MURCHISON. 299 



Then the Devonian and old red sandstones were 

 considered, and the merits of the paleontologist, 

 Lonsdale, who really established the great geo- 

 logical division of the Devonian, were fully con- 

 ceded. About this time Murchison and his wife 

 settled in the well known mansion in Belgrave 

 Square, which was such a home for scientific men, 

 British and foreign, for many a long year to come. 

 Russia was the next country to be explored, and 

 Murchison spent a long and very pleasant time 

 there ; and his description of the Ural Mountains 

 was of great importance. He was the first to sketch 

 out broadly the geological construction of that very 

 monotonous country, and to point out the existence 

 there of a formation which covers the coal-bearing 

 rocks of England, and which he called the Permian. 

 Returning to England, after receiving the thanks of 

 the Emperor Nicholas, Murchison again became 

 President of the Geological Society, and with in- 

 creased experience endeavoured to work out more 

 fully than before, the old rocks of Wales, which he 

 and Sedgwick had laboured over in common. 

 Murchison and Sedgwick, however, began at this 

 time to misunderstand one another, and those ad- 

 mirable men, the one having recognized the higher 

 strata, and the other the lower, began to differ re- 

 garding the line of separation of their work. It is 

 an unsettled point even at the present day, notwith- 

 standing all the knowledge that these great men 

 have left to us, and all that has come to science 

 since their time. Ever enthusiastic in the cause of 



