Eminent Licing Geologists: Br. A. R. C. Selwi/n. 51 



the Pass, and sent Gibbs to searcli the ridge of Snovvdon ; Sir Henry 

 De la Beche and Forbes followed an hour later for the top. While 

 at work on the side of Crib-goch I heard Selwyn's well-known 

 shrill shout, and soon discovered hi in on the top of a crag on 

 Crib-goch. So we joined and compared notes, and soon put matters 

 straight at Glaslyn. We then passed on to the top, often standing 

 to discuss, and just as we got to the bottom of the peak descried our 

 party coming down." 



Perhaps the most enjoyable episodes of this geological life in. 

 Wales, the memory of which would be long cherished, were the 

 occasional interchange of visits of members of the staif with each 

 other, and those paid them by their energetic chief. Sir Henry 

 De la Beche, from London. Whilst Eamsay and Forbes were 

 staying at Llanberis, Selwyn, who was located at Beddgelert,^ would 

 sometimes walk across the hills and spend the evening and night 

 with Ramsay, who in turn occasionally crossed the watershed and 

 landed in time for dinner at Beddgelert. Many pleasant stories 

 were recorded in the principality of the sayings and doings of these 

 jolly hammerers long years after they themselves had left the scene 

 of their labours for other, and in Selwyn's case distant, shores. 



In September, 1849, Mr. Selwyn, having completed the survey of 

 the ground lying between the Snowdon range on the north and 

 Ffestiniog and Tremadoc on the south, turned his attention to 

 working out the Lleyn peninsula from Pwlheli. In December of 

 the same year he again joined Eamsay and Jukes at Aber, where 

 they appear to have had a ver^^ pleasant meeting, — "joking and 

 making fun, all of us, all night," says Ramsay. (Life of 

 Eamsa}^ p. 158.) 



On the 30th April, 1850, Selwyn, Jukes, and Ramsay once more 

 met at Merchlyn in North Wales. There were still various un- 

 finished parts to complete, likewise sundry lines regarding which 

 they had to confer with their colleagues. 



Ramsay records that he was " out on the hills with Selwyn [on 

 the 4th May, 1850] as far as the cliffs under Carnedd Llewelyn and 

 down by Melynllyu and Llyndulyn. Got some good work done." 

 He adds : " Selwyn executed a most perilous feat of cliflf-climbing ; 

 a slip and he would have been slain" (op. cit., p. 161). Writing to 

 Salter on the 31st May, 1850, from Caernarvon, Ramsay says : 

 " Selwyn and I are here putting a final touch to all the dif&oulties 

 and erst-seeming contradictions on this side the Straits " ; and on 

 the 12th October he was " helping Selwyn to put some finishing 

 touches to the mapping of the Cader Idris region." How many 

 final touches we wonder have been added towards the elucidation of 

 these Welsh geological difficulties in the subsequent half-century ! 

 Again, quoting from the life of Sir Andrew Ramsay : " There still 

 remained a portion of Anglesey to be surveyed before the maps of 

 North Wales could be regarded as complete and ready for the 

 engraver. De la Beche had himself traced the lines across some 

 parts of that county, and other portions had been mapped by 

 1 September, October, 1848. 



