6 Eminent Living Geologiats — 



Daring tlie time passed in England full reports of the proceedings 

 of this Commission were drawn up and published in 1876 in two 

 volumes (Macmillan) by authority of the Government of India. 

 Mr. Blanford's contribution consisted of the second volume on the 

 Zoology and Geology of Persia. 



Blanford i-eturned to India once more in December, 1874, and 

 after a visit to Surat to report upon matters connected with the 

 water-supply, he was instructed to proceed with the examination 

 of Siud, assisted by Mr. F. Fedden of the Geological Survey. The 

 next three seasons (1774-77) were devoted to that province, save for 

 about three months in 1876, which were spent in two traverses 

 of the Indian desert from Sehwan on the Indus to Jodhpur and 

 back by Jesalmir to the Indus at Sukkur. The geological results 

 of the Sind Survey wei'e of great intei'est. Instead of only Eocene 

 rocks being met with, as previously supposed, a series of Tertiary 

 formations, upwards of 20,000 feet in thickness, were found to occur,, 

 and to comprise Pliocene, Miocene, Oligocene, and Eocene beds, with 

 representatives of the Deccan traps at their base, and in one locality 

 Cretaceous limestone with Hippiirites. An account of the geology 

 was published in the Memoirs G.S.I., vol. xvii. 



The two following years (1877 to 1879) were chiefly spent in 

 office work in Calcutta, the principal occupation, after completing 

 the Sind report, being the preparation of the " Manual of the Geology 

 of India." Mr. H. B. Medlicott had succeeded Dr. Oldham as 

 Superintendent of the Survey in 1876, and had immediately under- 

 taken this important work, delayed till then by Dr. Oldham's health. 

 About half the work, which ajipeared in 1879, was written by 

 Mr. W. T. Blanford. Two years (1879-1881) were passed in 

 England on furlough, his return to India being delayed to enable 

 him to attend the Geological Congress at Bologna in 1881 as the 

 representative of the Indian Government. He was elected Vice- 

 President of the Congress, and received the order of St. Maurice 

 and St. Lazarus from the King of Italy. 



Returning to India in October, 1881, he went from Bombay to 

 Sind and on to the northern frontier of that province. For the 

 next four months he was engaged on a rapid survey of the frontier 

 track from Quetta to Dera Ghazi Khan in the Punjab, but a severe 

 attack of fever in March compelled him to give up work and 

 return to Dera Ghazi Khan, whence he proceeded for the last time 

 to Calcutta. Here he found his brother, Henry F. Blanford, now 

 at the head of the Meteorological Department. He returned to 

 England in April, 1882, and shortly afterwards retired on pension, 

 after 27 years' service on the Indian Geological Survey. 



In February, 1883, the Council of the Geological Society of 

 London, desirous to mark their appreciation of Mr. W. T. Blanford's 

 services to geological science, not only by his 27 years of arduous 

 work on the Indian Survey, but by his other contributions to geology 

 in Abyssinia and in Persia, awarded him the highest distinction 

 within their disposition, the Wollaston Gold Medal. In presenting 

 it to Mr. Blanford the President, Mr. J. W. Hulke, observed: 



