240 Obituary — 3Ir. Joseph Bickerton Morgan, F.G.8. 

 JOSEPH BICKERTON MORGAN, F.G.S. 



Born 1859. Died March 8th, 1894. 



On tlie 8tli of March there passed away at Ventnor a life full of 

 promise for work among the Ordovician and Silurian rocks. Born 

 in 1859, Mr. Morgan was always an earnest student of nature, and 

 one of his earliest tasks, when associated with the late Morris 

 Charles Jones as Assistant Honorary Curator of the Powysland 

 Museum at Welshpool, was to classify and arrange the large 

 collection of recent shells given to the Museum by the Rev. J. Vize. 

 He next turned his attention to the fossils in the Museum, rearranged 

 them, and then added very largely to them from his own extensive 

 collections, especially from the Silurian and Ordovician rocks in the 

 immediate neighbourhood. 



In 1885 a paper, published by Mr. Yine in the Quarterly Journal 

 of the Geological Society, contained a description of a new species 

 of Pliyllopora, P. tumida, from the Caradoc rocks of Llanfyllin, arid 

 of Thamnisciis antiquvs, from the Bala volcanic ash of Middletown Hill, 

 both collected by Mr. Morgan. Previously to this Mr. Morgan 

 had been studying the Upper Ordovician and Silurian rocks of 

 Powysland and the Welsh border, and had obtained a large series 

 of fossils from beds above and below the boundary line of these 

 formations, which he submitted to Professor Lapworth for identifi- 

 cation. By the advice of the latter he began to map these strata, 

 and succeeded in defining the lower limit of the Silurians with 

 much greater exactitude than had been hitherto done, with the 

 result of adding several hundreds of feet of rock to the Silurian 

 system. A forecast of his conclusions on the subject was published 

 as a paper to the British Association at Leeds in 1890, but the full 

 paper has not yet been published. It is to be hoped that sufficient 

 material may be found amongst his papers to allow of its publication 

 in full. 



In 1892 Mr. Morgan resolved to devote himself to scientific work, 

 and, obtaining a free scholarship at the Royal College of Science, he 

 came to London, and in a single year succeeded so well as to 

 obtain the first prize at the College, together with the Murchison 

 medal and gift of instruments and books. It was on the last day 

 of his duties as demonstrator during the summer vacation that he 

 took a chill, from which serious trouble ensued, compelling him to 

 abandon work and winter at Ventnor, Here he seemed to rally, and 

 just as his friends were beginning to hope that be might soon be 

 well enough to resume his work, he succumbed to an attack of 

 haemorrhage, in the 35th year of his age. In addition to the work 

 mentioned above, some new species of Entomosiraca were dis- 

 covered by him, while he contributed several papers, including one 

 on Shorthorn Cattle, and one " on the Strata forming the base of 

 the Silurian in north-east Montgomeryshire," to the Montgomery 

 Collections, and delivered lectures at the Welshpool School of Art. 



Thus a country geologically almost unknown has lost an earnest, 

 reliable, and enthusiastic worker, one who could very ill be spared ; 

 while many of us have to mourn a kind and true-hearted friend. 



