124 PROFESSORSHIP OF GEOLOGY CHAP, iv 



all save one short hesitation, caused by my being so 

 intent on my first paragraph that I quite forgot the 

 second. We broke up about eleven, and in the long- 

 run Smyth, Reeks, Bristow, and I had some supper. 

 Got home at half-past three. 



* 22nd March. Geological Society night. Dined 

 at the Club. Sir H. gone, and Moon in the chair. 

 I sat next Prestwich and Austen, and opposite Forbes 

 and Lord Selkirk all pleasant men. The last seems 

 most agreeable and unaffected. 



Good night at the Society. Buckland made a 

 most witty speech. It was about crinoids ; and he 

 began by saying that the debate seemed to him to 

 have &quot; more of a gastronomic than a palaeontological 

 character ; for all that had been said bore upon the 

 relation of the plates to the mouth and the mouth to the 

 plates.&quot; Forbes spoke well, and to the purpose ; so 

 did Charlesworth and Carpenter. I was glad of this, 

 for Emerson, the American, was there. 



$tk April. Jukes and I read papers to-night at 

 the Geological on N. Wales and S. Wales. Sir H. 

 was in great alarm beforehand. Jukes read first. 

 Sedgwick was present, and most agreeable and con 

 ciliatory. He made a most complimentary speech 

 after. Lyell ditto. Buckland was all in favour, but 

 in attempting to quote Scripture made a great mull of 

 it, and broke down, greatly to the amusement of all, 

 especially the Bishop of Oxford. I lectured rather 

 much, they told me the natural effect of a three 

 months first course of lectures. 



Of the two communications from Survey officers 

 read at this meeting of the Geological Society, one 

 was by Ramsay and Aveline, and was entitled a 

 * Sketch of the Structure of Parts of North and 



