VA Oa Ss 
265 
THURSDAY, JULY 20, 1899. 
PRESTWICH AND PRACTICAL GEOLOGY. 
Life and Letters of Sir Joseph Prestwich. Written and 
edited by his Wife. Pp. xiv+444. (Edinburgh and 
London: Wm. Blackwood and Sons, 1899 ) 
HIS is a pleasantly written personal history of a well- 
known man, and as such interesting to his friends 
who survive him and to the numerous friends of his 
friends who have passed away but are spoken of in con- 
nection with him. Scientific inquiry, however, filled so 
large a part of his life, and he did so much for the elucid- 
ation of certain branches of geological inquiry, that the 
story cannot fail to be more or less an account of the 
progress of research along those lines to which he 
devoted himself. 
Born of a good north-country stock, Prestwich was 
sent to school while very young, and although people 
took a fancy to the spirited boy and were kind to him, he 
must have had to rough it somewhat in childhood. At 
sixteen he entered at University College, London, where 
he worked hard and successfully, but confined his 
attention, unwisely as he allowed in after life, too much 
to chemistry and natural philosophy to the neglect of 
mathematics and classics. 
Yet it must not be supposed that he was a one-sided 
man, for he carefully apportioned his time when it was 
more at his own disposal, and went through a very full 
if not severe training. His extensive reading in English 
literature and his knowledge of the French language, 
acquired when a boy at school in France, and kept up in 
after life, proved of the greatest assistance to him. 
Joseph Prestwich, jun., was soon well known in the 
scientific world, and those social qualities and that 
genial temperament which made ‘“ Uncle Jovis’ parties” 
so delightful to the happy children he loved to gather 
round him, enabled him also to do much to further the 
co-operation of scientific workers, and ‘ Prestwich’s 
Easter excursions” were not less highly appreciated by 
the geologists who had the privilege of joining them. 
These excursions were certainly very pleasant and | 
profitable. They were thoughtfully planned and well- 
managed. The party, generally consisting of one 
carriage load, met at some appointed spot. A few put 
their heads together when invited by the leader to do so, 
details were arranged, orders as to hours were given— 
these often involying a very early start—a call all round 
for say 10/., which was carefully administered till spent, 
when a new call was made, then from each halting-place 
visits to points of interest, examination, discussion, 
demonstration, and home to dinner. 
Among the illustrations in the book are excellent 
portraits of some of his more intimate friends, most of 
whom at one time or another accompanied him on his 
geological excursions. 
He had for forty years to give most of his time and 
attention to business, but all his hours of leisure were 
spent and all his recreation taken in the pursuit of his 
favourite subject geology. 
In his reply to the remarks which Sir Henry De la 
NO. 1551, VOL. 60] 
Beche made on presenting the Wollaston medal to him 
in 1849, he said : 
“Tt is true that I entered upon this field as a student 
and for relaxation, but the interest and difficulties of the 
subject speedily induced me to take it up with more 
earnestness and determination, and eventually led me to 
extend the inquiry over an area which I, at first, never 
contemplated. 
“The Tertiary geology of the neighbourhood of 
London may be wanting in beauty of stratigraphical 
exhibition and in perfect preservation of organic types, 
but in many of the higher questions of pure geology—in 
clear evidence of remarkable physical changes, in curious 
and diversified paleontological data, however defaced 
the inscriptions, which is after all but a secondary 
point—few departments of geology offer, I think, greater 
attractions. 
“The pleasure I have derived from the study of the 
remarkable phenomena which have come before me in 
the course of the investigation has far outbalanced the 
few obstacles I have had to contend against. I, in fact, 
feel deeply indebted to geology, as a source of healthful 
recreation, as an inestimable relief and abstraction in due 
season from the cares frequently attendant upon the 
active duties of life, for its kindly and valued asscciations, 
and above all for the high communing into which it con- 
stantly brings us in the contemplation of some of the most 
beautiful and wonderful works of the creation” (p 66). 
Yet most of his work, undertaken and carried on in the 
true scientific spirit, bore directly, as it turned out, on 
questions of the greatest economic importance. This 
was, however, by accident, for he studied the Coal 
Measures in early life only because his holidays were 
spent at Broseley, where he got interested in the geology 
of Coalbrook Dale. And similarly the Tertiary and 
Cretaceous rocks of the London district offered in later 
life the most accessible sections, and so he plunged with 
his usual zeal into their discrimination and classification 
with no ulterior view to the practical application of the 
information he was then acquiring. But the knowledge 
which he gained of the characters and sequence of both 
these groups of formations was afterwards of immense 
value to the country, and we find him not only a member 
of the Coal Commission, but also one of the most trusted 
authorities on water-bearing strata. 
His paper on Coalbrook Dale is a masterly sketch in 
which the fossils of different horizons are distinguished 
and the stratigraphical structure of the district is worked 
out with great accuracy and well illustrated by maps and 
sections. 
To give an idea of his work on the Tertiary strata 
would be to give a sketch of Tertiary geology which is 
not wanted in a notice of this kind, for he established the 
classification which is now adopted with very slight 
modification. 
He followed up the strata to the newest beds, and soon 
took part in the discussions which arose respecting the 
age and origin of the Glacial and post-Glacial deposits 
—controversies not yet settled, and inquiries out of which 
suggestions of new difficulties yet to be explained still 
continue to arise. 
It is very interesting to follow the progress of opinion 
respecting the association of the remains of man with 
those of extinct animals in the river gravels, whose 
antiquity was further proved by their relation to. the 
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