176 PROCEEDINGS 1841 — 1848. 
London and elsewhere. In 1838 he was appointed Commissioner for 
the Crown under the Dean Forest Mining Act, and the models pre- 
pared in connection with this office were exhibited at meetings of this 
Society. At the meeting of the British Association at Newcastle he 
was instrumental in causing the formation of the present Mining 
Records Office. In 1845 he was appointed to the management of 
Mr. W. B. Beaumont's large mining property in Allandale, and from 
that time to the time of his death in January, 1879, he resided at 
Allan Heads. 
Mr. Sopwith contributed to the same meeting a paper on the 
Preservation of Railway Sections, and of Accounts of Borings, Sink- 
ings, &c., in elucidation of the measures recently taken by the 
British Association, in which he urged that a systematic record should 
be kept of all the sections exposed in the formation of new railway 
lines. Whether regarded from an economic or scientific point of view, 
exposures of this kind are of great use and interest, " they form 
instructive pages in the book of nature, opened by the Engineer, and 
presented in an attractive form to the perusal of the Geologist." The 
opportunity is often of but shoi't duration, and the silent operations 
of nature clothe the rocks and soils in grasses, mosses and lichens, 
and close the volume to the geologist, exemplifying the common but 
too often forgotten adage, that opportunity neglected can seldom be 
regained. 
It was proposed to hold the meeting of the British Association 
at York in the year 1843, and an invitation was given to its Council 
by the city authorities and the Philosophical Society. The latter 
sought to enlist the sympathy and co-operation of kindred societies 
in Yorkshire, and appealed to the Yorkshire Geological Society to 
help them. Mr. Wilson, on receipt of this communication addressed 
the following letter to Mr. Embleton : — 
Banks, .?/7/^ 1843. 
My Dear Sir, 
I received a few days since a circular from the Yorkshire Philo- 
sophical Society, asking us and the other Scientific Institutions of the 
country, to join them in inviting the British Association to York in 
1843, and to assist in raising the guarantee fund of £500, 
