ondon, 1845.) are pretty accurate; but in the first they are not so,
for I foolishly trusted to my memory, and was much annoyed to find how
hasty and inaccurate many of my remarks were, when I went over my huge
pile of descriptions of each locality.

If ever you meet anyone circumstanced as I was, advise him not, on any
account, to give any sketches until his materials are fully worked out.

What labour you must be undergoing now; I have wondered at your patience
in having written to me two such long notes. How glad Mrs. Horner will
be when your address is completed. (558/3. Anniversary Address of the
President ("Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc." Volume III., page xxii, 1847).) I
must say that I am much pleased that you will notice my volume in your
address, for former Presidents took no notice of my two former volumes.

I am exceedingly glad that Bunbury is going on well.

LETTER 559. TO C. LYELL. Down, July 3rd [1849].

I don't know when I have read a book so interesting (559/1. "A Second
Visit to the United States of North America." 2 volumes, London, 1849.);
some of your stories are very rich. You ought to be made Minister of
Public Education--not but what I should think even that beneath the
author of the old "Principles." Your book must, I should think, do
a great deal of good and set people thinking. I quite agree with the
"Athenaeum" that you have shown how a man of science can bring his
powers of observation to social subjects. (559/2. "Sir Charles Lyell,
besides the feelings of a gentleman, seems to carry with him the best
habits of scientific observation into other strata than those of clay,
into other 'formations' than those of rock or river-margin." "The
Athenaeum," June 23rd, 1849, page 640.) You have made H. Wedgwood, heart
and soul, an American; he wishes the States would annex us, and was all
day marvelling how anyone who could pay his passage money was so foolish
as to remain here.

LETTER 560. TO C. LYELL. Down, [December, 1849].

(560/1. In this letter Darwin criticises Dana's statements in his volume
on "Geology," forming Volume X. of the "Wilkes Exploring Expedition,"
1849.)

...Dana is dreadfully hypothetical in many parts, and often as "d--d
cocked sure" as Macaulay. He writes however so lucidly that he is very
persuasive. I am more struck with his remarks on denudation than you
seem to be. I came to exactly the same conclusion in Tahiti, that the
wonderful valleys there (on the opposite extr