the transportation of 

 boulders even in the situation of those now referred to, by imagining that 

 they were transported on ice floes,' &c. He treats this view, and the 

 scratching of rocks by icebergs, as almost absurd ... he has finally stirred 

 me up so, that (without you would answer him) I think I will send a paper 

 in opposition to the same Journal. I can thus introduce some old remarks 

 of mine, and some new, and will insist on your capital observations in N. 

 America. It is a bore to stop one's work, but he has made me quite 

 wroth." 



