May 25, 1857.] OBITUARY. 387 



ing, indeed, received some of my first lessons in the field from liim, 

 that he was really a good physical geographer. No one who followed 

 him even from the valley of the Isis to the summit of Shotover 

 Hill, can ever forget how forcibly he impressed upon the minds of 

 his auditors, the causes which had operated in producing the outlines 

 of the ground — how well he made his pupils comprehend Avhy water 

 rose in wells at certain spots and levels, and why other tracts were 

 dry, or how he taught the young agriculturists the elements of 

 draining, and showed them where the vegetation changed as de- 

 pendent on the nature of the subsoil. 



To whatever realm he travelled, whether over the undulations of 

 Germany or the heights and glaciers of the Alps, he adroitly applied 

 and extended these views, and everywhere exemplified (what I 

 have endeavoured to imitate in my own walk) that union of geology 

 with geography, without which the latter science is deprived of its 

 firmest foundation. 



While Dr. Buckland evinced enthusiastic zeal and great ability 

 in the development of any phenomena connected with natural 

 history which he could detect, whether in the organization of 

 animals or of plants, he also often sought to apply his science 

 practically. Thus, the most remarkable of these efforts, which I can 

 now call to mind, proceeded from one of his own discoveries. Per- 

 ceiving that certain fossil convoluted bodies, when extracted from 

 their ^native bed in the lias of Gloucestershire, presented the appear- 

 ance oifcBces, which had assumed that form from passing through 

 the intestines of reptiles or fishes, he submitted the substances to 

 analysis, and when they were pronounced by the late Dr. Prout to 

 be chiefly composed of phosphate of lime derived from the bones of 

 animals, and that even fragments of the bones were detected in 

 them, he assigned to these bodies the name of " Coprolites." With 

 a fervid anticipation he was afterwards led to hope that these fossil 

 bodies would prove of real use to agriculture ; and one of the many 

 regrets I have experienced since his bright intellect was clouded, 

 was that my friend had not been able to appreciate the truly valu- 

 able results that have followed from this his own discovery, which, 

 at the time it was made, was treated as a curious but unimportant 

 subject, and almost scouted as being too mean for investigation. 

 The hundreds of tons of these phosphatic coprolites and animal 

 substances which are now extracted to the great profit of the pro- 

 prietors of Cambridgeshire and the adjacent counties, for the eniich- 

 ment of their lands, is a warning commentary to those persons of 



