30 



FOUNDATION AND OBJECTS 



Lancashire, who had made some years ago a very 

 important observation on the existence of shells of 

 existing species in the gravels and marls of Lanca- 

 shire at 300 feet above the sea, and at distances of 

 fifteen and twenty miles from the sea, was present. 

 I took the opportunity of turning lecturer, and 

 having visited those parts this summer, I brought 

 out my little druggist with all the eclat he merited. 

 This is another practical exemplification of the good 

 arising from such a reunion. The Archbishop had 

 all the party on one of the days, and it would have 

 gratified the liberality of Cambridge to have seen old 

 Quaker Dalton on his Grace's right hand. Pray act 

 cordially with us, and if Adam [Sedgwick], my great 

 master, and yourself will only go along with us, the 

 third meeting will unquestionably be at Cambridge. 

 Rely on it, the thing must progress, all the good men 

 and true here present are resolved to make it do so. ' 



Of the following meeting Murchison wrote thus 

 in his journal : ' The summer of 1832 was begun 

 with the Oxford meeting of the British Association, 

 and of this I need say nothing more than that, under 

 the presidency of Buckland, the body was then 

 licked into shape, and divided into six sections. As 

 the mass of the great guns of the metropolis had now 

 joined us, and also Sedgwick, Whewell, and the best 

 men of Cambridge, our success was assured. Alto- 

 gether it was (thanks to its proposer, Daubeny) a 

 most auspicious meeting, the more so as it terminated 

 with an invitation for the next year from Cambridge, 

 with my dear colleague, Adam Sedgwick, as praeses. ' 



The meetings of 1834 and 1835 were appro- 

 priately held in Scotland (Edinburgh) and Ireland 

 (Dublin), following upon the two first meetings in 



