JET. 21.] BUSINESS JOURNEYS. 41 



thrown upon himself, as, although always courteous 

 to his fellow-travellers, there were none who sympa- 

 thised with his tastes and with that ardent desire for 

 knowledge none with whom he could hold scientific 

 converse. After dinner at a small table his note-books 

 were opened, and the evening was spent in registering 

 the work of the day, and in entering any fresh geologi- 

 cal facts, and in drawing sections. His nature was 

 eminently genial, and as years sped on this lack of 

 companionship pressed hard upon him. He had never 

 been talkative, and this isolated mode of life made him 

 more silent and more self-contained, whilst at the same 

 time he pined for fellowship. He rarely complained, 

 yet again and again during long absences he wrote 

 to some member of the family, reiterating that he 

 kept counting the days until he should again join 

 " the dear home circle," or be back in his " dear home." 



His geology had become all-absorbing, and had grown 

 to be the passion of his life ; yet if on those long country 

 tours there had been one sympathetic soul to whom in 

 the evenings spent in the " commercial room " he could 

 have communicated new points made out, new lights 

 thrown on some hitherto obscure relation of the geo- 

 logical strata, his pleasure would have been intensified 

 tenfold. He was realising the truth so graphically 

 expressed by the veteran geologist, the Hev. Adam 

 Sedgwick, for whom he entertained the warmest ad- 

 miration and regard, that "pleasures would be with- 

 ered things if we could not impart them, and our joys 

 would be but lamplight in a dungeon if there were no 

 friend to rejoice with us." 



In a charming; letter written in French to " mon 



C5 



cher ami," one of his old Paris schoolfellows at M. 

 Colin's, Joseph Prestwich repeats that never had he 



