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JONATHAN OTLEY, THE GEOLOGIST AND GUIDE. 



By J. Clifton Ward, Assoc. R.S.M., &c. (Keswick.) 

 INTRODUCTION. 



In commencing this slight sketch of your late fellow-townsman, 

 Jonathan Otley, it may be asked why should I, a south countryman, take 

 it upon me to sing the praises of a Cumbrian whose daily life never 

 extended beyond these mountains? I reply, that our modest hero dearly 

 loved and carefully explored this district over which it has been my 

 privilege to work for more than seven years ; that under his hammer the 

 rocks have rung full oft, as under mine ; that he loved nature for nature's 

 sake, as I trust I fondly do ; that my heart feels drawn out to speak of 

 Jonathan as a geological pioneer in this country, and that, though I be not 

 Cumbrian born, as I might wish, this is not my fault but my misfortune. 



OBJECTS OF A BIOGRAPHY. 



But why should biographies be written at all? The nwrk each man 

 has done has its influence for good or bad upon those he has left behind, 

 whether he be remembered or forgotten. The instrument may have been 

 broken up, but the work done is lasting somewhere, though maybe 

 hidden from sight by all that surrounds it and unites with it. All this is 

 true, but are not our minds so constituted that we cannot look upon a 

 thing done without going back in thought to the doer, and this because 

 man is essentially a doi>ig animal. Hence not only work accomplished, 

 but the modes of working become profoundly interesting and important 

 to us. We are not content to see the mighty steam-engine speeding along 

 our iron roads, but we must follow back to the child Watt, seated in his 



