THE ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY 163 



the Queen's county and to Kilkenny : Mr. Gorges of 

 Kilbrew, and Mr. West of Clontarf, also asked him to 

 view their properties, but on Kilbrew he reported un- 

 favourably. He reported on the coal districts of 

 Kilkenny, Queen's county and Carlow, and stated that 

 he was making a geological map of Ireland. In 18 14, 

 Griffith visited Newcastle-on-Tyne, " a centre of ad- 

 mirable management in coal-mining, machinery, &c." ; 

 here his attention was much attracted by a newly 

 constructed steam carriage, in use for drawing loaded 

 waggons along railways to the exclusion of horses ! 

 He thought that most important results would flow 

 from it. 



After a short time, the professorship of mineralogy 

 was declared vacant, and four candidates were selected 

 — Robert Bakewell, an author and lecturer in London, 

 Charles Lewis Giesecke, Dr. James Miller, a Scotch- 

 man, and Thomas Weaver, who, having been a pupil 

 of Werner at a mining school in Freiberg, Saxony, 

 had conducted mining operations at Cronebane, Glen- 

 dalough, and Luganure. Giesecke was elected by a 

 majority of 46 over Weaver, and on the 27th of 

 January 18 14, "he was introduced by the vice- 

 president in the chair to the Dublin Society." 



Karl Ludwig Metzler, who afterwards assumed the 

 name of Giesecke, was born in 1761, in Augsburg, and 

 is believed to have been educated at Gottingen, under 

 Blumenbach, though it is doubtful whether there be 

 not confusion in this particular between him and one 

 of his brothers. The youth and early manhood of 

 this extraordinary man were spent amid scenes and 

 occupations far removed from those of his maturer 

 years. He had a passion for the stage, especially for 

 music and the opera, and for a time he was an actor, 

 bringing out at Vienna a translation of Hamlet, a 



