32 COALBROOK DALE. [l832. 



the adjacent Silurian district, kindly gave me the benefit of 

 his advice respecting the latter, and led me to make a con- 

 siderable collection of Wenlock fossils. My kind friends the 

 Pritchards of Broseley also placed a room at my disposal, which 

 I soon filled. 



Lindley 1 was then bringing out his ' Fossil Flora of Great 

 Britain/ and I was able to furnish him with several new species, 

 and to profit by his suggestions. I had now made the acquaint- 

 ance of my lifelong friend, [Professor] John Morris, 2 who under- 

 took to describe and figure the plants for my Memoir, while the 

 shells were taken in hand by Mr Sowerby. It was some time, 

 however, before the paper appeared in the Transactions. My 

 works of reference were Artis's ' Phytology,' and Lindley and 

 Button's 'Fossil Flora,' then in course of publication. 



Thus the results of his work among the Shropshire 

 coal-pits under and above ground, and on the adjacent 

 country, were embodied in a memoir read before the 

 Geological Society. The first part, " On Some of the 

 Faults which affect the Coal-field of Coalbrookdale," 

 was read in February 1834; while the second and 

 principal part, on " The Geology of Coalbrookdale," was 

 read on two successive meetings of the Society, in 

 April 1836. Although not published in the 'Transac- 

 tions of the Geological Society' until 1838, the memoir 

 was in great part written when the author had just 

 completed his twentieth year. His friend Sir John 

 Evans, with whom he was on terms of brotherly 

 affection until the end of life, with whom indeed he 

 shared every joy and sorrow, remarks of this paper in 

 an obituary notice to the Royal Society, "It at once 

 established his reputation as a geologist, and it has 

 ever since been numbered among our British classics." 



1 Dr John Lindley, Professor of Botany in University College, London ; 

 born 1799, died 1865. 



2 John Morris, F.G.S., Professor of Geology in University College, Lon- 

 don ; born 1810, died 1886. 



