n;^0 ]'K(KKEI)l\(iS OK TllK HOVAL SOCIETY OF QUEENSLAM). 



encaustic and mosaic tile-works. Here he realised my uncannj' 

 faculty for nosing out the boundaries of clay-heds, and from 

 that time, he a man of learning and originality, fostered my 

 peculiarity, initiating me in many a ramble into the mysteries 

 of vegetable physiology and insect lore, training me to use the 

 microscope, and to handle mathematical and optical instru- 

 ments familiarly. 



My first teacher in geology Avas Ralph Tate, who died 

 not long since Professor of Geology in the University (jf 

 Adelaide ; but mj'' real teacher was Sir A. C. Ramsay, for many 

 years aftenvards my chief on the Geological Survey of England. 

 Huxley built up m^^ biology, and. I think, never quite forgave 

 me for eschewing Natural History for my first love, Geology. 

 Prof. Partridge kept my human anatomy bright. Dr. Duncan 

 lured me with corals, and delighted me by allowing me to 

 help name some of Darwdn's corals from the '' Beagle" voyage. 

 Bates, an old family friend, had come back from the Amazons, 

 and to his d3dng day never realised that I had grown up and 

 could walk upright. Faraday used to visit my father. All 

 my days were spent with scientists, artists, poets, and (for my 

 sins) politicians. What a childhood it was ! 



But the crux of my life Avas my connection Avith the 

 Tylor brothers, Alfred and Edward. The North London 

 Railway had run a line through the contorted gravels of 

 Hackney Downs. Here to niN^ delight I found not only Mam- 

 moth bones and Urus but a rich deposit of freshwater shells. 

 I carefully drew the section, collected and named the shells. 

 But one ]DUzzled me. It was a stranger, and I dared to ho])e 

 it might be Cyremi fluminalis, not now living nearer than the 

 Nile (where to my delight I afterwards found it) but known 

 in a few of the older pleistocene beds of England and France. 

 I see, in the mind's eye, a timid lad of thirteen with a box of 

 shells, knocking quietly at a door in Paradise Row, Stoke 

 Newington, having screwed liis courage to call uninvited upon 

 the rich Quaker geologist who lived there. I was ushered into 

 a fascinating room, half library and half museum, and 

 tremblingly awaited the coming of the great man. He looked 

 at my shells and took me right into his warm heart. He was 

 my true father in science ; his house in town and country was 

 my second home, and afterw ards my only one ; and till 1 

 dropped a few gravel pebbles on his cofhn, his love and wisdom 

 Avere my pride and stay. As an engineer he drilled me into 



