To Adam Sedgwick 30 April 1860

7 Downing Terrace

30 April 1860

My Dear Sedgwick

I tried to get at you yesterday, but was told you were out of Cambridge. As Tuesday is May 1. I suppose you will be back again. Livering informs me I am combined with you in the form of a sub-committee to organise a 2.S. for the geological portion of the Nat. Sc. Tripos. Of course you must concoct the scheme & expound it more, & if I can assist I will do so. I have sent in my Botanical scheme, & rather think you are the only one who is now left to bring up the rear. In a letter from Lyell on Friday he says Prestwick & Murchison have returned from Amiens & that they consider the Celt-Drift "on the elevation" cotemporaneous with Drift at the bottom of the valley. If this be so, there is an end of the vast antiquity of this Drift - as the valley must have pre-existed, & not have been scooped out subsequently to its deposition. But then we must have a Catachlism (sic) & that Lyell must agree to. He urges me to examine into the point with all possible care. I had expected to have started on June 4th for Amiens with Louisa, but I have received an intimation that the Royal children want a Botanical Salad, after the Zoological repast which Owen has been giving them - & that most probably I shall be asked to concoct 3 or 4 lectures for them in June. Sir Jas Clark has written, & I have expressed myself willing if times & seasons prove agreeable.

Ever Yrs affectly

J .S. Henslow

Please cite as “HENSLOW-976,” in Ɛpsilon: The Correspondence of John Stevens Henslow accessed on 29 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/henslow/letters/letters_976