From A Sedgwick to William Kemp   6 February [1849?]

My dear Sir

During the month of October I received from you two letters. The second came about the time I began my lectures; & it was sent, along with your very curious specimen, to my Museum; in order that I might have the opinion of M^r M^cCoy, whose eye is so much better than mine. Some time elapsed before he gave it me back again when the letter & specimen were deposited in a drawer in my study   I now fear I neglected to answer your second letter. So soon as my course was over I went away for nearly two months & I have not been many days in Cambridge— On attempting to put my papers in order I have just stumbled on your last letter & the specimen, with what you suppose the marks of hail drops. They are very remarkable & I can give no better account of them than you have done—& your opinion is the more valuable because you saw the slab at first before it was broken into small fragments. I will now put the fragments in our Museum with a proper acknowledgment in the catalogue— Meanwhile pray accept my very best thanks for your kindness— If I have not sent my thanks before I have done very wrong & I hope you will forgive me; & I assure you I value the specimen very much   I am very forgetful, but I hope not ungrateful— Business often presses so hard upon me that I fall into arrears with all my correspondents & my general health is never good in College

Believe me My dear Sir | very faithfully yours | A Sedgwick