298 NATIONAL WATER-SUPPLY. [l879. 



exception of the single copy furnished to each member of the 

 Commission, including, I presume, yourself. 



As I am reminded by the action taken by the Society of Arts 

 at the instigation of H.K.H. the Prince of Wales last year, and 

 again about to be resumed this year, of the renewed interest in 

 the question of a national water-supply, I should feel it a very 

 great favour if you could obtain the sanction, on the part of the 

 Treasury or the Stationery Office, to the publication and issue of 

 this map and plate of sections. They were prepared with con- 

 siderable care, and would, I have reason to hope, be of some 

 public service in the inquiry now about to be instituted respect- 

 ing the supply of towns and villages generally, but more especi- 

 ally having reference to those in the Thames valley. Much of 

 the information they contain is not otherwise accessible, and it 

 seems a pity that, if an available stock of uncoloured copies 

 exists in the Stationery Office, it should not be utilised. I 

 should trust that the extra expense of colouring would be more 

 than covered by the sale to the public. 



I have to apologise for troubling you upon a matter which would 

 have been of the past, but for the renewal of the inquiry above 

 alluded to, and the importance of which was so readily admitted 

 by Lord Beaconsfield when the subject was lately brought before 

 him. I beg to enclose a few of the papers issued by the Society 

 to show their line of inquiry; and I am, my Lord Duke, with 

 much respect, yours faithfully, 



JOSEPH PptESTWicH, 



Professor of Geology in the University of Oxford. 



Although not published until 1880, his memoir "On 

 the Origin of the Parallel Roads of Lochaber and their 

 Bearing on other Phenomena of the Glacial Period " 

 was read before the Royal Society in 1879. The next 

 three letters refer to this paper. 



J. Prestwich to J. Evans. OXFORD, 2nd May 1879. 



MY DEAR EVANS, I omitted to explain a rather important 

 point in your objections last night. You referred to the prob- 

 ability of winter-ice and snow throwing down debris into the 



