1872 PROMOTION COMES TOO LATE 317 



for other avocations. Amid the multitude of letters he 

 was glad to keep them as brief as might be. He could 

 comparatively seldom indulge in the pleasant gossiping 

 epistles which hitherto he had been wont to send to his 

 friends and colleagues, but restricted himself more and 

 more to the absolutely essential business. Neverthe- 

 less for a few years he contrived to find opportunity for 

 putting on paper some of the observations he had 

 made on the origin of the features of landscapes, and 

 for communicating papers on this subject to the 

 Geological Society. 



Except that he was more involved in official 

 routine, and had less time for inspection of field- 

 work and for original research of his own, his life as 

 Director-General passed much in the same way as 

 that of Director had done. One year slipped away 

 like another, only marked by longer or shorter spells of 

 London life. But he had one great resource in a house 

 at Beaumaris left to Mrs. Ramsay by an old friend. 

 To this retreat he betook himself more and more with 

 his wife and family. There, away from the thousand 

 distractions of town, he attended to his correspondence 

 and worked at the geological or literary undertakings 

 which duty or choice imposed on him. The mountains 

 of Caernarvonshire rose in front of his windows to 

 remind him, as he felt himself no longer young, that 

 he had been a good climber in his day, and that on 

 their flanks and among their Cwms and crags he had 

 done some of the best geological labour of his life. 



Ramsay had now gained the position which for so 

 many years he had wished to reach. But it must be 

 confessed that the reward came to him too late to 

 enable him to profit by it as he would have done had 

 it been conferred ten or fifteen years sooner. He had 



