220 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



B. S.'s, Jr., but was domesticated in both our houses, and 

 won us all by his affability, good-humor, and accommodat- 

 ing disposition, in addition to his fine person and cordial 

 manners. October 17th he attended my lecture. I had an- 

 nounced him to the class in attendance, about two hundred 

 in number, with a wing of some thirty or forty ladies. I was 

 on that day upon evaporation, and managed to bring the 

 subject through natural evaporation to rain, snow, and 

 snow-capped mountains and glaciers, at which point, (having 

 before spoken to him,) I appealed to him as an experienced 

 observer, and invited him to say something to the students 

 on the subject. He rose with some little appearance of em- 

 barrassment, but acquitted himself very well, and gratified 

 many young people. We, of course, showed him our public 

 rooms and collections, and I went with him to the top of 

 the East Rock, a trap precipice of nearly four hundred 

 feet high within a mile of the town. The view of a vast 

 trap region of peaks, knobs, a continuous barrier of trap of 

 wide primitive formations ; our beautiful little city below 

 with a wide cultivated plain on which it stands ; and our 

 fine deep bay of five miles, caused our Swiss philosopher 

 to exclaim, How beautiful ! very beautiful ! 



TO DR. MANTELL. 



August 30, 1847. 



I HAVE looked through Mr. Lyell's references 



to you regarding the Wealden in the second edition of his 

 " K laments," and I must say that he ought to have made 

 you more prominent; but it is to be observed that the 

 HUM its " is a condensed work, in which it is a matter 

 "IK; importance to economize space, and the author 

 would urge in his defence, that often, where he has cited 

 your results in the page without naming you, he has re- 

 ferred at the bottom of the page to your works or your 

 memoirs. He has named you several times, and twice with 



