140 
ADAM SEDGWICK AND WILLIAM BUCKLAND. 
Roderick Murchison, in the investigation of the geological structure 
of Wales, Sedgwick commencing his work from the base of those 
disturbed and obscure rocks, and working upwards, whilst Murchison 
principally concentrated his efforts on the upper members of the 
group, and gradually worked downwards. In 1832, Prof. Sedgwick 
communicated to the British Association the first results of his 
labours, and in the following year read papers to the Cambridge 
Philosophical Society. In 1835 he communicated a joint paper with 
Murchison at the British Association in Dublin, giving a general 
account of the combined results of their labours, by which it was 
supposed that the Cambrian and Silurian systems were definitely 
established as distinct and successive series of formations. It was 
soon found, however, that the actual boundary between the two 
systems had not been accurately ascertained, and gradually a contro- 
versy arose on this subject, which remained unsettled so long as the 
authors lived. 
After the publication of Young & Bird's " Geology of the 
Yorkshire Coast," Sedgwick published a paper in which he endea- 
voured to make up for the deficiency of the book by a correlation 
of the beds observed by him on the Yorkshire coast, and those 
occurring in other parts of England. In all his writings he exhibits 
an indefatigable energy in the observation of facts, a penetrating- 
sagacity in grasping their significance, and the broadest possible 
power of generalization ; and a list of his works exhibits an extra- 
ordinary variety in the range of his researches. Whilst in the exercise 
of his functions as Professor of Geology at Cambridge, he took an 
intense interest in the Woodwardian Museum connected "with his 
Professorship. On his receiving the appointment, the collection of 
which he was put in charge consisted solely of the original collections 
of British and Foreign fossils and minerals, brought together in the 
17th century by Dr. Woodward. From the first he set himself 
vigorously to the task of forming a museum worthy of the University, 
With this view wherever he went he collected rock specimens and 
fossils, and used all his influence with the University authorities to 
induce them to make purchases of fine specimens or collections too 
costly to be secured at his own expense, Among the most important 
