68 STUDIES OF THE DRIFT. [l849. 



honest one that the Society never did themselves more justice 

 than in this award ; and thirdly, I must request you to believe 

 that I am sincerely rejoiced at your well-deserved success. Don't 

 be proud because I consider you enjoyed great advantages in 

 geologising with me. You surely recollect the varied and pro- 

 found discoveries, the great principles of action and thought for 

 the discovery of truth, which I so eloquently poured into your 

 ears, and to all of which I mean to allude whenever your name 

 is mentioned. I don't mean to let pass so good an opportunity 

 for a puff. Believe me in all sincerity and seriousness most joy- 

 ful at your honours so nobly acquired, and ever, dear Joseph, 

 your sincere friend, G. OWEN EEES. 



The next two letters are in reply to inquiries from 

 Sir Charles Lyell : 



J. Prestwich to Sir Charles Lyell. LONDON, 1st August 1849. 



MY DEAK SIR, I am hardly able to venture an opinion upon the 

 subject of your inquiry. For some years past I have kept myself 

 so exclusively within the limits of the Tertiaries, that I fear I 

 am not yet in possession of facts sufficient to enable me to offer 

 you an opinion of much value. I have, however, this summer 

 made several excursions into the Wealden, and only yesterday 

 returned from a short visit to Mr Austen, with whom I ex- 

 amined part of the country he described. In my observations 

 on the Drift period I have taken Essex as my base, for I have 

 there found the characters of the different deposits by far the 

 best defined. 



From this as a centre I have worked over the district to the 

 north as far as the coast of Norfolk, to the west to Devizes, 

 eastward to the Channel, and am now proceeding over the 

 ground southward, for I feel that the phenomena, although pre- 

 senting great variety and infinite modifications, must be viewed 

 in connection over larger areas. 



I quite agree with you that in the Eocene period, prior to the 

 formation of the London Clay, shallow seas prevailed over a large 

 portion of our Tertiary area ; for we have distinct and positive 

 evidence of debouchure of rivers, of the formation of shingle banks, 



