Robert Etheridge. 259 



Director-General of the Geological Survey. This led to his gaining 

 a permanent position in the museum at Jermyn Street. He was 

 appointed on July 1, 1857, as Assistant Naturalist, " to carry out the 

 directions of the Naturalist (T. H. Huxley) ; to catalogue and describe 

 the fossils of the Mesozoic and Cainozoic formations for the memoirs 

 and publications of the Survey." At that time J. W. Salter, the 

 Palaeontologist, was distinguished for his unrivalled knowledge of 

 Palaeozoic fossils. To the higher post of Palaeontologist EtKeridge 

 succeeded on July 1, 1863, on the retirement of Salter, and for many 

 years he had the chief responsibility in naming the fossils collected 

 during the progress of the Geological Survey, and in aiding the field- 

 officers in correlating the sub-divisions of the strata. " A Catalogue 

 of the Collection of Fossils in the Museum of Practical Geology," drawn 

 up by R. Etheridge, and accompanied by an interesting " Explanatory 

 Preface " by Prof. Huxley, was published in 1865. 



The chief work of Etheridge as a palaeontologist was in identifying 

 species of invertebrata, and in tabulating the fossils of the British 

 Islands; comparatively few new species were named and described 

 by him. 



As President of the Geological Society he delivered, in 1881 and 

 1882, voluminous statistical addresses on the analysis and distribution 

 of the British Palaeozoic and Jurassic fossils; and the substance of 

 these addresses was embodied in his " Stratigraphical Geology and 

 Palaeontology," published in 1885. This work was issued as Part 2 of 

 a second edition of John Phillips' "Manual of Geology"; Part 1, 

 treating of " Physical Geology and Palaeontology," having been pre- 

 pared by Prof. H. G. Seeley. Although the original plan of Phillips 

 was followed, this edition was practically re-written, and Etheridge's 

 work consisted of 712 pages, which dealt in much detail with the 

 strata of the British Islands and their fossils. 



Since 1865 Etheridge had been busily occupied in the preparation 

 of a full list of the " Fossils of the British Islands, Stratigraphically 

 and Zoologically arranged," but it was not until 1888 that the first 

 volume, dealing with the Palaeozoic species, was printed, the publica- 

 tion having been undertaken by the Delegates of the Oxford University 

 Press. The information was brought up to 1886, in a quarto volume 

 of 468 pages. Volumes 2 and 3, containing the Mesozoic and Cainozoic 

 species, remain in manuscript. 



In addition to these larger works, Mr. Etheridge had given par- 

 ticular attention to the Rhaetic beds, and had published papers on the 

 strata at Aust Cliff, Westbury-on-Severn, Penarth and Watchet. More 

 important, however, was the paper which he communicated to the 

 Geological Society in April, 1867, "On the Physical Structure of 

 North Devon, and on the Palaeontological Value of the Devonian 



