328 HAMMERING IN A SNOWSTORM. CHAP. xix. 



Dick also gave the following account of Professor 

 Thomson's visit to a geological friend in London : " The 

 Professor very kindly offered to assist me with a few 

 of my desiderata in dried British plants. I thought I 

 would try to get a fossil or two for him in return, 

 before I drew upon his kindness ; and this notion sent 

 me with renewed zeal to all my old haunts by the 

 shores. . . . Since two weeks after New Year's day, 

 I have been working at intervals. My hardihood 

 has been put to a severe enough test. Only think of 

 my hammering at the rocks for fossils in a snowstorm ! " 



Unfortunately, the fossils which Dick had intended 

 for Professor Thomson were not sent to him. The 

 reason of that omission will be explained in the next 

 chapter. 



