114 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



solutions to questions in Walkingliam's Aritlimetic. His seafaring 

 life closed in his sixteenth year, when the death of a brother made it 

 desirable that he should remain at home. 



Though working hard all the day for a mere support, young 

 Pengelly managed to spend several hours every night in study, seek- 

 ing to master mathematics. He had no tutor and no really good 

 text-books, but made such progress in his studies that in a compara- 

 tively short time he became " a mathematical tutor of no mean order." 

 He bought his first Euclid of a peddler who occasionally visited the 

 place; then, having saved up a little money for the purpose, it was 

 a happy day for him when he walked thirty miles to Devonport and 

 back, bearing, on his return, twenty volumes in a bundle over his 

 shoulder; among them were the works of some of the standard au- 

 thors, for he cultivated a literary as well as a mathematical taste. 



He received his first lesson in geology while he was still a sailor 

 boy, at Lyme Regis — a spot exceedingly rich in fossils. A laborer 

 whom he was observing broke a stone, the opening of which disclosed 

 a fine ammonite. To his question as to what the fossil was, the 

 laborer replied that if he had read his Bible he would have known; 

 that there was once a flood that covered all the world; the things 

 that were drowned were buried in the mud, and this was a snake which 

 had suffered that fate. "A snake! but where's his head? " He was 

 again referred to the Bible, which would tell him why the snakes 

 in the rocks had no heads. " We're told there that the seed of the 

 woman shall bruise the serpent's head. That's how 'tis," The sec- 

 ond lesson came a few years later, in a reading club of which Pen- 

 gelly was a member. They were reading Dick's Christian Philoso- 

 pher, and came to a geological section, when the reader remarked 

 that " as geology was very likely to be extremely dry, and as many 

 good people thought it dangerous if not decidedly infidel in its teach- 

 ings, he would propose that the selection should not be read. This 

 was passed by acclamation, and the reader passed on to astronomy." 



"While still young, Pengelly removed to Torquay, where he spent 

 the remainder of his life. Sl^ortly after arriving there, he opened 

 a small day school on the Pestalozzian system, into which he intro- 

 duced the novelty of the use of chalk and the blackboard in giving 

 instruction. Beginning with six pupils, the school grew rapidly. 

 He had private pupils, too, and in 1846 these had become so numer- 

 ous that he gave up his school, and as a special tutor in mathematics 

 and the natural sciences found his life occupation. Some of his 

 pupils became distinguished in after life; while others, like the two 

 Russian princes, nephews of the Czar Alexander II, and Princess 

 Mary, of the Netherlands, all of whom became much attached to him, 

 were famous by reason of their position. His attention was brought 



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