embodied
in the first and second section had been done, I had no hesitation
(with the concurrence of Mrs. Lewis) in following his advice. So this
portion has been cancelled, and as the book now stands it comprises all
the manuscript that Professor Lewie had left in a fairly complete
state, with a little supplementary work which has a very direct bearing
on the subject of his two papers, and for which he had collected
specimens.
Several
months elapsed, owing to various circumstances, before Mrs. Lewis
could place the late Professor's manuscripts and the other materials in
my hands. In the interval Sir J. B. Stone, M.P., when I was a guest at
Erdington Grange, his pleasant home near Sutton Cold-field, showed me a
collection of specimens which he had obtained during a recent visit to
the Kimberley mines. Among these were two lumps of the diamond-bearing
rock, each as large as three or four ordinary cabinet specimens, and in
a much better state of preservation than any which I had previously
seen. One of these he kindly gave to me, asking me to examine its
structure, and allowing me to make use of the other materials in his
possession. Some microscopic sections were prepared from this specimen,
and, in addition to others already in my collection, the gift of
Professor Boyd Dawkins, I had the advantage of studying one or two
small but well-preserved pieces of the rock, which had been presented
to Miss C. A. Raisin by C. J. Alford, Esq., as well as others kindly
lent to me by the late Professor A. H. Green.1 The results of these studies were published in the Geological Magazine for 1895 (pp. 492-502) in a paper jointly written by Sir J. B. Stone, Miss C. A. Raisin,
1 He died after a short illness, the result, I fear, of overwork, in August 1890. A good geologist and a most unselfish man, imiltis ille bonis ftehiliz eccidit '