XXXii PBOCEEDINOS OF THE 



family, lie was early iuitiated iuto mercantile pursuits, wliicli 

 continued to engage his attention throughout the remainder of 

 Hs life, but left him sufScient leisure to prosecute with great 

 ardour and success the geological studies which formed his prin- 

 cipal relaxation. A commercial connexion with the wine-growing 

 districts of Portugal, leading him to pay occasional visits to Lisbon 

 and Oporto, and to a residence of some extent in the neighbour- 

 hood of each, he was naturally induced to give particular attention 

 to the geology of those districts, and between 1832 and 1849 he 

 communicated to the Greological Society four memoirs on the 

 subject, which indicate by their increasing scientific interest the 

 gradual growth of his knowledge and enlargement of his views, and 

 form an excellent sketch of a country hitherto undescribed. In the 

 mean time he had been occupied at intervals in visiting various di- 

 stricts of England, Scotland, and "Wales, and had given to the Greo- 

 logical Society a series of papers " On the Geology of the South 

 of Westmoreland ; " " On the Bala Limestone ; " "On the Silu- 

 rian Eocks of the South of Westmoreland and the Nortli of 

 Lancashire;" "On the Geology of North Wales;" "On Slaty 

 Cleavage;" "On the Quartz Eock of M'Culloch's Map of Scot- 

 land ; " and " On the Southern Border of the Highlands of Scot- 

 land," which appeared from time to time in the ' Transactions,' 

 'Proceedings,' and 'Journal' of that Society. In the course of 

 these researches Mr. Sharpe made himself much more intimately 

 acquainted with extinct forms and their relations to existing 

 objects than is the custom with geologists in general ; and by this 

 means acquired that high degree of skill in the palseontological 

 determination of the age of rocks which formed the most striking 

 characteristic of his geological labours. As contributions to special 

 subjects of palaeontology, may be recorded papers " On a New 

 Species oi Ichthyosaurus \''^ " On Trematis, a New Genus belong- 

 ing to the Family of Brachiopodous Mollusca; " " On the Possil 

 Eemains of Mollusca from the Palaeozoic Formations of the United 

 States ; " " On Tylostoma, a proposed genus of Gasteropodous 

 MoUusks ; " and " On the Genus Nerincea, with an accouait of the 

 species found in Portugal;" together with several parts of an 

 important Monograph, which is included among the splendid 

 publications of the Palseontographical Society, entitled " Descrip- 

 tion of the Fossil Eemains of the Mollusca found in the Chalk- 

 Formation of England," 4to, 1853, &c. The only Natural-History 

 paper uncoimected with Geology, which I am aware of his having 

 published, is, a short communication printed in the first volume of 



