202 The Irish Nahiralist, December, 



master predicted for him a brilliant career. His early taste 

 for mathematical reasoning remained with him throughout 

 life. He graduated, with the degree of B.A., at Trinity College 

 (University of Dublin) in 1846, and was ordained in 1848. 

 From 1849 to 1857 he was rector of Shangton, in the south of 

 Leicestershire ; and it was characteristic of him that he felt 

 increasing doubts as to the propriety of retaining an office 

 obtained by him under the system of lay-patronage. He 

 finally resigned his rectorship on conscientious grounds, and 

 became curate at Waltham-on-the-Wolds, a village on the 

 Jurassic scarp between Melton Mowbra}^ and Grantham. He 

 held this post until 186I; and soon after, on the death of his 

 father, settled permanently in Dublin, giving his services to 

 various churches in the city. He received the degree of 

 Master of Arts from his University in 1867, and was elected a 

 member of the Royal Irish Academy on May 13th of the same 

 year. By this time his position as a geological observer had 

 become established by three papers on the traces of the glacial 

 epoch in Ireland ; these were the result of work in the field, 

 and of journeys which led him into many remote portions of 

 the country. It is probable that his love of the ancient 

 language and antiquities of Ireland became strengthened and 

 confirmed during these researches, which brought him fre- 

 quently into contact with the peasant populations of the west 



In his great paper on the general glaciation of Ireland 

 (1866-7), Mr. Close showed that the land-ice of glacial 

 times flowed " outwards from off the present land on every 

 side of Ireland," and he accounted for the greater importance 

 of the streams that moved south-east by suggesting that the 

 west of the country and the plateau extending into the 

 Atlantic stood formerl}^ at a greater height than now. The 

 gathering of an ice-field in the region between I^ough P'oyle 

 and Lough Allen, from which the glaciation of northern 

 Ireland radiated, is one of the most striking features shown on 

 the map issued with his paper. 



In 1872, Mr. Close published, with Mr. G. H. Kinahan, a 

 pamphlet on the general glaciation of lar-Connaught, point- 

 ing out the existence of a central area of divSpersion in the 

 Joyces' Country. This paper formed another and a practically 

 unassailable contribution to the land-ice theory, as accounting 



