Dr. Wollaston. 129 



not hitherto attained. By the invention of the 

 goniometer which bears his name, he was enabled to 

 measure the angle formed by the faces of a crystal 

 by means of the reflected images of bright objects 

 seen in them. We bought a goniometer, and Dr. 

 Wollaston, who often dined with us, taught Somer- 

 ville and me how to use it, by measuring the angles 

 of many of our crystals during the evening. I 

 learnt a great deal on a variety of subjects besides 

 crystallography from Dr. Wollaston, who, at his 

 death, left me a collection of models of the forms of 

 all the natural crystals then known. 



Though still occasionally occupied with the 

 mineral productions of the earth, I became far 

 more interested in the formation of the earth itself. 

 Geologists had excited public attention, and had 

 shocked the clergy and the more scrupulous of the 

 laity by proving beyond a doubt that the forma- 

 tion of the globe extended through enormous 

 periods of time. The contest was even more keer 

 then than it is at the present time about the various 

 races of pre-historic men. It lasted very long, too ; 

 for after I had published my work on Physical 

 Geography, I was preached against by name in York 

 Cathedral. Our friend, Dr. Buckland, committed 

 himself by taking the clerical view in his " Bridge- 

 water Treatise " but facts are such stubborn things, 



