1851.] 



295 



thers and cousins were men generally distlngnished by their great literary and 

 scientific acquirements. His younger brother, Edgar Taylor, was a distinguished 

 member of the legal profession in London, and an accomplished scholar. He was 

 the author of several works, and remarkable for his numerous learned reviews, 

 published in the most prominent periodicals in Great Britain. His cousm, 

 Richard Taylor, is the well-known and able editor of the Philoiophical Magazine, 

 which has been the leading scientific Journal of England for the last 25 years. 

 John and Phillip were equally distinguished as raining engineers. 



The great services Mr. Taylor had rendered science, have been acknowledged, 

 by his being made a member of the principal Societies in England and this 

 country, which embraced those branches of knowledge which he cultivated. He 

 was elected a member of the Geological Society of London, and of the Society 

 of Civil Engineers, of that city. In this country he was a member of this 

 Academy, as before mentioned; of the American Philosophical Society ; of the 

 Geological Society of Pennsylvania ; of the American Association of Geologists 

 and Naturalists, of the Franklin Institute, &c. &c. 



In a rapid survey of Mr. Taylor's scientific labors, it would be difficult to give 

 any thing more than a brief and imperfect list of his writings. In this sketch 

 will not be introduced his professional reports, which occupied the chief part of his 

 life, and which were generally executed in such a systematic and perfect manner, 

 as to remain models, worthy of imitation by all engaged in such works. Whether 

 his beautiful map of the Ordinance Survey, executed in 1813 14, was the first, 

 is not certain, but it seems to bear the earliest date. He subsequently published, 

 in the Trans. Geological Society of London, " Notice of two Models and Sections 

 of about eleven square miles, forming a part of the Mineral Basinof South Wales, 

 in the vicinity of Pontypool," (1830.) " On the Crag Strata at Bramerton, near 

 Norwich," (1823). "On the Alluvial Strata, and on the Chalk of Norfolk and 

 Sufl^olk, and on the Fossils by which they are accompanied," (1823). la the 

 Magazine of Natural History he published, in 1829, a paper called the "Progress 

 of Geology," which was followed, in 1830, by another, the " Introduction to 

 Geology," which was succeeded by " Illustrations of Antedeluvian Zoology and 

 Botany." These papers were illustrated with many beautiful drawings and sec- 

 tions, and were published before he came to America. His first papers published 

 in this country were, it is believed, in the Trans, of the Geological Society of 

 Pennsylvania, with the following titles': " On the Geological position of certain 

 beds, which contain numerous Fossil Marine Plants of the family Fucoides, near 

 Lewistown, Mifflin county. Pa.," (1831). "On the relative position of the 

 Transition and Secondary Coal Formations in Pennsylvania, and description of 

 some transition or Bituminous, Anthracite, and Iron ore beds, near Broad Top 

 Mountain, in Bedford county, and of a coal vein in Perry county, Pennsylvania, 

 with sections." " Notices of the evidences of the existence of an ancient Lake, 

 which appears to have formerly filled the Limestone Valley of Kishacoquillas, in 

 Mifflin county, Penna." " On the Mineral Basin or Coal Field of Blossburg, on 

 the Tioga River, Tioga county, Penn." "Memoir of a section passing through 

 the Bituminous Coal Field near Richmond, in Virginia." "Review of the Geo- 

 logieal phenomena, and the deductions derivable therefrom, in 250 miles of sec- 

 tions, in parts of Virginia and Maryland. Also, notice of certain Fossil Acoty 



