Vol. 60.] AXXIVEKSAKY ADDRESS. H 



Prance and the west and north of Switzerland. His eyes being 



now opened to the perception of geological structure, he made good 

 use of his opportunities in Dauphine and in the Jura, where he 

 could compare the plicated rocks of these classic regions with those 

 which he had learnt to understand at home. He found in the 

 Swiss ground proofs of ' the ancient action of similar forces under 

 the same laws, but in less detail and with far less delicacy.' He 

 remarks that he ' was fortunate in being the first geologist who 

 had an opportunity to approach the dynamic phenomena of the 

 Jura with an American eye, trained on the typical [Appalachian] 

 ground.' Making his way through the Harz he came to Halle, for 

 the purpose of remaining some months at its University, studying 

 under the theologian Tholuck and others, where he found the 

 theological atmosphere less close than that of his own home. He 

 returned to Philadelphia in the early summer of 1845, and at once 

 threw himself into the missionary work for which he had prepared. 

 He distributed Presbyterian tracts for the American Tract Society 

 of Philadelphia, through the northern and central parts of Penn- 

 sylvania, frequently preaching, and sometimes riding 40 miles in 

 a day. He continued these labours for two seasons, until at last 

 his health failed under the combined strain of mental excitement, 

 bodily fatigue, and exposure to the weather. 



At the end of the following year (1S46) liogers, who had never 

 lost sight of him or of the possibility of winning him back to the 

 geological camp, induced him to come to Boston and spend live 

 months there in duplicating the State geological map and longi- 

 tudinal sections which he had drawn while at Princeton, together 

 with some hundreds of other drawings, besides preparing a large 

 part of the text of the final Report. But the Legislature refused 

 to grant money for their publication. Lesley, however, still clung 

 to his ministerial calling, and towards the end of the year 1848 

 became the pastor of a Congregationalist church at Milton, a suburb 

 of Boston. Early next spring he married Miss Lyman — an union 

 which proved of the happiest kind, although it started with such 

 prospects of feeble health and straightened means that one of 

 their candid lady-friends remarked that • it was enough for the 

 pair to have the shelter of an umbrella, and if there should be 

 children parasols might be given them.' Mrs. Lesley was his 

 genial sympathetic companion and helper through the rest of 

 his long life, the witness of and sharer in his successes, and 

 now in her widowhood the recipient of many expression^ 



