167 



me that ii is good so far if the beds be primary or Palaeozoic, for the absence of 

 any such cones in the coal strata has made botanists suspect that the Conifers 

 of that age were like the Yew Tree, and, like a great majority of the Coniferje 

 of the southern hemisphere, berry-bearing, not cone-bearing. 



To find a cone therefore, is something I never did in coal or older beds. The 

 same quarries might in time yield good things. 



Believe me, very truly yours, 



CHAS. LYELL. 



The results of these expeditions in search of the missing members 

 of the Palseozoic rocks were communicated in the form of three, 

 or more, papers, which appeared in 1862. Some of the views 

 therein expressed were mainly in accordance with Murchison's, and 

 were at variance with views that the researches of some other 

 investigators were just then bringing into prominence. That 

 Harkness should evince a preference for the older views is not 

 surprising when we reflect upon the extent of the influence the 

 writings of Murchison had exerted upon the current of geological 

 thought at that time. But that some of these views were beginning 

 to be called in question — and they are views on matters intimately 

 connected with the geological structure of our own district — is 

 sufficiently manifested by the following extract from a letter by 

 Professor Jukes, at that time at the head of the Geological Survey 

 of Ireland. Jukes too, is lost to the geological world now. Had 

 he been willing to sacrifice his zeal for the advancement of science 

 in the interests of his own peace of mind, he might have lived to 

 induced geologists to thoroughly re-examine the evidence regarding 

 many other questions supposed to have been long since authori- 

 tatively settled. The whole history of the "Devonian question" 

 is well worth attentive study, apart from its bearings upon local 

 geology. Jukes is dead, but we have his opinions left. The 

 contest he waged in defence of what he believed to be the truth is 

 being carried on yet. How it will ultimately terminate remains 

 to be seen. 



Ruthin, Denbighshire, December 21, 1862. 



My dear Harkness, 



* * You don't quite imderstand what I meant about Old Red — I 

 mean that all Old Red, whether at Ledbury or elsewhere, that contains any 



