444 Geological Society. 



his memory kindle in us a feeling not merely of gratitude but of 

 emulation! 



Dr. Berger, who died in the early part of last year, was a native 

 of Switzerland, and had been employed in geological study for 

 some years previous to 1813, when he sought in England an asylum 

 from the foreign oppression which in those days of revolution had 

 visited his country. In 1816, at the request of some of his friends 

 in this Society, he agreed to devote himself for three years to geo- 

 logical investigations in the British Islands ; and an annual sum 

 was insured to him during that period by a subscription of some of 

 our members. The north-west coast of Ireland was suggested for his 

 first examination, and there, as might perhaps have been foreseen, the 

 movements of a foreigner, who spoke our language imperfectly, 

 and whose occupation must have appeared to the inhabitants myste- 

 rious, if not dangerous, at first excited doubt and obstruction, which, 

 though not unamusing, were attended with some embarrassment, and 

 called for the interference of his friends. He laboured with great 

 zeal and assiduity, in that interesting field of inquiry, till his health 

 unfortunately gave way His papers and collections were therefore 

 incomplete ; and his attention appears to have been given perhaps 

 too much to the investigation of details not immediately connected 

 with the proper and immediate business of the geologist. His merit, 

 however, must be judged of, not by reference to the present state 

 of knowledge and the methods of inquiry now pursued, but to the 

 condition of the science at that time. The facts he accumulated 

 were valuable. " A Memoir on the Dykes of the north-east coast 

 of Ireland," by himself, appears in the third volume of our Trans- 

 actions ; his remaining papers were put into the hands of the 

 Rev. William Conybeare, who subsequently went over the same 

 country with Dr. Buckland ; and we are indebted to the labours of 

 Dr. Berger, extended and illustrated by these geologists, for one of 

 the most valuable memoirs in the earlier volumes of our Transactions. 

 The late years of Dr. Berger's life were passed in his native country, 

 in bad health: he died at Geneva in 1833. 



In perusing at the distance of so many years the record of the 

 arrangement by which Dr. Berger's services were obtained for this 

 Society, and the names subjoined*, I have been much struck by 

 the delicacy with which his personal feelings were consulted, and 

 have looked back with pride and exultation to the early history of our 

 institution. I cannot be surprised at the success which has attended 

 your exertions, when I call to mind the noble and disinterested spirit 

 by which the first steps in your progress were directed. On no oc- 

 casion since I have known the Geological Society, (and I have 

 known it from its birth until the present hour,) have the Members 

 hesitated to contribute, with the most liberal devotion, both personal 

 labour and pecuniary support, whenever the probable advancement 



* The paper bears, with the names of other Members who still remain, 

 the signatures of the late Dr. Babington, Dr. Marcet, Mr. Francis Horner, 

 Mr. Morgan, Dr. Wollaston, Sir Joseph Banks and Mr. Ricardo. 



