l8 PRF.STDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION' l\. 



" I had the good fortune to meet with Lyell's ' Principles of Geology,' 

 which I took home and read with avidity over and over again. I was 

 smitten. Lyell had made a convert of me. I lamented that I had never 

 read his or any other geological work before. Soon after, being in 

 Grahamstown, I learnt that a merchant had imported a copy of Buckland's 

 ' Bridgewater Treatise," for which he asked me the moderate price of 36 

 fix dollars, and if he had asked as many pounds. I should have given it 

 with pleasure to possess that inestimable work. I was now set up. My 

 zeal knew no bounds, and I literally left no stone unturned in search of 

 fossils and minerals. 1 used to ride abovit with a large hammer slung in 

 my belt, and a bag on my shoulder, which conduct some charitable friends 

 were kind enough to attribute to lunacy, when in truth it was nothing 

 but a severe attack of lithomania. My mouth was ever full of stones and 

 fossils, and nothing would go down with me but organic remains." 



The second passage is a description* by Atherstone of a 

 discovery of fossils made in company with Bain. 



" Next morning we were up at break of day, and ere I had finished 

 my coffee, a loud ' hurrah !' from the cliffs above me summoned me with 

 a bound to the spot. My friend Bain had gone off without his coffee and 

 got the start of me. There he stood half-dressed, with a splendid gryphaea 

 incurva in his hand, beckoning us to come. ' The cliffs are Liassic then I' 

 we both exclaimed ; and now commenced a most exciting scene. Gryphaeas, 

 trigonias, ammonites, gervillias, exogj'ras, nautili, whole and in fragments, 

 were thickly strewn over the sides of the cliff, lying uncovered by the 

 rain of years. Each fresh discovery was announced by a louder shout of 

 triumph. The two lads ran up, and their sister was not slow in follow- 

 ing with their hammer. The black fellows, too, thinking by the shouts 

 and running that there certainly must be gold now, scrambled up after 

 us. Such a scene of excitement ! ... As for breakfast, who thinks 

 of eating under such circumstances ? " 



It required such fiery enthusiasm as this to overcome the 

 obstacles which the pioneers found blocking their way. The 

 principal of these were lack of knowledge and training, and the 

 absence of sympathy and encouragement on the part of the 

 Government and the general South African public. 



"As for myself [says Stow], having nothing in the world trustworthy 

 to refer to — not even a cabinet of rocks and minerals — I feel the greatest 

 possible diffidence in calling a stone a stone. I alwaj'S do so in fear and 

 trembling; and this not>vithstanding the burning earnest desire I have 

 that I may be enabled to do some, if even but a little, good to my genera- 

 tion." I 



Of all the pioneers, Stow had the hardest lot, and of his 

 troubles, lack of sympathy, and even active obstrtiction, on the 

 part of Government officials were not the least. It must be men- 

 tioned, however, that men like Sir Henry Barkly, Sir H. Bartle 

 Frere, and President Brand thoroughly appreciated the value of 

 scientific research, but even such men found themselves com- 

 paratively powerless amidst the general ignorance and prejudice 

 that surrounded them. The following passages taken from letters 

 written about thirty years ago by a living geologist, who did good 

 v/ork in South Africa, describe this state of affairs: — 



* " Geology of Uitenhage." 7'hc Eastern Province Mnu'hly 'Mas^a:;inc. 

 June, 1857. 



t R. B. Young. "The Life and Work of George William Stow," p. 2^. 



