172 



be taken as any test of the age of the rocks wherein they occur, 

 the upper part of this New Red series would have to be joined on 

 to the Secondary Rocks, which we now know to be their correct 

 position; while the lower part would have to be, somehow or 

 other, joined on to the Palaeozoic series. Consequently the line 

 marking off the one great division from the other would have to be 

 taken somewhere or other through the middle of the New Red. 

 This is the position generally assigned to it even yet, though there 

 are not wanting signs that this view does not give general satis- 

 faction to such geologists as insist upon weighing all the evidence 

 with a view to forming their own independent conclusions. Sir 

 Roderick's views were put forward in the introductory portion of 

 the memoir that appeared under their joint authorship in the 

 Quarterly Journal of the Geological Societ)'^ in 1865, which memoir 

 was the last that Harkness wrote on the stratigraphical relations 

 of the New Red, there, or elsewhere. 



Harkness was hard at work at the same time upon the older 

 Palaeozoic rocks, and was joined in many of his expeditions by 

 the well-known palaeontologist, Dr. H. A. Nicholson of Penrith, 

 now Professor of Natural History at Aberdeen. Amongst the many 

 new facts their joint researches brought to light were some that we 

 find Harkness still discussing with the veteran geologist. Professor 

 Sedgwick — one of whose last letters, lying before me as I write 

 this, is almost illegible through the trembling of the writer's hand. 

 It will be seen by this that, although Harkness was not actually 

 writing anything about the New Red with a view to publication, 

 he was still manifesting as much interest in the subject as ever. 

 The same letter also shews plainly enough in what other directions 

 Harkness and his fellow-worker. Dr. Nicholson, had been working 

 of late. 



Cambridge, February 16, 1865. 

 My dear Professor Harkness, 



I must be very short if I am to obey my doctor's orders, and I know 

 and feel that it is my duty to do so. 



I never received your former letter respecting the Westmorland fossils under 

 the base of the Coniston Limestone. I was * * during the summer — my 

 health was bad. In August and September I was at * * Early in October 



