124 PROFESSORSHIP OF GEOLOGY CHAP, iv 



all save one short hesitation, caused by my being so 

 intent on my first paragraph that I quite forgot the 

 second. We broke up about eleven, and in the long- 

 run Smyth, Reeks, Bristow, and I had some supper. 

 Got home at half-past three. 



' 22nd March. Geological Society night. Dined 

 at the Club. Sir H. gone, and Moon in the chair. 

 I sat next Prestwich and Austen, and opposite Forbes 

 and Lord Selkirk all pleasant men. The last seems 

 most agreeable and unaffected. 



1 Good night at the Society. Buckland made a 

 most witty speech. It was about crinoids ; and he 

 began by saying that the debate seemed to him to 

 have "more of a gastronomic than a palaeontological 

 character ; for all that had been said bore upon the 

 relation of the plates to the mouth and the mouth to the 

 plates." Forbes spoke well, and to the purpose ; so 

 did Charlesworth and Carpenter. I was glad of this, 

 for Emerson, the American, was there. 



' $th April. Jukes and I read papers to-night at 

 the Geological on N. Wales and S. Wales. Sir H. 

 was in great alarm beforehand. Jukes read first. 

 Sedgwick was present, and most agreeable and con- 

 ciliatory. He made a most complimentary speech 

 after. Lyell ditto. Buckland was all in favour, but 

 in attempting to quote Scripture made a great mull of 

 it, and broke down, greatly to the amusement of all, 

 especially the Bishop of Oxford. I lectured rather 

 much, they told me the natural effect of a three 

 months' first course of lectures.' 



Of the two communications from Survey officers 

 read at this meeting of the Geological Society, one 

 was by Ramsay and Aveline, and was entitled a 

 * Sketch of the Structure of Parts of North and 



