40 GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [l833. 



talking on a subject with great simplicity and humility." 

 Perhaps the most prominent feature in his character 

 throughout life was his truthfulness and love of truth. 

 He had also a strong sense of justice. He abhorred 

 " the falsity of exaggeration," and although no student 

 was ever more fired by enthusiasm for his subject, even 

 when a youth his words expressed the exact sense, 

 justly and carefully weighed. This habit of severe 

 accuracy has assisted in no small measure to give to 

 his writings the high place which has been assigned 

 to them. 



It was in 1833, the year of his coming of age, 

 that Joseph Prestwich's wish was fulfilled, and he 

 was elected, while Greenough was President, a Fellow 

 of the Geological Society of London, a fellowship that 

 was to last for sixty-three years. 



At this date also he attained a more responsible 

 business position, and began to travel for his father's 

 firm, as we find letters addressed to him at Falmouth, 

 Worcester, and other towns, &c. These journeys to 

 all parts of the country, and often abroad, were full 

 of interest, and were prosecuted during a large portion 

 of his life, contributing in a great measure to his wide 

 and rapid acquisition of geological knowledge. From 

 his accustomed seat on the top of the coach he was 

 able, like William Smith in earlier days, to scan the 

 landscape on every side, and his trained quick eye, 

 like that of the " father of English geology," enabled 

 him at a glance to grasp the physical features of a 

 new district. He thoroughly enjoyed this healthy 

 out-door life, and the traversing of ground so often 

 new. 



Yet there is another aspect to these journeys, and 

 a very pathetic one. They were very solitary ; he was 



