XIV 



once accepted, or that the advocates of the old ideas were backward 

 in their defence of them. For years controversy was long and 

 occasionally loud ; but so completely has it now died out, that the 

 promoters of what were then new views occasionally find themselves 

 at the present time in antagonism with the promoters of views newer 

 still, for which they are not quite satisfied that there is as yet sufficient 

 foundation. 



At various intervals, from 1859 onwards, Mr. Prestwich wrote 

 several papers relating to post-Pliocene deposits, including one of 

 great importance, " On the Loess of the Valleys of the South of 

 England and of the Somme and of the Seine," communicated to the 

 Royal Society in 1862. He had previously furnished to the Society 

 an account of the discoveries of flint implements at Abbeville, 

 Amiens, and Hoxne. 



In 1866 and 1867 Mr. Prestwich rendered valuable aid to the 

 country by acting on the Royal Coal Commission, and on that on the 

 Metropolitan Water Supply. In connection with the former he 

 furnished an exhaustive, and at the same time suggestive, Report 

 (published in 1871) "On the Probability of finding Coal under the 

 Newer Formations of the South of England " some of the anticipa- 

 tions in which he lived to see at all events partially realised. 



With regard to the latter subject, his book, ' The Water-bearing 

 Strata of the Country around London,' gave evidence of his capacity 

 to speak. 



During all these years Mr. Prestwich had been actively engaged 

 in business, and it is amazing to note the amount of detailed and 

 accurate geological work that he was able to accomplish. But about 

 1872 he managed to emancipate himself in a great measure from the 

 trammels of trade, and in 1874 he was appointed to succeed the late 

 Professor Phillips in the Chair of Geology at Oxford. He was there 

 able to devote nearly the whole of his time to the prosecution of his 

 favourite study, and to enlisting recruits for the science. 



It is impossible in a notice of this kind to cite even the titles of his 

 numerous papers, but especial mention may be made of his memoirs 

 " On the Temperature of the Sea at various Depths below the 

 Surface," and " On the Origin of the Parallel Roads of Lochaber " 

 (printed in the 'Philosophical Transactions'), as well as those on 

 " Underground Temperature " and on the evidences of the " Sub- 

 mergence of Western Europe." 



To the Institution of Civil Engineers he communicated essays on 

 the " Geological Conditions affecting the Construction of a Tunnel 

 between England and France," and on the " Origin of the Chesil 

 Beach," for which a Telford Medal was awarded him. 



His papers read before the Geological Society were numerous. 

 Among his later ones, those on " Volcanic Action," on the " Mundesley 



