1853 RE-EXAMINATION OF PARTS OF WALES 205 



a large area of square miles as surveyed in a year, so 

 was he correspondingly chagrined that this prolonged 

 detention of some of the most active members of the 

 staff in Wales should seriously reduce the mileage 

 that could be reported. Much of the summer of 1853 

 was still required for completing details in some of 

 the Welsh ground, and both Ramsay and Aveline 

 worked hard, sometimes together, but more generally 

 apart. Frequent letters passed between them when 

 they were separate, for Ramsay had set his heart on 

 getting North Wales satisfactorily completed. He had 

 himself been engaged in the work, and felt his credit 

 at stake till he saw the survey finished as fully and 

 accurately as he could achieve. His views were well 

 expressed in a letter to De la Beche, not only regard 

 ing North Wales, for which he was himself responsible, 

 but with reference to South Wales, and to all the south 

 western part of England which had been completed 

 and published before he joined the staff, in a more rapid, 

 less detailed style than had subsequently been gradu 

 ally introduced, mainly by his own exertions. Writing 

 in the autumn of 1853, when Sir Henry s patience was 

 all but gone, he says (2ist November): I cannot 

 but think that when, by new lights shining out, omis 

 sions or errors are discovered, it is better to mend 

 them, as soon as we know the way, than to leave them 

 open to amateur carpers. It was anything but pleasant 

 the other day to hear of errors and omissions in Mal- 

 vernia, some of which by accidental visits I knew to be 

 true. You have often spoken of going down to Devon 

 and Cornwall with me to mend the lines there, and I 

 heartily wish the Silurian lines in South Wales and 

 May Hill were mended and brought into harmony 

 with those in the north, by the now easy addition of 



