XXIV 



Stuccos, and Concrete, and on Puzzolannas, natural and artificial,' 

 of which the first edition was published in September 1838. It 

 contained considerable discoveries, the results of experiments at 

 Chatham, and led at once to the manufacture in large quantities of 

 artificial cements, under the different names of " Portland Cement," 

 " Patent Lithic Cement/' and " Blue Lias Cement." 



In connexion with experiments on the explosion of gunpowder 

 under water, Colonel Pasley was led to undertake, and successfully 

 to carry out, the removal of two sunken vessels from the bed of the 

 Thames near Gravesend, in the year 1838. He received for this 

 service the thanks of the municipal authorities, and was presented 

 with the freedom of the City of London in a gold box. Embold- 

 ened by the success of these operations, he proceeded to execute the 

 more formidable task of clearing away the wreck of the ' Royal 

 George* from the anchorage at Spithead, and that of the * Edgar* 

 from St. Helen's. The value of the materials recovered from these 

 vessels was more than equal to the expense incurred in their re- 

 moval. Portions of six successive summers, from 1839 to 1844 in- 

 clusive, were devoted by him to this work ; but he never asked for nor 

 received from the Admiralty any remuneration for the important se.i- 

 vices that he rendered in this manner to the navy and the nation. 



Colonel Pasley remained at Chatham till the end of the year 184 1, 

 when he was appointed, at the age of 61, to the office of Inspector- 

 General of Railways. During the twenty-nine years and a half that 

 he was at the head of the Royal Engineer Establishment, there was 

 hardly any subject connected with his profession as a military man 

 and an engineer of instruction, construction, or destruction that did 

 not benefit by his attention. His presence there was of the greatest 

 advantage to his country as well as to his corps. The corps of 

 Royal Engineers owes, in fact, its existence in its present condition, 

 as well as its high state of efficiency, to his energy, his example, 

 and his exertions ; and the success of the British army in many a 

 field has been due in no small degree to the system of instruction at 

 which he laboured so devotedly, and which he rendered so perfect. 

 As the latest example of the advantage of that system we may refer 

 to the recent war in New Zealand, which was brought to a close 

 mainly through the employment of Pasley' s methods, by officers 

 (one of them his own son) whojiad been trained by him at Chat- 



