384 SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON'S ADDRESS. [May 25, 1857. 



the Royal Society, whose chief honour * he had received, it does not 

 become me to attempt any analysis of those writings upon the struc- 

 ture of the globe or its former inhabitants, which have been justly 

 regarded as among the chief stepping-stones to the present state of 

 geological science. I. will, therefore, confine myself to a brief 

 sketch of a few points in his character, which may convey to those 

 who knew him not, some idea of the powers and habits of this great 

 geologist. 



Educated at Tiverton and Winchester, he obtained from the latter 

 school a scholarship in Corpus Christi College, Oxford. There it 

 was that, after he had become a tutor in classics, a youth came 

 to the University (Oriel College), who, having already attained 

 an acquaintance with fossil organic remains, was destined through 

 that knowledge to influence the future career of many of his asso- 

 ciates who had similar tastes. This was William John Broderip, 

 afterwards my colleague during five years as joint secretary of the 

 Geological Society, and now well known as one of the eminent 

 naturalists of our age. 



The study of the collection made by this juvenile companion, 

 including the jaw of a marsupial quadruped found in the Stones- 

 field slate, first awakened the dormant talent of Buckland. Culti- 

 vating the friendship of the precocious fossilist, he soon developed 

 that peculiar power, which characterized him through life, of 

 catching up and assimilating with marvellous rapidity everything 

 that illustrated the new science of fossil organic remains, then just 

 coming into vogue through the work of Parkinson. So strongly 

 did Buckland feel in after years the deep obligations he was under 

 to young Broderip, that I have myself heard him speak of the 

 latter as his " tutor in geology." 



Admiring the original efforts of William Smith, who, in identify- 

 ing strata by their organic remains and by his geological maps, 

 has worthily acquired the title of Father of English Geology, Mr. 

 Buckland made numerous excursions to examine the. rocks in 

 various districts, and in so doing sought out the few promoters of 

 the rising science. The kindred scientific spirits of his Alma Mater, 

 whether older men or of about his own age, were Pegge, Kidd, 

 and John and William Conybeare, the last mentioned, now the 

 Dean of Llandaff, rising afterwards to be the rival of our deceased 

 member as the celebrated author of the ' Outlines of the Geology 

 of England and Wales.' Thus working onwards he qualified him- 



* The Copley Medal. 



