336 Obituary — Thomas Beesley — Sir Joseph Prestwich, 



of them, also suggests caution in drawing inferences. In some 

 places they are found in the typical boulder-clay of the district. 



I have since had the pleasure of seeing some of the sections in 

 Mr. Smith's company. All I say is, there are abundant materials for 

 investigation, and it will be well not hastily to leap to conclusions. 

 Festina lente is a good motto — especially as regards shell-beds. 



Glasgow, lltk June, 1896. Dcgald Bell. 



P.S. — By the way, the term " shell-bed " is apt to be misleading. 

 It may suggest a well-defined layer or band of shells, fairly well 

 preserved ; but the actual " find " is often only some fragments 

 scattered here and there throughout the clayey or sandy deposit, as 

 the case may be. 



OBITUARY. 

 THOMAS BEESLEY, J. P., F.C.S. 



Born March 28th, 1818. Died May Ioth, 1896. 



Thomas Beesley, who was born at Banbury, commenced business 

 as a chemist and druggist in 1S44 at Chipping Norton ; two years 

 later he succeeded to a similar business in his native town, and from 

 this he retired in 1887. He was a man of great literary and 

 scientific culture, expert as an analyst, and one who had a wide 

 acquaintance with botany, archaeology, and geology. During the 

 past thirty years he gave especial attention to geology, and in 1872 

 communicated a valuable paper on the geology of the neighbourhood 

 of Banbury to the Warwickshire Naturalists' Field Club (see Geol. 

 Mag., vol. ix, p. 279). In the following year he acted with Prof. 

 Morris in directing an excursion of the Geologists' Association to 

 Banbury (Proc. Geol. Assoc, vol. iii, p. 197). The Lower Lias of 

 Penny Compton engaged much of his attention, and he made a fine 

 collection of fossils, especially of Belemnites, from the zones of 

 Ammonites Jamesoni, A. armatus, etc. (Proc. Warwick Nat. Club, 

 1877). Later on he gave an account of the sections exposed on the 

 railway between Banbury and Chipping Norton ; and at Easter, 

 1878, he acted in conjunction with Mr. Hudleston in directing an 

 excursion of the Geologists' Association to Chipping Norton (Proc. 

 Geol. Assoc, vol. v, pp. 165, 378). In 1883 he announced the 

 discovery of a new local fossil, which he named Discina Gunnii ; but 

 as the fact was published in the Banbury Guardian of August 9th 

 it can hardly be considered as a proper palasontological record. 

 Kind-hearted and genial by nature, Mr. Beesley was ever ready to 

 give help and information to those who sought it, and his memory 

 will be cherished by all who had the happiness to know him. 



H. B. W. 



It is with deep regret that we have to record the death of Sir 

 Joseph Prestwich, D.C.L., F.E.S., F.G.S., F.C.S., which took place 

 early on the morning of the 23rd June, 1896, at his country house, 

 Darent Hulme, Shoreham, by Sevenoaks, Kent, in his 84th year. 

 For an account of his life and works, with an excellent portrait, see 

 the Geological Magazine, Dec. Ill, Vol. X, June 1S93, pp. 241-6. 





