Obituary —Mr. David Homfray. 479 
@lS aOR ASE Nae 
DAVID HOMFRAY. 
Born JuNE 21, 1822. Diep June 22, 1893. 
Through the death of Mr. David Homfray, of Portmadoc, we have 
been deprived of one of the pioneers of Geology in North Wales. 
When but a mere youth Mr. Homfray left his home, Witley Lodge, 
near Hales Owen, Warwickshire, for Portmadoc, where his uncle, 
who was Manager of the Welsh Slate (Palmerston’s) Quarry at 
Ffestiniog, resided. He took to the law, and was for many years, up 
to the time of his death, Clerk to the Justices of the Peace for the 
Penrhyndendraeth Division. 
Prof. Sedgwick says that North Wales, when he entered it in 1851, 
‘‘was little more than ferra incognita,’ and it was not until after 
1857 that Mr. Salter determined by their suite of fossils that the 
Tremadoc Rocks deserved to be ranked as a separate formation. 
These fossils were, to a very large extent, collected by Mr. Homfray, 
as, shortly after 1850, we find him, encouraged by Salter, employing 
his leisure in working the Portmadoc district, where, especially in 
the Tremadoc rocks, he discovered many new forms, several of 
which were named by Salter in honour of him, e.g. Niobe Homfrayi, 
Asaphus Homfrayi, Conularia Homfrayi, etc. As early as 1859 he 
presented to the Privy Council on Education a series of Trilobites, 
etc., illustrative of the Geology of the Lingula Flags of Portmadoce. 
At Mr. Salter’s request he searched for, and worked, the Mene- 
vian-beds of the Maentwrog Waterfall Valley, which beds were then 
only known at St. Davids through the labours of Dr. Hicks, F.R.S., 
and Mr. Salter. Here Mr. Homfray met with his usual good success, 
which led Salter to say of him: ‘He can find anything he likes in 
his territory.” At Maentwrog he discovered for the first time in 
Britain, Conocoryphe coronata, Barr., and Conocoryphe Homfrayt, 
Salt. Having made an exhaustive study of the rocks of his own 
district, he visited Dr. Hicks’ ground at St. Davids in 1872, and with 
Dr. Hicks and others worked at the Tremadoc rocks of Ramsay 
Island. He again visited St. Davids in Dr. Hicks’ company in 
1874. He spent a considerable portion of the summer of 1875 in 
accompanying Professors Ramsay and Htheridge, and Mr. Ward, 
in mapping the Garth Grit, and otherwise revising the Geology of 
North Wales. The numerous references to Mr. Homfray’s labours, 
and quotations of his opinions in Ramsay’s “‘ Geology of North 
Wales,” prove what a high opinion the latter entertained of him. 
It is seldom that we meet with a geologist who has toiled so hard, 
and amassed such a store of valuable information, but has never 
published an article on his favourite subject. Such, however, was 
the case with Mr. Homfray. He was content with supplying infor- 
mation to others, which he always did most readily. The same 
generosity characterized him in giving away his specimens, for he 
not only gave away his duplicates, but often the only specimen he 
possessed of a rare species. 
When he made a present to the Woodwardian Museum in 1869, 
