OBITUARY. 



WILLIAM TOPLEY, F.R.S. 

 Born 1841. Died 1894. 



THE sad news of the death of WilHam Topley has come as a 

 surprise to his many friends. He had attended the Zurich 

 meeting of the International Congress, and, full of interest and 

 energy, he had proceeded to Algiers. There he was seized with 

 illness, and on returning to his home at Croydon, it was found that 

 gastritis had developed, a disease from which he never recovered. 

 Mr. Topley, who was born at Greenwich, received his scientific 

 training at the Royal School of Mines. In 1862 he was appointed 

 an Assistant-Geologist on the Geological Survey of Great Britain, 

 and six years later was promoted to the rank of geologist. Com- 

 mencing field-work in the Wealden area, he became specially 

 interested in the Cretaceous and Neocomian strata and in the 

 problems connected with the sculpture of the scenery. His important 

 memoir on the Geology of the Weald, and the paper (written jointly 

 with Dr. Le Neve Foster) on the Medway Gravels and Denudation 

 of the Weald, were results of this early work. In the meanwhile, 

 and before the Wealden memoir was written, Mr. Topley was 

 transferred to the far north of England, to take part in the survey of 

 the coal-field of Durham and Northumberland. Later on, in 1880, 

 he was appointed to superintend the publication of maps and 

 memoirs at the Geological Survey office in Jermyn Street, and on 

 the retirement of Mr. Best, in 1893, Mr. Topley took entire charge of 

 the office. 



Always full of work, and seemingly untiring in energy, yet he 

 never published very much. The effects of denudation on anticlines 

 and synclines, and the intrusive character of the Whin Sill, were 

 topics he discussed from his experience in the north. He took an 

 active part in the publication of the Geological Record, fulfilling for a 

 time the arduous position of editor. He served for many years as 

 one of the secretaries of Section C. at the British Association, and 

 prepared for that body reports on Gold, on Coast Erosion, and on 

 National Geological Surveys. He was one of the secretaries of the 



