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PROFESSOR ROBERT HARKNESS, F.R.S., F.G.S. 



By J. G. GOODCHILD, of the Geol. Survey of England. 



(Read at Penrith.) 



Introduction, 



The principal events in the life of a man of science offer, as a rule, 

 so little that is of interest to the world outside the circle of his own 

 friends and acquaintance,that the advisability of placing them perma 

 nently on record may, in many cases, well be called in question. Even 

 where he happens to have largely influenced public opinion by 

 means of well-known and widely-read books, the general public 

 are apt to feel very little interest in any account of the principal 

 events in the career of the author himself, unless, of course, these 

 events are known to possess in themselves some degree of interest 

 approaching to the dramatic. In most cases this indifference will 

 be found to arise from the fact that the subjects principally treated 

 of do not happen, as a whole, to relate sufficiently to any one 

 particular locality to cause the permanent association of the author's 

 name with that of the principal scene of his labours. Where, how- 

 ever, a man has exerted a considerable degree of influence upon 

 scientific opinion by an important series of scientific contributions 

 relating to any definite area, the history of his labours becomes 

 equivalent to a history of the science he has helped to advance, 

 and under that aspect may justly claim to possess, for the people 

 of that area, at least, an interest of something more than the 

 ordinary kind. 



That this was the case with the man of science of whose history 

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