536 Geological Society. 



dale ; and soon added to his rich osteological collection from York- 

 shire the remains of elepliants, rhinoceros, hippopotami, oxen and 

 deer, whicli abound near Stratford in tlie brick- eartli pits, that are . 

 extensively excavated at Ilford. In his death we have to deplore 

 the loss of an acute and zealous discoverer and promoter of Paige- 

 ontology; and it has become the bounden duty of all the cultivators 

 of this science, and more particularly of myself, to record our sense 

 of the judicious sagacity and liberality of Mr. Gibson, but for whom 

 the catacombs of Kirkdale might never have been heard of, and 

 their records of our Yorkshire Hysenopolis might have perished 

 without finding an interpreter. 



In Mr. William JNIaclure we have lost an early and useful la- 

 bourer in the field of geology, to whom we owe the first connected 

 and systematic accounts of the structure of North America reduced 

 to a comparison with that of Europe. 



He was born at Ayr in 1763, and educated in that town. In 

 1782 he visited New York, and returning to London became a part- 

 ner in an American mercantile house. He visited France several 

 times between 1782 and 1796, when he went to Virginia and closed 

 his business there as a merchant. In 1 803 he returned to Britain, 

 and was appointed a Commissioner for settling the claims of the 

 United States against France. From Paris, as a centre, he after- 

 wards made scientific tours over a large portion of Europe. 



In 1807, returning from Europe, he commenced single-handed 

 the Herculean task of exploring the geology of the United States ; 

 and after several years of labour, during which he crossed the Al- 

 leghany Mountains not less than fifty times, he produced a geological 

 map of the whole country, which, though it gives only the Wer- 

 nerian classes of rocks, forms a most valuable outline, and is a monu- 

 ment of great industry, perseverance and intelligence'*. 



His first observations on the geology of tlie United States, ac- 

 companied by the first geological map of tliat country, were read 

 to the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, Jan. 20, 

 1809, and published in the sixth volume of their Transactions, part 1 . 

 In these Transactions also (vol. i. New Series) he published a se- 

 cond paper, read May 10, 1817, upon the same subject, with a 

 geologically coloured map and sections, in wiiich his views were 

 improved and corrected by eight years' additional observations in 

 the United States, and by a geological tour over a great portion of 

 Europe. 



This admirable paper was reprinted at Philadelpliia in 1817, in a 

 separate 8vo volume, entitled, " Observations on the Geology of the 

 United States of America, with remarks on the effect produced on 

 the nature and fertility of soils by the decomposition of the different 

 classes of rocks." 



On this important subject, of the connexion of geology with 

 agriculture, Mr. IMaclure has clearly shown that the fundamental 

 basis of the agricultural resources of every country must rest on 



* See Hitchcock's ' Elementary Geology,' 1810, p. 283, 



