vern, for water-cure: the meeting of the British
Association was at Oxford and I escorted Le Verrier thither.--July
28th to 30th I was at Brampton.--From August 10th to September 18th I
was engaged on an expedition to St Petersburg, chiefly with the object
of inspecting the Pulkowa Observatory. I went by Hamburg to Altona,
where I met Struve, and started with him in an open waggon for Luebeck,
where we arrived on Aug. 14th. We proceeded by steamer to Cronstadt
and Petersburg, and so to Pulkowa, where I lodged with O. Struve. I
was here engaged till Sept. 4th, in the Observatory, in expeditions in
the neighbourhood and at St Petersburg, and at dinner-parties, &c. I
met Count Colloredo, Count Ouvaroff, Count Stroganoff, Lord Bloomfield
(British Ambassador), and others. On Sept. 4th I went in a small
steamer to Cronstadt, and then in the Vladimir to Swinemuende: we were
then towed in a passage boat to Stettin, and I proceeded by railway to
Berlin. On Sept. 9th I found Galle and saw the Observatory. On
Sept. 10th I went to Potzdam and saw Humboldt. On the 12th I went to
Hamburg and lodged with Schumacher: I here visited Repsold and
Ruemker. On Sept. 14th I embarked in the John Bull for London, and
arrived there on the evening of the 18th: on the 16th it was blowing
'a whole gale,' reported to be the heaviest gale known for so many
hours; 4 bullocks and 24 sheep were thrown overboard.--From Dec. 3rd
to 8th I was at Cambridge, and from the 22nd to 31st at Playford."

* * * * *

Here is a letter to his wife written from Birmingham, containing a
note of the progress of the ironwork for the Menai Bridge:

EDGBASTON, BIRMINGHAM,
_1847, Apr. 22_.

Yesterday morning we started between 10 and 11 for Stourbridge, first
to see some clay which is celebrated all over the world as the only
clay which is fit to make pots for melting glass, &c. You know that in
all these fiery regions, fire-clay is a thing of very great
importance, as no furnace will stand if made of any ordinary bricks
(and even with the fire-clay, the small furnaces are examined every
week), but this Stourbridge clay is as superior to fire-clay as
fire-clay is to common brick-earth. Then we went to Fosters' puddling
and rolling works near Stourbridge. These are on a very large scale:
of course much that we saw was a repetition of what we