Curig,
at which latter place they parted after spending many hours in examining
the rocks at Cwm Idwal with extreme care, seeking for fossils but
without success. Sedgwick's mode of instruction was admirable--he from
time to time sent the pupil off on a line parallel to his own, "telling
me to bring back specimens of the rocks and to mark the stratification
on a map." ("L.L." I. page 57.) On his return to Shrewsbury, Darwin
wrote to Henslow, "My trip with Sedgwick answered most perfectly,"
("L.L." I. page 195.), and in the following year he wrote again from
South America to the same friend, "Tell Professor Sedgwick he does not
know how much I am indebted to him for the Welsh expedition; it has
given me an interest in Geology which I would not give up for any
consideration. I do not think I ever spent a more delightful three weeks
than pounding the north-west mountains." ("L.L." I. pages 237-8.)

It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that at this time Darwin
had acquired anything like the affection for geological study, which
he afterwards developed. After parting with Sedgwick, he walked in a
straight line by compass and map across the mountains to Barmouth to
visit a reading party there, but taking care to return to Shropshire
before September 1st, in order to be ready for the shooting. For as
he candidly tells us, "I should have thought myself mad to give up the
first days of partridge-shooting for geology or any other science!"
("L.L." I. page 58.)

Any regret we may be disposed to feel that Darwin did not use his
opportunities at Edinburgh and Cambridge to obtain systematic and
practical instruction in mineralogy and geology, will be mitigated,
however, when we reflect on the danger which he would run of being
indoctrinated with the crude "catastrophic" views of geology, which were
at that time prevalent in all the centres of learning.

Writing to Henslow in the summer of 1831, Darwin says "As yet I have
only indulged in hypotheses, but they are such powerful ones that I
suppose, if they were put into action but for one day, the world would
come to an end." ("L.L." I. page 189.)

May we not read in this passage an indication that the self-taught
geologist had, even at this early stage, begun to feel a distrust for
the prevalent catastrophism, and that his mind was becoming a field in
which the seeds which Lyell was afterwards to sow would "fall on good
ground"?

The second period of Darwin's geological ca