284 Obituary — Alexander Somervail. 



On that subject his most important paper was entitled "Terrain 

 devonien de l'Entre-Sambre-et-Mense : Les iles coralliennes de Koly 

 et de Philippeville " (Bull. Mas. 11. Hist. Nat. Belg., 1882). Dupont 

 is perhaps best known for his long-continued researches on the 

 Belgian caverns, especially those on the borders of the Meuse and 

 of its tributary the Lesse, some account of which was given in the 

 Geological Magazine for 1866, p. 566. To the Quaternary deposits 

 of the valleys, the fossil mammals, and the question of the Antiquity 

 of Man he devoted much attention, and the results of much of this 

 work was embodied in a volume entitled Uhomme pendant les Ages de 

 la Pierre dans les Environs de Binant-sur -Meuse, 1871 (2nd ed. 1872). 

 In 1865 Dupont had published an essay on a geological map which 

 he had prepared of the country around Dinant, his birthplace. In 

 later years he was associated with M. Mourlon, now Director of the 

 Geological Survey of Belgium, in the preparation of a general map of 

 the country, and in many of the separate sheets (on a larger scale) 

 issued by the survey. In his Geologic de la Belgique (1880) M. Mourlon 

 has given a list of Dupont' s publications up to that date. In 1887 he 

 turned Ids attention to the Congo, and after personal explorations in 

 that territory he published observations on the geology, anthropology, 

 and other natural history subjects, in Lettres stir le Congo. Recti 

 d'un voyage scientifiqiie entre I 'embouchure du fleuve et le confluent du 

 Kassai, 1889. 



As Director of the Boyal Museum Dupont was much interested in 

 the remains of lyuanodon, almost complete skeletons of which Avere 

 obtained from the Wealden of Bernissart, near Mons, and mounted 

 under his superintendence. A reproduction of the Iguanodon Bernis- 

 sartensis, Boulenger, was set up in the Geological Department of the 

 British Museum (Natural History) and figured with descriptive 

 remarks by Dr. H. Woodward in the Gkological Magazine for July, 

 1895, p. 289. 



Among the later publications of Dupont was an account of "Ber- 

 nissart et les Iguanodons " in a Guide to the Collections in the Brussels 

 Museum, 1897. 



Dupont was elected a Foreign Correspondent of the Geological 

 Society of London in 1879, and a Foreign Member in 1897. 



H. B. W. 



ALEXANDER SOMERVAIL. 

 Born March 4, 1841. Died December 30, 1910. 



The close of the year 1910 witnessed the death of Alexander 

 Somervail, a worthy successor in his scientific pursuits to William 

 Pengelly, F.R.S., whose post, as Hon. Secretary of the Torquay 

 Natural History Society, he was chosen to fill when its noted founder, 

 the explorer and historian of Kent's Cavern, retired after forty-five 

 years unremitting work. The traditions, activities, and success of the 

 Society were ably maintained by the succeeding secretary for nearly 

 twenty years, when he, too, aged in its service, reluctantly resigned 

 only a few months before his decease in Torquay on December 30, 

 1910, in his 70th year. 



Alexander Somervail was born in 1841 in the Water of Leith 



