1860 PROFESSOR Z IRK ELS REMINISCENCES 263 



When we got back Ramsay would usually have me to sup with him 

 and his wife in the hotel. I conceived at that time an enthusiastic 

 admiration for Ramsay, both for his amiable, simple, and straight- 

 forward nature, and for his acuteness and his range of acquirements in 

 geological matters. I remember in a gully in the trachyte-tuff he 

 suddenly made a couple of steps forward, exclaiming, ' There is a 

 dyke ! ' and there, sure enough, was a dyke of solid trachyte, which 

 nobody had ever noticed before in this well-frequented path. 



I think Ramsay spent a happy time that season in Bonn. 

 Dechen once gave an evening party in his honour. His intercourse 

 with old Noggerath would have been greater, had the latter not been 

 utterly ignorant of English. I got on extremely well with Mrs. 

 Ramsay. 



In the summer of 1860 I made a journey to Iceland, and as, 

 on my return, I spent a short time in England, I then saw Ramsay 

 again. During the first days of my stay in London he was in the 

 country, but I met him on the last day in the Museum, Jermyn 

 Street, in company with Lyell. I told him a good deal about my 

 tour in Iceland, and he presented me with several books. 



In 1868 I once more saw Ramsay, both before and after my 

 visit to Scotland. He lived at that time in Upper Phillimore Place, 

 in Kensington, where I spent an evening, and met Howell and Hull. 

 As I left London he gave me a letter to you, and this letter I 

 presented to you in Largs on Monday, 8th June 1868 (according to 

 my diary). That was the day when I had the good fortune to make 

 the personal acquaintance of my friend Geikie. 



The last time I saw Ramsay was at the meeting of the British 

 Association at Sheffield in 1879, when I was staying with Sorby. 



From Bonn Ramsay and his family moved up the 

 Rhine, and then ascended the Moselle to Alf and 

 Bertrich. There he established himself for a while, 

 and spent his time fishing in the river, exploring the 

 Eifel volcanoes, and gazing with ever - increasing 

 interest upon the great tableland and the valleys cut 

 out of it by the Moselle and its tributaries. From 

 that quiet life he journeyed to Treves, then back to 

 Heidelberg, and into the Black Forest. He attended 

 the tercentenary celebration of Basle University, and 

 even got as far as Munich. But in October he was 

 once more back in England. 



