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NATURE 



[_August 8, 1878 



ago, and now by the kindness of a correspondent we are 

 able to give a few details as to his career. 



The Rev. W. B. Clarke was born on June 2, 1 798, at 

 East Bergholt, in Suffolk. In October, 1817, he went to 

 Cambridge and entered into residence at Jesus College. 

 In January, 182 1, he took his B.A. degree, and in 

 July, 1824, he was made M.A. and a member of the 

 Senate. From May, 1821, until November, 1824, he 

 officiated as curate of Ramsholt, Nedging, Whatfield, 

 Chellesworth, and Brantham ; after this he became 

 curate for a time in his native parish. The rector 

 seems to have had a proper appreciation of his talents, 

 for he not only allowed but enjoined him to travel during 

 a portion of each year, a privilege of which Mr. Clarke 

 availed himself in order to pursue and complete the geo- 

 logical and mineralogical studies that he had commenced 

 at the University under the teaching of Prof. Sedgwick 

 and Dr. Clarke, the celebrated traveller in the Holy 

 Land. During this period he made some fifteen distinct 

 journeys of exploration either on the Continent or in 

 different parts of his native land, enlarging his expe- 

 rience and acquiring fresh stores of information. In 1823 

 he was presented by Lord de Manley to a small ricarage 

 in the county of Dorset, with a written promise of the 

 succession to a desirable rectory in Gloucestershire. 

 Having, however, rheumatic affection, and seeing no im- 

 mediate prospect of succeeding to the Gloucestershire 

 living, he determined to take a voyage to Australia, and 

 arrived in Sydney in the year 1839. He appears to have 

 found in Australia a fitting field, both for his labours as 

 a clergyman and for the prosecution of his favourite 

 studies in geology and mineralogy, and he at once applied 

 himself to both. He had been considerably influenced 

 in deciding to make Australia his home by correspondence 

 he had had with the late Sir Thomas Mitchell, formerly 

 Surveyor-General of the colony, and with the late Bishop 

 Broughton, who had been his fellow-undergraduate at 

 Cambridge. The first charge to which he was appointed 

 was that of King' s School, Parramatta, a position which 

 he continued to fill until the beginning of the year 1841, 

 after which he retired from the school, and attended only 

 to his clerical duties. In 1844 he took charge of the 

 parish of Willoughby, North Shore, with which he re- 

 mained connected till 1870. 



Mr. Clarke filled many positions of honour and dis- 

 tinction in connection with his own communion, and 

 with learned and scientific bodies in various parts of 

 the world. He was Fellow of St. Paul's College, vice- 

 president of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 

 trustee of the Australian Museum, trustee of the Public 

 Free Library, Fellow of the Geological Society of 

 England since the year 1826, member of the Geological 

 Society of France, member of the Royal Geological 

 Institute of Austria, member of the Royal Geological 

 Society of London, &c., &c. In the department of 

 science to which he had more particularly devoted his 

 attention, he was regarded as an authority by all geo- 

 logists. Perhaps his largest and best-known work is 

 that entitled "The Southern Gold-fields," which contains 

 an exhaustive description of the auriferous deposits 

 throughout Australia. This work was written in conse- 

 quence of Mr. Clarke having been commissioned by the 

 Government to visit and report upon the principal gold- 

 producing localities in the colony. A number of his 

 papers were at different times read before the Royal 

 Society of New South Wales, and are preserved 

 among its records. They are almost entirely con- 

 fined to subjects relating to geology, mineralogy, and 

 meteorology. 



Some two or three years ago Mr. Clarke was elected a 

 member of the Royal Society of England— an honour 

 which has been so rarely conferred upon colonial savans 

 that Mr. Clarke valued it perhaps more than all the other 

 distmctions he had won, especially as the honour was 



conferred upon him by the unanimous and spontaneous 

 action of the Society. Mr. Clarke died on June 16. 



The announcement of the death of Mr. R. Daintree, 

 C.M.G., F.G.S., will be read with deep regret ali'.ce in this 

 country and the Australian Colonies, more especially 

 Victoria and Queensland. Next perhaps to that of Mr. 

 Clarke, his name has been more intimately associated 

 with geological science at the Antipodes than that of any 

 other observer, more particularly in connection with the 

 former province. 



On his first arrival in Victoria Mr. Daintree became 

 connected with Mr. A R. C. Selwyn, F.R.S. (now 

 Director of the Geological Survey of Canada), in the 

 geological survey of that colony, and did good work in 

 the exploration of the Bass River, the survey of the Cape 

 Patterson Coal-field, and other difficult explorations. 

 He was also engaged in the survey of a large tract of 

 country to the south-west of Melbourne, around the now 

 flourishing town of Geelong, comprising the Barrabool 

 Hills, the Anakil, and other minor ranges, and to the 

 north the districts of Ballan and Bacchus Marsh. An 

 accomplished photographer, his knowledge of this science 

 was turned to good account in the preparation of a large 

 number of photographs illustrative of the general geology 

 of Victoria and Queensland, and more especially of the 

 physical structure of the gold fields, and the methods in 

 operation for the mining and extraction of gold. The 

 fonnation and mode of occurrence of the precious metal 

 attracted a good deal of his attention, more especially 

 with regard to its presence in rocks associated with 

 dioritic dykes in Queensland. 



Mr. Daintree' s connection with the Geological Survey 

 of Victoria commenced in 1854, and, with the exception 

 of a short interruption in 1857-8, continued down to 

 1864. In that year he left Victoria for North Queens- 

 land, and settled there as a "squatter," continuing at 

 the same time to interest himself in matters geological. 

 In 1869 the Queensland government appointed him 

 government geologist for the northern half of the colony 

 — a choice amply justified by the remarkably good work 

 he performed whilst acting in that capacity. Queensland 

 owes to Richard Daintree no ordinary debt of gratitude 

 for the important part he took in the development of 

 her mineral resources, the discovery of several im- 

 portant gold fields having followed quickly upon his 

 prognostications. 



Daintree' s geological map of Queensland will give 

 some idea of the vast tracts of country traversed and 

 reported on during the course of his residence in that 

 province, and on which the geological boundaries of the 

 various formations were laid down with great care and 

 precision. Whilst on this subject we would call attention 

 more particularly to the definite delineation of the boun- 

 daries of the great secondary formation of north-eastern 

 Australia about which little, comparatively speaking, was 

 known up to that time, except the occurrence of typical 

 fossils at a few isolated localities. The great tertiary 

 series, aptly designated by Daintree the "Desert Sand- 

 stone," was shown to have extended over the greater part 

 of Australia at one time. 



In 1871 Mr. Daintree was appointed Special Commis- 

 sioner for Queensland to the International Exhibition of 

 1872, and organised the admirably-arranged Queensland 

 annexe, which was, in that and succeeding exhibitions, 

 so universally admired. An experienced and determined 

 bushman, he had, during his Australian career, paid 

 too little attention to the preservation of his health, 

 and in all probability laid the seeds of the complaint 

 which afterwards terminated fatally. Soon after his 

 appointment in March, 1872, as Agent-General for the 

 Queensland Colony in London, his health began to give way, 

 \ and his condition caused much anxiety to his numerous 

 j friends. Notwithstanding his removal to a warmer 

 climate during our winters, signs of pulmonary disease 



