2i8 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY IN SCOTLAND CHAP, vii 



the first time in his life with some vivid examples of 

 Irish scenery and Irish manners and habits. Writing to 

 his wife from near Bantry on the 27th August he says : 

 ' The weather still continues splendid. We had a long 

 walking and car-ing day yesterday through a beautiful 

 country, wild and rocky. They call it here cultivated 

 in places ; but to my eye a great part of it is a sad 

 spectacle. You see as many houses without as with 

 roofs, and few gates swing on their hinges. But the 

 people are fine-looking, those of them that get plenty 

 to eat, tall and stout, with long arms and upright gait. 

 The women are often pretty, and they can do what few 

 English women can, they walk erect and graceful, with 

 long steps. They do not hobble or amble or mince ; 

 they walk. 



' I am just about starting for Glengariff, and to- 

 morrow will be at Killarney. I bathe every morning, 

 and am quite recovering all my swimming powers. I 

 swim right away out to sea on my face, and return on 

 my back by way of a change.' 



After coming back from Ireland he wrote to 

 Aveline on the ist September : ' I purpose starting for 

 Scotland next week, and think of beginning about 

 Dunbar, but am not as yet certain. I shall return 

 to the meeting of the British Association at Liver- 

 pool, and some time after that (not very long) I 

 certainly expect to want you in Scotland, both that 

 we may make a good beginning, and also that when I 

 am obliged to leave (going back and forward) I may 

 have a representative at work.' 



The British Association met this year at Liverpool, 

 and Edward Forbes, who had recently left the staff of 

 the Geological Survey to succeed his old master, 

 Jameson, in the Natural History Chair in the 



