Revieics — Life of William Tengclly. 559 



who carefully looked for them would be able to see the shells and 

 fish-bones, and so on, that had been buried very long before, and he 

 would call them fossils.' 



" ' But do you mean to say that that's the way that black thing 

 got into the rock ? ' 



" ' Yes, that's what I mean to say.' 



" ' Was this rock mud once ? ' 



" ' Yes.' 



" ' !Not made when the world was made ? ' 



" 'Oh, dear no ! It was made very long since. There are rocks 

 of very great thickness in other parts of the world, made in the same 

 way, and some of them are much older, and others much newer, 

 than this.' 



" ' Well, 3'ou have opened my eyes. I'll tell 'ee what 'tis — I've 

 lived longer this morning than in all the years of my life before. 

 So that 's a fossil, is it ? Was it a shell or a fish-bone ? ' 



" ' There 's a diffei'ence of opinion about it at present. None of 

 them are very perfect ; and some say it's a piece of sponge, whilst 

 others think it 's part of a fish.' 



" ' Well, never mind ! 't is a fossil : let me look at 'en, and then 

 I '11 try to find some.' 



" He accordingly proceeded to inspect the rocks, and in a few 

 minutes cried out — 



" ' Here 's one. Here 's another,' and, in a short time, detected 

 several good specimens. 



"On our journey back, John asked me numerous questions, most 

 of them very pertinent, and some of them by no means easy to 

 answer. At the inn I betook myself to the ' parlour,' in order to 

 greater quietude for writing. John felt himself happier in the 

 kitchen'; but, as the one room opened out of the other, I frequently 

 heard my zealous disciple repeat to the villagers who came in from 

 time to time — though with sundry modifications and some errors — 

 the lecture he had heard in the morning, the invariable peroration 

 being : ' I '11 tell 'ee what 't is — I 've lived longer this morning than 

 ever I lived all the years of my life before.' " 



It was not only as eyes to the blind, or in the instruction of 

 simple and ignorant people, that Pengelly distinguished himself. 

 His correspondence shows that he met on equal terms the leading 

 men in his own branch of science, and especially that he was an 

 adviser in whom Sir Charles Lyell placed a large and generous 

 confidence. If in one of his letters to Lyell, Pengelly is made to 

 speak of ChetrudidcB and Gyphnsjjidce and of Phacops cryptoptophatinus, 

 one can only hope for a speedy second edition of the book, in which 

 these casual misprints may be corrected. 



That Pengelly had many lovable traits of character, not a few of 

 his friends would willingly testify. That he was never in opposition, 

 never in the wrong, never out of temper, never tempted by his great 

 abilities to exercise an imperious sway, need not be inferred from 

 the fact that these " humanities" are not mentioned in a biography 

 compiled with filial delicacy and tact. He was a very shrewd and 



