184 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILL1MAN. 



of disease, is wonderful. There was much in his 

 situation to harass and sadden his feelings. His 

 American friend, to whom he confided all his griev 

 ances and anxieties, was never weary of the effort to 

 soothe and sustain him. The letters of Professor 

 Silliman were for many years one of his chief sources 

 of happiness. The present chapter is devoted to 

 selections from this correspondence, preceded, how 

 ever, by Professor Silliman's own account of the 

 origin of the acquaintance. 



During my first visit to England and Scotland in 1805-6, 

 Dr. MantelPs star had not yet risen above the horizon. 

 Being ten or twelve years younger than myself, he was 

 then of course unknown to me, and was quite a youth. 

 More than twenty years after my return home, I began to 

 hear his name mentioned in connection with interesting 

 discoveries which he was reported to have made in Pale 

 ontology, in the southeast of England, where he resided, in 

 the ancient town of Lewes, in Sussex. A few years later 

 still, the fame of his published works reached me, and I 

 ventured to address to him a letter, in the autumn of 1830, 

 begging that he would send me his works on the geology 

 of the region in which he lived, and promising him a re 

 turn in the American " Journal of Science and Arts," and 

 in any other work which I had published. I of course 

 stated my professional connection with Yale College, also 

 my personal acquaintance with England, and I gave refer 

 ences to individuals to whom I was known in that country. 

 These precautions, as appeared by the result, were unneces 

 sary, for Dr. Mantell had already anticipated my request, 

 and had, unsolicited, done the very thing which I desired. 

 In those days there were no ocean steamers, and the averr 

 age of passages across the Atlantic, both ways, was thirty- 

 six days, according to the experience of more than thirty 



