MT. 42.] SEDGWICK. 93 



object, with regard to leave, allowances, &c. The 

 offer was tempting, but there was no hesitation in 

 the answer. It was impossible for Joseph Prestwich 

 to abandon the City firm which held the family for- 

 tunes. Besides, he was not a good subject to begin 

 a career in a climate like that of India : he was forty- 

 two years of age, and his health had suffered from over- 

 work. Added to these reasons, each of which was 

 imperative, there were others which drew and held 

 him to his native soil. He had thrown himself heart 

 and soul into the elaboration of his Tertiary papers ; 

 he was thinking out the intricate problems which, 

 until his Memoirs appeared, had never before been 

 clearly made out. On all counts, therefore, he de- 

 cided to remain and plod on as the hard - working 

 City man. 



A letter regarding his Tertiary papers from the 

 illustrious Professor Adam Sedgwick l will be read 

 with interest : 



A. Sedgwick to J. Prestwich. NORWICH, May n, 1854. 



MY DEAR SIR, During the single day I was in London I left 

 one or two of my papers in a parcel addressed to you at the 

 Geological Society. I hope you will accept them as a mark of 

 my respect and gratitude for your very valuable services in dis- 

 entangling the relations of our Tertiary series. It is nearly over 

 with me as a field geologist ; for my health has failed me so that 

 I am now incapable of the hard labour in which I once delighted ; 

 and my eyes have so greatly failed that I am unfitted for the 

 comparatively easy work of collecting specimens in the quarries. 

 Indeed I never was a patient collector, though once I had in- 

 tense pleasure in working among the difficult and puzzling sec- 

 tions of our older rocks : but that work is nearly over on my 



1 The Kev. Adam Sedgwick was a Canon of Norwich Cathedral and also 

 Wood ward ian Professor of Geology at Cambridge. Born March 1785 ; 

 died January 27, 1873. 



