LETTER FROM SIR R. MURCHISON. 413 



geologists, had entered the caverns, which were previously 

 filled with " Ladies and Gentlemen " of the neighbour- 

 hood, perched all around the lighted vaults, I com- 

 manded silence, and gave them a regular half-hour's 

 harangue on the structure of the Wren's-nest and the 

 surrounding tract. This address has been graphically 

 alluded to by Schonbein, the chemist (now so famous 

 for his gun-cotton), in a lively German work, descriptive 

 of his visit to England, and he specially adverts to my 

 military air and voice, the relics of the old peninsular 

 soldier. I have not the slightest jealousy towards my 

 dear and good friend Buckland, and if the den had 

 been tenanted by hyaenas I should have ceded my place 

 to him ; but being in the very heart of my Silurian, I 

 was necessarily the commandant. He, it is true, got 

 together some portion of the party, and after my 

 harangue he amused that detachment, whilst I led the 

 chief forces to the top of the Wren's-nest, and descanted 

 on the exterior face of the surrounding country. The 

 press got hold of his name, and forgot mine, so my 

 operations had no recording poet. I give you the hint 

 in case of a second edition, of which I doubt not. 



' And now to a more material point. I am at this 

 moment very sensitive on everything Silurian, as my 

 old ally Sedgwick, after waiting 12 YEARS (i. e. since I 

 first proposed the Silurian classification), has made a 

 great onslaught on old Caractacus from the recesses of 

 Cambria. In other words, he now wishes to substitute 

 Cambrian for Lower Silurian. This is IMPOSSIBLE, and 

 no geologist will assent to it, for the plainest reason, 

 that, as the fossils now known all over the world as 

 Lower Silurian are identical with those subsequently 

 found in Cambria, so all fairness and equity speak for 

 the conservation of the original name. I doubt not that 



