INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 25 



lf^78; the introductory notice to which is dated June 2nd, 1878, 

 ■only fifteen days before his death. That volume is an index to the 

 immense services rendered by him to geology generally, although it 

 is more particularly devoted to the Palaeozoic rocks of New South 

 Wales, to the study of which he had devoted forty years of his 

 life. Now that fifteen years have passed since his death we 

 are better able to make a true estimate of his real achieve- 

 ments than was possible at the time ot their announcement. 

 'Though some of his observations have been corrected and some of 

 his generalisations discarded, yet the solid mass of original work 

 remains as a lasting memorial of his genius and industry. His 

 name has become a household worJ amongst us, and will be handed 

 do--vn to posterity as that of the '• Father of Australian Geology." 



The geological and palseontological collections made by Clarke, 

 as well as his maps and books, were acquired by the New .South 

 Wales Government at a cost of £7,1/00. This, as also the collection 

 made by the Department of Mines at the instance of the Govern- 

 ment Geologist, w-as destroyed by fire on September 22nd, 1882; 

 thus maps, manuscripts, and authenticated fossils, the greater bulk 

 of which had not been utilised up to that time, were absolutely lost. 



On the resignation of Mr. Stutchbury at the end of 1855, a long 

 interregnum succeeded, during which Mr. W. Keene, the examiner 

 of coalfields and keeper of mining records, continued, in a certain 

 sense, the geological survey, but the actual advancement in our 

 knowledge of stratigraphical geology and palajontology is due to 

 the Rev. W. B. Clarke, and to him alone In 1873, Mr. C. S. 

 Wilkinson, previously of the Geological Survey of Victoria, was 

 appointed Geological Surveyor; and in 1875 the control of the 

 Survey Branch of the newly-organised Department of Mines was 

 vested in him. In 1880* the first geological map of New South 

 Wales, based on the original map of the late Rev. W. B. Clarke, 

 was issued by the Department. Some indication of Wilkinson's 

 successful direction of the survey is to be found in his niunerous 

 official reports and maps, wdiich evince intense application and high 

 professional skill. His many papers contributed to scientific 

 societies further display an untiring energy and zeal in the cause 

 of his favorite science. The geology of New South Wales 

 received very careful development at his hands, and a summary of 

 its stratigraphy from his pen was published by the Department of 

 Mines in 1887f. The classification of the Carboniferous rocks of 



* Report Department of Mines for 1880. and separately issued in ISS2. 

 t Notes on the Geology of New South Wales. 



