284 
III 1840 iny luUicr spent a short holitlay with Mr. Dawson 
lurncr at Yarmouth, and made many botanical excursions, some in 
company with the llev. John Gunn, lie says, in a letter to a 
friend, on Tuesday, July 23rd, “we Avent to Upton Broad, 
St. Bennot’s Abbey, and ^Ir. Gunn’s house at Smallborough, where 
Ave slept this Avas my hardest day’s AAmrk, there I gathered my 
rarest plant, it cost me a jump into tlic Avater, and a dozen miles 
Avalking afterwards.” And lie “was covered to tlie waist Avitli 
mud.” 
lie also collected nineteen species of ‘ Urag-slielis ’ from the 
washed beds at Scratb}', Caister, and Gorleston, including an 
entile specimen of Valuta LamherU, Avhich lie obtained in 
company Avidi Mr. Gunn at Scratbj'. Tiiese beds have since been 
carefully examined by Messrs. "Wood and llarmer, and grouped by 
them as “iMiddle Glacial.” 
Ilis a.ssistance Avas acknoAvledged by Edward NeAvman, in bis 
‘History of British Ferns,’ published in 1840; and in the following 
year, Avhen but tiventy years of age, he communicated his first 
scientific paper to the ‘Annals and Magazine of Uatural History.’ 
It Avas entitled the “Flora of Central Norfolk,” being “Addenda 
to Mv. Mann’s List of Norwich Plants,” published in a previous 
number of the magazine. 
In the same year (1841) ho Avas chosen as an Associate of the 
Linnean Societ} , a purely honorary election, as but a limited 
number of associates are made. 
Among the piomiuent members of the Geological Society at this 
time Avere Litton, Sedgwick, Buckland, Lyell, Murchison, Henslow, 
Whewell, and De la Bcche ; Avhile among younger members of the 
council Avere Darwin, Owen, and Sir Philip Egerton. 
Ihere Avas a A'igour and freshness about the science of Geology 
Avhich gave rise to papers of general interest, and led to interesting 
and Avarm discussions at the Society’s rooms.* Thus, in June, 1840 
Agassiz for the first time pointed out the evidence of the former 
existence of glaciers in the British Islands, and in November of the 
same year, the subject Avas taken up by Buckland. Some notes of 
the discussion Avhich followed the reading of their papers before 
the Geological Society, Avere made at the time by my father. 
*Sec ‘Life of Sir Roderick I. Murchison,’ by Archibald Geikie, vol. i. p. if).'). 
