CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. MANTELL. 199 



noon. We were very much gratified by their frank and 

 cordial deportment. Mr. Lyell was animated and interest- 

 ing, often eloquent, and full o geological zeal, which was 

 fully indulged in excursions around our noble trap region. 

 Mr. L. shouted from one of our hills, that it was " a glo- 

 rious country," (geologically,) and most picturesque and 

 beautiful. Mrs. L. was out with us on the first day with 

 one of my daughters; but our work was afterwards too 

 laborious for her, among trap mountain precipices, de- 

 files, and stone quarries, &c. Mr. L. found much to theo- 

 rize upon, and except, now and then, a few moments of 

 abstraction, when with his hand upon his forehead, he was 

 involved in deep thought, he was as lively and agreeable as 

 any one could be, and appeared greatly delighted with the 

 scenes around him, which he said possessed a strong inter- 

 est and a high degree of freshness. We had several good 

 geologists with us, at least, five besides Mr. Lyell. Mrs. 

 Lyell made herself most agreeable in our family. We were 

 charmed with her winning, affable manners ; we endeavored 

 to see that they were furnished with the comforts of an 

 English home in America, and they appeared to enjoy 

 being identified so early with an American family, where 

 Mrs. Lyell said she should not have known that they were 

 not in England ; and we went with them to the steamboat 

 on their departure for New York. She said that they had 

 seen and enjoyed enough in the twelve days they had spent 

 in America, to pay them for crossing the Atlantic. In short, 

 their visit to us was altogether delightful, without the slight- 

 est thing to create regret or momentary embarrassment. 

 We were just as free as if we had been always acquainted ; 

 and Mr. L. confided to me his plans and views with perfect 

 frankness. We wanted nothing, my good friend, but your 

 presence to have made our interviews as happy as possible, 

 and you and your reputation and interests were often on 

 our tongues. The circumstances you relate are not agree- 

 able, and I wonder at them the more, because the anniver- 



