1 856 MURCHISON IN THE FIELD 243 



Then hame he cam, and left his mates, 

 And wrote a book wi' maps and plates, 

 And sections o' the Russian states 



Frae Baltic Sea to Ural. 

 The Emperor he scratched his poll, 

 ' 'Tis bravely done ! but by my soul ! ! 

 I wish we had some beds o' coal ! ! ! 



Oh ! Tooralooralooral ! ! ! ! 

 There's auld rocks ayont the sea, 

 There's British rocks ayont the sea 

 Hae lots o' coal, the worse for me, 



There's nane beside the Ural ! ' 



(Weeps). 



In the summer of 1856 Ramsay had an oppor- 

 tunity of seeing his chief in the field, for they spent 

 some weeks together in a series of geological pere- 

 grinations in the west of England and the borders of 

 Wales. He thus notes his impressions to Mrs. 

 Ramsay : * I am very glad to have been with Sir 

 Roderick, and to have seen him for many days in his 

 genuine field -phase, of which I had no idea before. 

 The impression he makes is most favourable. First, 

 he is a very early bird ; and secondly, he is always so 

 good - humoured, mirthful, and almost boyish, for 

 though awfully apt to deliver lectures and to talk far 

 too much geology, yet he will often tell many queer 

 anecdotes, and sometimes even talk nonsense. An- 

 other thing you will highly approve of he is always 

 anxious to get letters from his wife, and very frequent 

 in his letters to her. I am certain they are very fond 

 of each other.' 



After attending the Cheltenham meeting of the 

 British Association in August of this year, where 

 he was President of the Geological Section, Ramsay 

 took his wife and family to Scotland, and settled for 

 some months in a cottage at Dalkeith, in Midlothian, 

 where he could work at the Welsh Memoir and have 



