II HIS SCIENTIFIC LIFE AND WORK 29 



my zoological knowledge. I do trust we shall manage 

 the trip to the Isle of Wight ; it would be too delight- 

 ful ! " This refers to a suggestion that I had made to 

 him, as up to that time he had never done any 

 geological work in the field, to take an opportunity of 

 realising by actual observation some of the phenomena 

 which had been discussed in the lectures. We engaged 

 the late accomplished geologist, Mr. John Morris, to 

 accompany us, and give demonstrations on the spot of 

 the relations of the different strata to each other and 

 the characteristic fossil remains found in each. Unfor- 

 tunately Mr. Morris was at the last moment prevented 

 by illness from coming, but Brooke and I went 

 together with the excellent guide and map of the 

 Geological Survey in our hands. We had a very 

 pleasant time exploring the whole coast-line of the 

 island, and afterwards the famous Hordwell Cliff on the 

 mainland, dear to British palaeontologists as one of the 

 few localities in the country for Eocene Mammalian 

 remains. We searched in vain for a tooth of Pala- 

 plotherium. I believe the discovery of one on that day 

 would have made him happier than was ever the finder 

 of one of the largest diamonds in South Africa. 



In the summer of 1875 my wife and I paid our 

 first visit to Colebrooke, staying there a fortnight, and 

 a very happy time it was. The collection he was 

 forming had already acquired considerable dimensions, 

 and he was then deep in the study of the classification 

 of the ruminants. We spent all our mornings in the 

 Museum mainly over skulls and teeth, carefully 

 comparing, measuring, noting, and drawing, in the 

 endeavour to find distinctive characters, capable of 

 accurate definition, by which the various groups could 

 be distinguished. It was a delightful quest though 

 full of difficulties. So often it happened that when we 



