11 



Clarke, Rev. W. B., M.A., F.R.S., F.G.S., F.R.G.S., 



Member of the Geological Societies of France and Austria, 

 Vice-President of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 

 &c. — Died at Sydney, June 16th, 1878. The following notice 

 appeared in the Hohart Toivn llercuru of the 22nd June, 

 1878.— "The Rev. William Branwhite Clarke, M.A.,F.R S., 

 F.G.S., the veteran geologist of New South Wales, died June 

 16, in his eighty-first year. Mr. Clarke's labours date back 

 half a century. He was elected a Fellow of the Geological 

 Society of London in 1826, and lie had contributed several 

 interesting essays on points of British geology before he 

 commenced his arduous work amongst the coal-bearing strata 

 of his adopted country. Influenced by the love of scientific 

 investigation, and aided by a self-reliant and independent 

 character, he surveyed those great depths of rock which 

 brought the local names of Hawkesbury, Wianamatta, and 

 Newcastle before the geological world as landmarks in an 

 apparently anomalous series of sti'ata. His survey, the result 

 of years of patient labour, was so exact that, in spite of former 

 unsparing criticism, it is now universally recognised as correct, 

 and his deductions as to the relative value of marine and 

 plant-bearinc^ strata in estimating the ages of formations, 

 though disbelieved in former years, have been proved to be 

 consistent with facts since observed in South Africa, India, 

 and North America. Mr. Clarke discovered that there were 

 strata of marine limestones containing carboniferous Splriferl 

 and Producti, and that with these were intercalated beds of 

 coal, which presented a mixture of forms of plants. He 

 noticed that there was no break in this great series of deposits, 

 and that Sigillarice, calamites, and Coniferce were associated 

 with Glosisopteris and other genera of ferns, which, had they 

 been found in the typical area of England, would have denoted 

 a Secondary horizon. Subsequent research by other observers 

 in Queensland has produced corresponding results. Science, 

 therefore, owes much to Mr. Clarke for the consistent and 

 persistent manner in which he has upheld his opinions 

 regarding the age of these Australian coal series. Labouring 

 amongst the strata below the carboniferous, Mr. Clarke 

 discovered the presence of Silurian rocks by the existence in 

 them of characteristic trilobites and corals, and noticed the 

 unconformity of the carboniferous with the underlying group ; 

 and even in those early days of his work he grasped the 

 important idea that the geology of the typical area in Europe 

 was not exactly comparable with that of Australia. From his 



