m 



Considering that we had just begun to go over the ground that 

 Harkness had been hammering at for many years past, it would 

 have been nothing to wonder at if Harkness had betrayed more or 

 less symptoms of annoyance. For if you want to see what a man 

 is made of, try him in like manner, and watch the result. Ten to 

 one, if you are controverting a statement he has allowed to get 

 into print, the inner side of that man's nature will be brought to 

 view at once, and the chances are that he will fall in your estima- 

 tion. It is only occasionally that one meets with a man whose 

 qualities of heart are as genuine as those of his mind, and who can 

 bear being put to a test of this kind without sinking in the esteem 

 of anyone. That was one of Harkness's most marked peculiarities : 

 it came out very strongly on the occasion I refer to. I may add 

 that on the many occasions after that time when I have myself 

 expressed opinions different from what he had been led to adopt 

 from a previous and independent study of the same facts, I ever 

 found him ready to discuss the subject considerately and with 

 perfect good temper where other men would have found much 

 difficulty in listening at all. It was this genial and tolerant dispo- 

 sition — whereof his features themselves were a sufificient index — 

 that combined with his scientific attainments to make him so 

 popular in every assembly of scientific men wherever he might 

 chance to be. 



At the time I first met Harkness he was engaged, amongst 

 other enquiries, in collecting evidence regarding the distribution 

 of Boulders of Shap Granite ; a subject that has formed a standing 

 puzzle to geologists for now well on to fifty years, and, so many 

 think, is as far off being explained, at any rate, to their satisfaction, 

 as ever. The results of this enquiry he embodied in a paper that 

 was printed in 1870 : I shall refer to this again. 



But another enquiry, and one of very considerable practical 

 importance, was just beginning to occupy the attention of a large 

 section of the scientific world about this time. I refer to the 

 Government Coal-Commission. Everybody whose memory extends 

 back fifteen or twenty years must remember the general tone of 

 alarm running through nearly every public communication that 



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