153 



telling me that in consequence of what I told him before he left London 

 confirmed as it was by other qualities, that he had named you. 



Do not make me appear to be instrumental, for I still have enemies elsewhere, 

 but I am bound to adhere to so good a Silurian as yourself 



Ever yours sincerely, 



R. I. MURCHISON. 



So in 1853 we find Harkness duly installed as Professor of 

 Geology at Cork, a post that he filled with honour to himself and 

 advantage to the geological world for just a quarter of a century. 

 The same year he was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society, 

 a title that, in those days, was not conferred without discrimination 

 upon almost any candidate prepared to pay the requisite fees. 



Harkness's removal to a district as different in the details of its 

 geological structure from that of the Basin of the Solway as this 

 was from the scenes of his first field work, gave him additional 

 opportunities of extending his knowledge of the older rocks ; and 

 he had not been long at Cork before we find him bringing his 

 previously-acquired knowledge to bear upon the new problems 

 that there lay around him waiting for solution. The first published 

 results of his investigation in this new field appeared under the 

 title of the Geology of the Dingle Promontory, which he soon 

 followed up by another on the Cleavage of the Devonians of the 

 South of Ireland. These, together with a paper on Coal, and 

 another on Mineral Charcoal- — both containing contributions of 

 some value — appeared in the " Edinburgh New Philosophical 

 Journal," shortly after his appointment to the Chair at Cork. The 

 scientific value of these papers was at once recognized, and in the 

 year 1854 Harkness's name was enrolled along with the long list 

 of scientific worthies that then formed the Royal Society of Edin- 

 burgh. 



Early in the year 1854 a circumstance occurred that gives us a 

 good insight into Harkness's inner nature, and the motives that 

 influenced him in many of his dealings with the outer world in 

 after life. Sir Henr}' De la Beche, the famous geologist that really 

 laid the foundation of the Geological Survey of the United King- 

 dom, wrote to Harkness, offering him an appointment under the 



