i853 PRELIMINARY INQUIRY 211 



remove a lengthening chain of correspondence. A 

 few extracts from his notes to Aveline, some of them 

 written when he was really on holiday visits in Scot- 

 land, may here be given. ' What has become of you ? 

 What are the prospects of the work ? [Completion of 

 part of the Welsh ground.] Is it done or nearly done, 

 or does it look as if it would be done ; and have you 

 been able to solve your difficulties ? Sir H. wanted 

 to disturb you. I wrote trying to stave him off. . . . 

 I have been away a day and night among the islands 

 of the Forth in a steamer belonging to the Commis- 

 sioners of Northern Lights, and landed on the Bell 

 Rock. It is Old Red Sandstone and twelve miles from 

 shore. I will send your sections, maps, etc., in a day 

 or two. It is not easy to find quiet here. When I 

 get to Hamilton I will send you a Cader sheet ; I have 

 none here. Yesterday I got some fine specimens of 

 foliated mica and chlorite schists by Loch Lomond 

 and Arrochar. The glacial phenomena beat anything 

 I ever saw. It is wonderful.' 



At this point of the narrative, when the operations 

 of the Geological Survey are to be described in Scot- 

 land, it may be of advantage to look for a moment at 

 the state of the progress of the work at that time in 

 England. The whole of Wales had been completed 

 and published, together with Cornwall, Devon, Somer- 

 set, Dorset, Wiltshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, 

 Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, and Derby- 

 shire. Portions of some other counties had also been 

 published, and the field-work was now being pushed 

 into Lancashire and Yorkshire, north of a line drawn 

 from Liverpool to Sheffield, and into the counties of 

 Nottingham, Leicester, Northampton, Oxford, Bucking- 

 ham, Berkshire, Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex, and Kent. 



