W. T. Blanford, CLE., F.B.S. 7 



" Your writings, which treat of a not inconsiderable portion of the 

 Eastern Hemisphere, comprise, in addition to geology, much in- 

 formation respecting zoology and the climates of the countries in 

 which you served. Stamped with thoroughness and comprehensive- 

 ness, they constitute important additions to our knowledge of these 

 regions." 



In the same month Mr. Blanford married Ida Gertrude, daughter 

 of E. T. Bellhouse, Esq., and settled in London at 72, Bedford 

 Gardens, Campden Hill, where he has since resided. He became 

 a member of the Geological Society's Council in 1883, was made 

 Secretary in 1884, and served till 1888, when he was elected 

 President. He has continued to be a member of the Council almost 

 continuously since, and for the last ten years he has filled the office 

 of Treasurer. Before leaving India he was for two years President 

 of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. He has been four times a Vice- 

 President of the Geological Congress (Bologna, 1881 ; Berlin, 1885 ; 

 London, 1888 ; and Paris, 1900). 



He was elected a Fellow of the Eoyal Society in 1874, and has 

 twice served, for two years each time, on the Council (in 1891-93 

 and in 1901-3) ; he has been Vice-President for three years 

 (1892, 1901, 1902). He has also been a member of the Council of 

 the Royal Geographical and Zoological Societies, and Vice-President 

 of both. 



In 1884 he was President of Section C (Geology) at the British 

 Association meeting in Montreal, and on this occasion received the 

 honorary degree of LL.D. from the McGill University. He was 

 also in Toronto in August, 1897, and accompanied the British 

 Association party to Vancouver Island. 



Since his retirement Mr. Blanford's time has been chiefly occupied 

 with Indian zoological work. He was entrusted by the Government 

 of India with the editorship and control of a series of works on the 

 " Fauna of British India," of which, up to the present time, seventeen 

 volumes have been published, comprising the whole of the Vertebrata 

 and several groups of insects and spiders. To this work he con- 

 tributed the volume on Mammals and two volumes out of four 

 on Birds. His principal contributions to geology during the last 

 twenty years have been his Presidential Addresses to the geological 

 section of the British Association and to the Geological Society. 

 The first of these discussed some important differences between 

 the evidence of geological age furnished by marine fossils on the 

 one hand and that derived from fresh-water and land animals on 

 the other. Of the two Presidential Addresses to the Geological 

 Society, the first, delivered in 1889, discussed the results at which 

 the International Geological Congresses of Bologna, 1881, Berlin, 

 1885, and London, 1888, had arrived on the very vexed subjects 

 of the nomenclature and classification of geological formations ; their 

 faunas and floras and their geographical distribution as influenced 

 by physical conditions ; with species and mutations. In a masterly 

 way he pointed out the many factors which have to be considered 

 in grouping and correlating the different formations, having regard 



