BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF ISAAC LEA, LL. D. XXXIX 



Dr. Lea called on Mr. Buchanan, the American minister, and had 

 half an hour's conversation with him. Among other thiiif^s he said that 

 he was impressed with the idea that the English did not like us Amer- 

 icans. Dr. Lea told him that at Eome, Major Cass, American minister, 

 had told him the same thing, but that it had not been his impression in 

 his intercourse with English gentlemen. 



Dr. Lea went again by appointment with Sir Henry De la Beche 

 to the Museum of Economic Geology. He took with him some rare 

 specimens of Unionidw. Sir Henry and Edward Forbes were delighted 

 to see the Unio spinosus, of which there was a good specimen. 



Again the New and Old Eed Sandstones were talked over. They both 

 told Dr. Lea that the Magnesiau Limestone of Riley and Stutchbury was 

 very doubtful as to its true position, but the matter would be worked 

 out by the survey. Professor Forbes and Dr. Lea went over the De- 

 vonian fossils from Ireland which had been recently received at the 

 museum. Among these was a specimen resembling an Anodonta, of 

 which he wished to have Dr. Lea's opinion. After a close examination, 

 he agreed with the professor and pronounced it a true Anodonta. In one 

 specimen the dorsal line was complete, and presented the exact char- 

 acters of that genus. The professor expressed himself much pleased to 

 have his opinion " confirmed by the best authority on the subject of 

 fresh-water mollusca." They then examined some of the Uniones from 

 the Middle and Upper Eocene. There were two distinct species, having 

 their pearly nacre remaining, but they were much broken. The beaks 

 in some specimens showed the undulations very perfectly, and the teeth 

 were nearly perfect. The cardinal teeth differ from those of existing 

 species in having the posterior lobe large, while the anterior is depressed 

 and almost obsolete. Subsequently Sir Henry De la Beche sent Dr. Lea 

 the six volumes of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, together with 

 his acknowledgment of favors on Dr. Lea's part. Dr. Price called on Dr. 

 Lea to take him to dine with the Red Lion Club, where he met Gould, 

 Lankaster, Forbes, Lyell, Woodhouse, and Frances, editor of the Phi- 

 losophical Magazine, McDonald, professor of natural history in the 

 University of St. Amlrews, Douglas Jerrold, and some dozen others. 

 A moderate dinner and little wine was the rule of this club. Prof. 

 Edward Forbes presided at the dinner, and the evening was pleasantly 

 passed, enlivened by his ready wit and that of Douglas Jerrold. Ad- 

 journing at 12 o'clock. Dr. Waterhouseand Professor McDonald kindly 

 walked home with Dr. Lea, although the distance was veiy great. 



At the British Museum Dr. Lea spent a couple of hours with Mr. 

 Waterhouse and Mr. Woodward, the author of " Recent and Foreign 

 Shells," who had the departments of fossil bones and fossil mollusca 

 under their charge. The latter showed Dr. Lea some beautiful speci- 

 mens of the Rndisto, of which he had cleaned out the interior, so as to 

 show the teeth and, in both valves, the muscular cicatrices, the cavities, 

 &c. Dr. Lea saw at once that they jiroved these genera to be close 



