WITHAM AND BINNEY 245 



Witham's earlier papers were embodied in his book: The 

 Internal Structure of Fossil Vegetables found in the Carboni- 

 ferous and Oolitic deposits of Great Britain, described and 

 illustrated, 1833. It is dedicated to William Hutton, author, 

 with Lindley, of the Fossil Flora of Great Britain. 



A passage from the dedication shows that Witham took his 

 work seriously "To lend my aid in bringing from their obscure 

 repositories the ancient records of a former state of things, with 

 the view of disclosing the early and mysterious operations of the 

 Great Author of all created things, will ever be to me a source 

 of unalloyed pleasure." 



Witham thus fully realised the important significance of the 

 work on which he was engaged. He must have been an interest- 

 ing person of a somewhat complex character, and I wish we 

 could know more about him. He died on Nov. 28th, 1844. 

 Like all his family, he was a Roman Catholic 1 . 



Witham's localities on the Tweed remained practically un- 

 visited until Mr Kidston re-explored them eight or nine years 

 ago, with brilliant success the results, however, are still un- 

 published. 



Edward William Binney, the first investigator of the Lan- 

 cashire coal-balls, was born at Morton in Nottinghamshire in 

 1812, and was thus only four years senior to Williamson. He 

 settled in Manchester in 1836, and practised as a solicitor. 

 He early showed scientific tastes; the Manchester Geological 

 Society was started, chiefly by his influence, in October 1838. 

 He was concerned in the discovery of the famous St Helen's 

 trees, which first proved the connection between Sigillaria and 

 Stigmaria. "Binney completed the proof that all coal-seams 

 rest on old soils which are constituted entirely of vegetable 

 matter ; this was the seat-stone of a seam of coal " (Robert 

 Hunt). He gave up the practice of Law, and, devoting him- 

 self to science, became a leading authority on northern geology, 

 and rendered important aid to the Geological Survey by his 



1 The portrait of Henry Witham is from the original picture in the possession of 

 the Salvin family, at Croxdale ; a photograph of the picture was kindly obtained for 

 me by Mr Philip Witham. 



