After passing through his father's school he went to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he was admitted pensioner on 25 June 1851, and graduated as sixth wrangler in 1855.
[1] In 1888 he was appointed to the professorship of geology at Oxford in succession to Sir Joseph Prestwich, and received from that university the honorary degree of M.A.
In 1886, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society,[1] and in 1890 was president of the section of geology at the Leeds meeting of the British Association.
His strength in this science lay in field work and in certain departments of physical geology where his mathematical knowledge was especially helpful.
In addition to the duties of his chair he undertook much examining and consulting work; perhaps, indeed, excessive labour shortened his life, for he was most indefatigable and thorough in whatever he took in hand.