3 i8 



NA TURE 



\_Feb. 5> 1885 



years he was Treasurer of the Linnean, and also of the 

 Geological, Society. 



Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys's profession was the law. He practised 

 as a solicitor at Swansea until 1856, in which year he was 

 called to the bar, but soon afterwards altogether retired 

 from business. He then left London, and went to reside at 

 a fine old house, Ware Priory, which he had purchased 

 in Hertfordshire. Here it was his delight to hospitably 

 entertain his scientific friends and any foreign naturalists 

 of kindred tastes to his own who might be visiting 

 London. 



He may be considered perhaps as the father of dredg- 

 ing m our seas. When practising as a solicitor he was 

 diligent in his profession, and could only spare himself 

 short holidays ; yet as early as 1841 he paid his first visit 

 to Shetland. Through a number of years, when unable 

 to give much time himself to collecting, he joined Mr. 

 Barlee in partnership, and while his friend gave his whole 

 time to dredging and collecting, Jeffreys shared the 

 expense and the mollusca. 



Shortly after Barlee's death Jeffreys was enabled to 

 devote himself more exclusively to scientific work, and 

 from this time commenced an important series of dredg- 

 ing operations which continued to the last. His friends 

 were now the late Mr. Waller and the Rev. A. M. Norman, 

 and in company with these naturalists explorations were 

 made of the most important parts of the British coasts. 

 A yacht, the Osprey, at first lent by Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys's 

 brother-in-law, Mr. Nevill, but subsequently purchased by 

 him, was employed in these investigations. The summers 

 of 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1867, and 1868 were spent in 

 dredging, down to 170 fathoms, the sea around the Shet- 

 land Islands ; in 1865 Guernsey and Jersey were visited ; 

 in 1866 the Minch ; and in 1870 the deep water off 

 Valentia on the south-west of Ireland. 



Private enterprise now gave way to Government expe- 

 ditions. In 1869 H.M.S. Porcupine was sent to explore 

 that portion of the Atlantic which lies off our western 

 shores, and Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys had charge of the scientific 

 work of the first cruise off the west of Ireland. In the suc- 

 ceeding year (1870) the same vessel was sent to investi- 

 gate the great depths off the southern coasts of Europe, 

 and Jeffreys was the naturalist on board during the first 

 cruise, which was off the Spanish and Portuguese coasts. 

 In 1876 he went in H.M.S. Valorous, which accompanied 

 the last Arctic Expedition as far as Baffin's Bay, when 

 very successful dredging was carried on in Davis Strait 

 and the North Atlantic Ocean during the homeward 

 voyage. In 1880 he and his friend, Dr. Norman, by 

 invitation of the French Government, took part, with a 

 staff of naturalists of that country, in dredgings in great 

 depths off the Bay of Biscay in Le Traiiailkur, In 

 1878 and 1879 Drs. Gwyn Jeffreys and Norman went to- 

 gether to Norway and dredged Oster Fiord to the north 

 of Bergen, the Hardanger Fiord, and at Drbbak on the 

 Christiania Fiord. 



Besides all this direct scientific collecting Dr. Jeffreys 

 for many years has been in the habit of taking a tour on 

 the Continent for the purpose of carefully examining all 

 leading and typical collections of European mollusca, 

 and more especially the products of the various deep-sea 

 expeditions of other nations. 



He married a daughter of the late R. J. Nevill, Esq., 

 of Llangennech Park, Carmarthenshire, a talented and 

 accomplished woman who predeceased him, and has left 

 six children. 



Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys was J. P. for the counties of Gla- 

 morganshire, Breconshire, and Hertfordshire, and for 

 the last county was also a D.L., and served as High 

 Sheriff in 1877. 



It cannot but be a matter of deep regret to all British 

 naturalists that Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys's magnificent and un 

 equalled collection of European mollusca, amassed with 

 so much labour and toil and expense, rich to overflowing 



with types not only ot species described by himself, but 

 by almost every author, should go out of this country. 

 Two years ago it was purchased by the American 

 Government. We congratulate our Transatlantic cousins 

 on having it, but it would have been of far greater value 

 in Europe. 



ALEXANDER MURRAY, C.M.G. 

 "OY the death of Mr. Alexander Murray, Canadian 

 -^ geology has lost one of its veteran pioneers. This 

 estimable man belonged to a good Perthshire family, 

 and was born at his father's estate of Dollerie in 181 1. 

 He went into the navy at the age of fourteen, served in 

 the Mediterranean and was present at the battle of 

 Navarino, was subsequently employed in the West 

 Indies, Halifax, and other stations, and finally quitted 

 the service in 1837. There being no prospect of his 

 advancement in the pursuit of war, he turned his atten- 

 tion to the arts of peace, went to Canada, and bought 

 land there with the view of settling as a farmer. During 

 the rebellion which broke out soon after his emigration 

 he had once more an opportunity of seeing active ser- 

 vice. But he had not yet found the proper field for the 

 exercise of his powers. His attempts at farming failed, 

 and his prospects were rather blank, when at last he made 

 the acquaintance of Mr. W. E. Logan, then starting the 

 Geological Survey of Canada. He had had no training 

 in science of any kind, but the mode of life offered by 

 the Survey seemed just what he longed for, and he gladly 

 accepted the proposal that he should join the staff. 

 Before actually beginning his new duties he resolved to 

 do what he could to qualify himself for them. He re- 

 turned to this country, studied geology theoretically at 

 Edinburgh, and afterwards practically in Wales. In 1843 

 he went back to Canada and at once began work, remain- 

 ing at his post for twenty years. He was one of the first 

 and ablest of the stratigraphers with whom Logan traced 

 out the general geological structure of the Dominion. 

 His explorations extended over most of the settled parts 

 and over a large area of forest-land in Western Canada, 

 where he laid down the main lines of structure and the 

 areas of distribution of the rocks. He likewise examined 

 parts of Gaspe" and other tracts in the eastern portion of 

 the Dominion. But his most important labours were de- 

 voted to the investigation of Newfoundland, of the Geolo- 

 gical Survey of which he had charge from 1863 to 1883. 

 From 1 866 onwards he prepared an Annual Report of the 

 progress of his work in that colony. These Reports col- 

 lected by him, and republished as a volume in 1881, 

 contain a summary of all that is known regarding the 

 geological structure of Newfoundland, and will remain as 

 a lasting monument of Mr. Murray's skill as a strati- 

 graphical geologist, and of the courage, patience, aad 

 tact with which he overcame all physical and political 

 difficulties. One of his last labours was the completion 

 and publication of a geological map of the whole of 

 Newfoundland— a work at once beautiful in execution 

 and of the first importance in regard to the industrial 

 growth of the colony. Very few of our colonies yet 

 possess complete geological maps, and hardly ever are 

 they so largely the work of one man as this one. New- 

 foundland has never adequately recognised how much it 

 stands indebted to Mr. Murray for his share in laying the 

 foundation on which its future development must rest. 



SEA RLE S V. WOOD 



AMONG the recent losses which have befallen the 

 geologists of this country not the least is the death 

 of Mr. Searles V. Wood. Himself the son of a geologist, 

 he began his scientific work early in life. He may be 

 said to have been educated upon Tertiary geology, and 

 though at first disposed to wander intr wider fields of 



