1870-1871 THE YORKSHIRE DALES 305 



which is now rather better than it was before it got 

 worse. 



Wife and babbies all well, and rejoicing more over 

 the desperate willain who has returned than over 

 ninety-and-nine just men who stay in the field and do 

 their work. I'm off again on Monday for Lancashire, 

 about Preston, etc. etc., and shall be thereabouts for 

 two or three weeks ; after that to Grantham and the 

 Oolites. I won't be much at home before the end of 

 December. Sir R. looks well. 



Oh the dales, the dales, the Yorkshire dales ! 

 Lovely, luvely, loovely ! Cock-fighting be hanged ! 

 The terrassic system ! The Carb. Limestone is a 

 myth proper, and the Yoredale Rocks ditto. They pass 

 into limestones in the most unprincipled manner, and 

 now the limestone runs up to the Millstone Grit, and 

 now, to use a strong expression, it doesn't. Lithology 

 is the only science, and as for definite horizons, they 

 no more exist than nadir or zenith, the equator or 

 Fergus the First. Ever sincerely, A. C. RAMSAY. 



JERMYN STREET, i6tk February 1871. 



MY DEAR MISTER G. I have gotten yourn. I 

 believe I have Rtitimeyer's book, and that I looked it 

 over, but I am a poor ignorant son of a sea-cook, and 

 cannot read German. But I get bits translated for 

 me by Ella or the Missus. As Rtitimeyer does not 

 agree with me, of course he is wrong ! Desor's paper 

 (French) I have read, on the origin of Jura valleys, 

 lakes, etc. etc., and thought it ' Walker.' I do not 

 think I have seen any German treatise of his on the 

 subject. 



I am glad you are writing that paper for 

 Nature; it will come in rather pattish. Prestwich 



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