28o PRESIDENT OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY CHAP, ix 



than when you saw me last, and it may, perhaps, not 

 be too much for me.' 



The field-work of the Survey was now in full march 

 through the remaining tracts of the southern counties of 

 England, and Ramsay took an active interest in it, and 

 in the fascinating problems of physical geography 

 which it elucidated. On the 7th November he wrote 

 to me : ' The deevil a holiday have I had since I saw 

 you. I have been I don't know where, but at Welling- 

 borough of late, and Sittingbourne and Tunbridge. 

 On Monday I go with Hughes and Whitaker to look 

 at and arrange about Tertiary mapping between Folke- 

 stone and Dover, and then to Lindfield to see the last 

 of the Weald, that is to say, of the solid rocks there. 

 ... By the way, I think I have given up the marine 

 denudation of the Weald. Atmosphere, rain, and 

 rivers must ha' done it. I'm coming to that, I fear 

 and hope, and hoping, fearing, trembling, regretfully 

 triumphant, and tearfully joyous with the alloy of 

 despair at my heart, and the balm of a truthful Gilead 

 spread upon the struggling soul, bursting the bonds of 

 antique prejudice, I yet expect to moor the tempest- 

 tossed bark of Theory in the calm moral downs of 

 Assurance. 1 



The second presidential address to the Geological 

 Society was read on the igth February 1864. At the 

 Anniversary this year the Wollaston medal was be- 

 stowed on Sir Roderick Murchison for his great services 

 to the science of geology, and it fell to Ramsay's lot 

 as President to present it. Briefly and gracefully he 

 summed up the work of his chief, and added a little 

 personal touch that gave a special charm to the 

 incident. * Perhaps on this occasion,' he said, f I may 

 be pardoned for recalling the memory of a time I well 



