u6 PROFESSORSHIP OF GEOLOGY CHAP, iv 



be delivered, before he returned to London. For the 

 main part of the course he knew he would be com- 

 pelled, in a kind of hand-to-mouth way, to work up 

 on one day the lecture that he was to deliver the next. 



Not only were the lecture notes to be prepared, 

 but the diagrams to illustrate them all required to be 

 designed and drawn, for there were no appliances of 

 this kind at University College. Ramsay always 

 showed much skill, and even what might be called 

 artistic feeling, in the drawing of geological sections. 

 He now made drafts of what he would need for his 

 course, and sent them up to his colleague, W. H. 

 Baily, at Craig's Court, to be enlarged into proper 

 lecture diagrams. The occasional wet days that 

 interrupted mapping allowed more steady progress 

 to be made with these preparations for the professor- 

 ship, and once in the full swing of work he would 

 continue until long after midnight, when sleep, which 

 overtook him when uncalled for, would not come 

 when desired, even although he ' read Coimt Gram- 

 mont for an hour to get rid of the geology on the 

 brain.' 



By the 2Oth December Ramsay was once more 

 back in London. Survey duty kept him busy all day 

 at the Museum, and his lectures still occupied him all 

 evening, and sometimes far into the night. A few of 

 his jottings regarding the preparation of these lectures 

 in town may be given here. ' Made a complete ab- 

 stract of Steno's Prodromus before going to bed.' 

 ' Stuck at Hutton's Theory of the Earth and Playfair's 

 Illustrations all day (Sunday), and before night read 

 all, and made a complete abstract of the latter.' 

 ' Wrote a bit of lecture, read The Fortunes of Nigel, 

 and went to bed at one.' 'Wrote a good bit of 



