MURCHISON. 303 



Medal of the Royal Society. But the many years 

 of close and hard work had told even on Murchi- 

 son's iron frame ; and his wife was an invalid. So 

 they spent the summer of 1849 ^t Buxton, much 

 to the disgust of the geologist, however. He 

 attended the meeting of the British Association at 

 Birmingham, however, and relapsed into a state of 

 perpetual " liver," suppressed gout and " stomach 

 attacks." After awhile the invalid went abroad 

 and enjoyed rambling over the extinct volcanoes 

 of Auvergne, and had his trip over the same 

 ground twenty-two years before, brought before his 

 mind. But he did not accept the theories of Lyell 

 about the formation of the valleys and the denuda- 

 tion of the district. He stuck, unfortunately, to 

 the violent in nature, and dismissed the truth of 

 the former uniform and slow action of the same 

 forces as now prevail, from his mind. In the next 

 year Murchison was happy again with his old friend 

 Sedgwick, and they geologized in the highlands, 

 and enjoyed the hospitality of the young Duke 

 and Duchess of Argyll. Then the southern up- 

 lands of Scotland were examined ; and Murchison, 

 stimulated by the great progress of the writings of 

 Lyell, came out in strong opposition to the Hutto- 

 nian philosophy. Murchison contended in favour 

 of great oscillations and ruptures of the earth's crust 

 leading to the sudden breaking up and submer- 

 gence of tracts of land; but he did not explain how 

 all this took place or could take place. He believed 

 in many superficial deposits, such as drift, being the 



