Letter to Sir Archibald Geikie from Henry William Bristow telling Geikie that after 30 years service he has been promoted to Director of the Geological Survey of England and Wales, in the place of Sir Andrew Crombie Ramsay who has been promoted to Director in Chief. He reports that Henry Hyatt Howell will take his place as District Surveyor. He asks how sales are going of Joseph Beete Jukes' The Student's Manual of Geology, ( 1857) which Geikie edited.

Letter to Sir Archibald Geikie from Henry William Bristow thanking him for his gift of a copy of his work Life of Sir Roderick I. Murchison, Bart. : based on his journals and letters with notices of his scientific contemporaries and a sketch of the rise and growth of Palaeozoic geology in Britain, ( 1875) . He hopes that the publication will not reopen the historical controversy between Sir Roderick Impey Murchison and Adam Sedgwick.