102 *' * PROFESSORSHIP OF GEOLOGY CHAP, iv 



while. Such a continuous course of lectures would, 

 at any rate, be excellent exercise. I fancy the dis- 

 posers of the chair and the advisers of the Senate on 

 such an occasion would be Greenough, Warburton, 

 Button, and perhaps Fitton, so that you might be 

 sure of just judges at least.' 



As a mere matter of form he was asked to send in 

 an application for the appointment, together with any 

 testimonials he might wish to submit. Among his 

 papers he has preserved the recommendation he 

 received from Lyell, with the memorandum written 

 on it, ' Not used, appointment being completed before 

 it came.' The letter is as follows : 



KlNNORDY, KlRRIEMUIR, N.B., 



jthjuly 1847. 



DEAR SIR My residence at a distance from London will explain 

 the delay in my answer. I am glad to learn that you are a candidate 

 for the Chair of Geology now vacant in University College, especially 

 as I hear there are from sixty to seventy students at King's College. 

 Several weeks ago one of the U. Coll. Council asked me my 

 opinion in regard to your qualifications for such an office, and I 

 mentioned your publications, so far as I knew them, from that 

 on The Geology of Arran (the excellence of which I could test by 

 my own knowledge of that island) to your last elaborate paper on 

 ' Denudation ' in the Memoirs of the Survey of Great Britain. 



I also alluded to your experience in field-work and the applica- 

 tion of geology to the arts. I was naturally questioned on your 

 powers as a lecturer, of which I was able to speak as having heard 

 you at the Royal Institution. I said you were able to express your- 

 self freely on subjects with which you were familiar without reference 

 to MS., and that I thought with practice you would make a good 

 oral instructor. 



You may make any use you please of this letter, and I shall be 

 happy to answer any further queries if required. Believe me, ever 

 truly yours, CHA. LYELL. 



A. C. Ramsay, Esq. 



De la Beche warmly supported the claims of his 

 colleague, and readily arranged that the duties of the 

 professorship and those of Local Director of the 



