MURCHISON. 289 



scientific lectures, and especially those on geology, 

 which was at that time much talked about. Hut- 

 ton's admirable views of the causes of the changes 

 on the surface of the earth, and their possible com- 

 parison with those" of the present day, was making 

 progress, but was still antagonized by the notions 

 of sudden convulsions and great underground move- 

 ments. He went to the Geological Society, a young 

 and ardent one, which had sprung into active work 

 in spite of the opposition of the nursing mother of 

 science, the Royal Society. 



With hearing lectures on science, scientific papers 

 and discussions, attending evening soirees, and the 

 opportunity of hearing and talking to men who had 

 already made themselves famous, Murchison found 

 enough fully to fill up his time, and to make 

 London life a very different thing to him from what 

 it had been in the old days, when he used to escape 

 to town from the monotony of a country barrack. 

 With his characteristic ardour, he had not com- 

 pleted his first winter's studies in geology before 

 he longed to be off into the field to observe for 

 himself. 



" My first real field work," he says, " began under 

 Professor Buckland, who having taken a fancy to 

 me as one of his apt scholars, invited me to visit 

 him at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and attend 

 one or two of his lectures. This was my true 

 launch. Travelling down with him in the Oxford 

 coach, I learned a world of things before we reached 

 the Isis, and, amongst other things, I enjoyed a 



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