i6o SURVEY OF THE SNOWDON REGION CHAP, v 



brilliant audience, with many ladies. The place was 

 full, and they listened with great attention, occasionally 

 quietly applauding, which gave me encouragement. I 

 felt I was doing it easily. The praise I got from 

 Herschel, Faraday, De la Beche, and others was 

 almost too much to be good for me.' Faraday ran 

 up to him at the close, shook him by both hands, and 

 asked, ' Where did you learn to lecture ? ' 



The subject of this discourse was ' The Geological 

 Phenomena that have produced or modified the 

 Scenery of North Wales.' The most interesting 

 feature in it, considered with reference to the develop- 

 ment of Ramsay's geological opinions, was undoubtedly 

 the prominence now assigned by him to glacial action 

 in connection with the landscapes of this country. 

 This was the first occasion, so far as we know, when 

 he made public profession of his belief in the former 

 existence of glaciers in Wales, and gave at the same 

 time new and original proofs of their presence, par- 

 ticularly instancing cases where mountain-lakes were 

 still held back by ridges of terminal moraine, and 

 where large blocks of rock were perched on ice-worn 

 crags, where they must have been quietly deposited 

 by the ice. 



The annual festival of the Geological Survey 

 took place on the i6th January 1850, and is thus 

 recorded : ' Anniversary Survey dinner day. Sir 

 Henry in the chair, Reeks vice. It passed off right 

 jollily ; lots of original songs from Forbes, Jukes, 

 Baily, Smyth, Oldham, Hunt, Salter, and myself. I 

 sang two.' One of his ditties was entitled the 

 * Song of the Geologues of the Woods,' and the 

 concluding verse may be taken as a sample of its 

 style : 



