4© PEOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOaiCAL SOCIETY. 



but who ranged freely over English literature, and allowed his 

 thoughts and his language to be influenced thereby. 



In four short years after he had joined the staff of the Survey, 

 Eamsay had given such signal proofs of his prowess as a surveyor 

 and his general capacity for affairs that, when in 1844 the Survey 

 was remodelled and enlarged, he was chosen by De la Eeche to be 

 the first Local Director. Happy in his work, he was happy also in 

 his companionships. The Director-General had the faculty of 

 choosing men singularly well qualified for carrying out the work 

 which he so sagaciously conceived. Edward Porbes, Warington 

 Smyth, Robert Hunt, W. Talbot Aveline, Henry W. Bristow, Alfred 

 Selwyn, and others formed the band of enthusiastic workers with 

 whom Ramsay was associated, who discussed with him the problems 

 of the younger days of geology, who ranged far and wide in his 

 society over the hills of Wales during the day, and kept up talk 

 and argument with him until late at night. This mingling of hard 

 physical exercise with earnest conference over scientific questions, 

 as well as with endless social merriment, gave to the Survey-parties 

 a reputation which led to their being frequently sought by out- 

 siders of similar tastes and temperament. I remember being told 

 by Robert Chambers how he, on one occasion, joined the jovial 

 Surveyors, and being the senior member of the party was voted 

 into the chair at the head of the table ; how he had to carve, and 

 could thus appreciate the gigantic appetites which ten hours of toil 

 among the Welsh hills engendered, and how amid arguments, 

 anecdotes, and tobacco the evening passed quickly away. 



So rapidly had Ramsay's reputation grown that not only did he 

 receive, after only four years of service, the important appointment 

 to the second place on the staff of the Geological Survey, but in 

 1848 he was chosen Professor of Geology at University College, 

 London — a post which he continued to hold, besides his Survey 

 appointment, until 1851, when, on the institution of the Royal 

 School of Mines at Jermyn Street, he received the Professorship of 

 Geology there. His official position was now definitely settled. 

 He remained Director in the Survey and Professor in the School 

 for the next twenty years, and only relinquished these appointments 

 to accept the higher post of Director-General in succession to 

 Murchison. 



The even tenour of official life offers little in the way of incident 

 for a biographer to chronicle. But Ramsay's energy could not be 

 confined within the limits of his official duties, engrossing and 



