284 Obituary — Professor C. E. Beecher. 



The fossils are dwarfed and starved-looking, but from their perfect 

 preservation they have evidently lived on the spot where now found, 

 and occur with a few indistinguishable plant-remains. The following 

 are the species I collected : — Productns semireticulatus, var., largest 

 one -Hnch, but generally much smaller; common. Athyris amhigua, 

 largest f inch ; scarce. Lingtila mytiloides, rare, and very small. 

 The late R, W. Skipsey many years ago found marine shells in the 

 ■Coal-measures near Coatbridge, but the specimens were of fair size.^ 



The marine shells I obtained on the 23rd April appear to be 

 pretty high up in the coal strata ; and in the stream and on the 

 side of the glen may be seen the Gillyhole Coal, at this part 

 converted into columnar carbonite four feet thick by a small Trap 

 sill ; it is one of the finest examples of a ' burnt coal ' bed in the 

 west of Scotland. In the same glen there is also a small sill which 

 has assumed a spheroidal structure. I saw no specimens of 

 Carhonicola or any other Coal-measure shells in the marine band. 

 I am sending some specimens to the British Museum. 



MONKRIDDING, KiLWINXING. "• SmITH. 



25th April, 1904. . • 



O B I T TJ.A. IR^ST - 



PROFESSOR CHARLES EMERSON BEECHER, Ph.D. 



Boux October 9, 1856. Died Febrvary 14, 1904. 



(WITH A PORTRAIT: PLATE X.2) 



By the death of Professor Beecher, American palasontology and 

 geology have sustained a great loss, and one which is also sincerely 

 felt by many friends and fellow- workers in England and on the 

 Continent. Although only 47 years of age, he had attained to a high 

 degree of eminence in his University as a teacher and lecturer, 

 whilst his published researches, especially on Trilobites, the Mero- 

 stomata, and Phyllocarida, entitled him to the first rank as an 

 original investigator in palaeozoology ; nor had he neglected the 

 higher forms of extinct life, as is shown by his reconstruction of 

 Dinosaurs in the Peabody Museum at Yale. 



Charles Emerson Beecher was born at Dunkirk, New York, Oct. 9th, 

 1856. He was educated in the High School at Warren, Pa., and 

 graduated at the University of Michigan, taking his B.S. in 1878. 

 During the ten succeeding j'ears he was engaged as an assistant 

 to the veteran geologist, Professor James Hall, upon the staff of 

 the Geological Survey of the State of New York, and many specimens 

 now exhibited in the State Museum at Albany testify to his ability 

 as a collector and his skill in developing and mounting invertebrate 

 fossils. 



Professor Beecher was appointed in 1888 to the charge of the 

 invertebrate fossils in the Peabody Museum, under the late Professor 



1 Trans. Geol. Soc. Glasgow, vol. ii, p. 52. 



^ For permission to reproduce Professor Beecher's portrait vre are much indebted 

 to Mr. J. McK. Cattell, of The Popidar Science Monthly Garrison on Hudson, 

 IVew York, U.S.A.— Edit. Geol. Mag. 



