224 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY IN SCOTLAND CHAP, vn 



While stationed at Dunbar a calamity befell him 

 which all through the rest of his life he never ceased 

 to deplore. His cherished friend, Edward Forbes, 

 who only a few short months before had succeeded to 

 the Professorship of Natural History at Edinburgh, 

 and who had presided so genially and actively over 

 the Geological Section at the recent meeting of the 

 British Association at Liverpool, was cut off on the 

 1 8th November after only a few days' illness. 

 Ramsay thus announces the sad news to his wife : ' I 

 have just received a brief note from James Forbes 

 telling me that Edward died on Saturday at a quarter 

 to five. I can scarce realise it. My grief breaks out 

 in short fits, and then I struggle to suppress its signs. 

 O Louisa! what a terrible blow, and how seemingly 

 inscrutable. In the flower of life, with a dear wife and 

 children, and in the new opening of another phase of 

 a great and useful career ! The more I think of him, 

 the more I feel that, next to you, he has exercised 

 more influence on me than any other person I ever 

 knew. He was so earnest and so good. I wish I 

 may be able in some small degree to imitate his worth. 

 We had much in common, but, as a man of science, 

 his station was much greater than mine can ever be. 

 Forbes never lost a friend. His goodness as well as 

 his greatness make him so universally lamented.' 



On returning to London for the winter of 1854-55, 

 the various members of the Geological Survey were 

 concerned to find how greatly their esteemed chief 

 had altered for the worse since they had last seen 

 him. Ramsay notes : ' Sir Henry is wofully changed. 

 He is so feeble now that he has to be carried in in his 

 chair, and wheeled to his room. He looks shrunk, 

 and his face is doubly lined ; neither is its expression 



