212 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



me many particulars of your interviews and conversations, 

 of the dinner at Mr. Lyell's, the meeting of the Geological 

 Society, &c. He told me that I should be much pleased 

 with you should I know you, and that you know I have a 

 long time been, without having seen you. Professor K. has 

 quite come out, a shy man he was and very retiring, but 

 he is now very communicative, and very entertaining and 

 instructive. But I am running on without answering you. 

 I congratulate you upon the completion of your work on 

 animalcules ; your letter was only in time, and just in time, 

 to have it announced in the Journal, with the new editions 

 of the other works, and a mere mention of Murchison. 

 .... I shall wait with impatience for your account of the 

 recently discovered bones of the Isle of Wight Iguanodon. 

 They are indeed colossal ; but I thought it would not be 

 your wish to have the facts named in the " American Jour- 

 nal," until you had matured the subject and communicated 

 your paper ; and I have been silent also, regarding the dis- 

 covery of Faraday on light and electricity, except that we 

 have cited, from the " Athenaeum," a notice of the experi- 

 ment you saw, but not so full. 



TO DR. MANTELL. 



NEW HAVEN, January 27, 1846. 



I SUSPECT that Mr. Lyell will give you another 



volume on this country, especially as we are not about play- 

 ing the fool by going to war about Oregon or the moon, 

 which would be about as rational. I am glad that you like 

 that review of Lyell, in the Journal, as it was written by B. 

 S., .Jr. He and his lady thank you most cordially for your 

 kind and hospitable invitation to your house ; but I fear it 

 must be long before it can be accepted, probably never by 

 the lady ; but I am not without hopes that her husband may 

 one day cross over, for I have no doubt it would be highly 



advantageous to him I regret to hear that geology 



is on the decline with you. I hope it may revive. I fear 



