i853 PRELIMINARY INQUIRY 211 



remove a lengthening chain of correspondence. A 

 few extracts from his notes to Aveline, some of them 

 written when he was really on holiday visits in Scot 

 land, may here be given. What has become of you ? 

 What are the prospects of the work ? [Completion of 

 part of the Welsh ground.] Is it done or nearly done, 

 or does it look as if it would be done ; and have you 

 been able to solve your difficulties ? Sir H. wanted 

 to disturb you. I wrote trying to stave him off. . . . 

 I have been away a day and night among the islands 

 of the Forth in a steamer belonging to the Commis 

 sioners of Northern Lights, and landed on the Bell 

 Rock. It is Old Red Sandstone and twelve miles from 

 shore. I will send your sections, maps, etc., in a day 

 or two. It is not easy to find quiet here. When I 

 get to Hamilton I will send you a Cader sheet ; I have 

 none here. Yesterday I got some fine specimens of 

 foliated mica and chlorite schists by Loch Lomond 

 and Arrochar. The glacial phenomena beat anything 

 I ever saw. It is wonderful. 



At this point of the narrative, when the operations 

 of the Geological Survey are to be described in Scot 

 land, it may be of advantage to look for a moment at 

 the state of the progress of the work at that time in 

 England. The whole of Wales had been completed 

 and published, together with Cornwall, Devon, Somer 

 set, Dorset, Wiltshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, 

 Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, and Derby 

 shire. Portions of some other counties had also been 

 published, and the field-work was now being pushed 

 into Lancashire and Yorkshire, north of a line drawn 

 from Liverpool to Sheffield, and into the counties of 

 Nottingham, Leicester, Northampton, Oxford, Bucking 

 ham, Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex, and Kent. 



