No. 1.] OBITUARY. 61 



a few hours at Kirby Lonsdale to converse with Smith, who was 

 engaged on his geological map of the district, and had just dis- 

 covered some interestiuo; fossils in the laminated strata below the 

 Old Red sandstone, on Kirkby Moor, perhaps the earliest obser- 

 vation of shells in what were afterwards called the upper Ludlow 

 beds. The two men thus brought together were much different, 

 yet in one respect alike : alike in a certain manly simplicity, 

 and unselfish communion of thought. Eight years after this 

 Adam Sedgwick was President of the Geological Society, and in 

 that capacity presented to William Smith the first AVollaston 

 medal. The writer may be permitted the pleasure of this remin- 

 iscence, since from the day when he learned the name of the 

 horseman in Teesdale, till within a few days of his death, he had 

 the happiness of enjoying his intimate friendship. 



Sedgwick had acquired fame before Murchison began his great 

 career. After sharing in Peninsular wars, and chasing the fox 

 in Yorkshire, the "old soldier" became a young geologist, and 

 for 'many years worked with admirable devotion to his chief, and 

 carried his banner through Scotland, and Germany, and across 

 the Alps, with the same spirit as he had shown when bearing 

 the colours for Wellington at Vimiera. 



Important communications on Arran and the north of Scot- 

 land, including Caithness (1828) and the Moray Firth, others 

 on Gosau and the eastern Alps (1829-1831), and still later, in 

 1837, a great memoir on the Palasozoic Strata of Devonshire and 

 Cornwall, and another on the coeval rocks of Belgium and North 

 Germany, show the labours of these intimate friends combined 

 in the happiest way — the broad generalisations in which the 

 Cambridge Professor delighted, well supported by the indefati- 

 gable industry of his zealous companion. 



The most important work in the lives of these two eminent 

 men was performed in and around the principality of Wales ; 

 Sedgwick, as might be expected, lavishing all his energies in a 

 contest with the disturbed strata, the perplexing dykes, and the 

 cleavage of the lowest and least understood groups of rocks ; 

 Murchison choosing the upper deposits exceptionally rich in fos- 

 sils, and on the whole presenting but little perplexity as to suc- 

 cession and character. One explorer, toiling upward from the 

 base, the other descending from the top, they came after some 

 years of labour (1831 to 1835) in sight of each other, and pre- 

 sented to the British Association meeting in Dublin a general 

 view of the stratified rocks of Wales. 



