432 OhUiianj — Sir Julius von Saasf. ■ 



1884). Mr. G. H. Williams, who is publishing a series of petro- 

 logical studies on the whole of the rocks in question, reserves to the 

 last any general conclusions concerning their origin ; but he states 

 that the area " is quite sharply separated from the gneisses, mica- 

 schists and limestones which surround it, showing none of the 

 gradual transitions into these rocks which Hermann Credner, in his 

 description of this district written in 1865, supposed to exist." 

 {Ihid. 3, xxxi. p. 27, 1886.) Alfred Hakker. 



St. John's College, Cambridge, Aug. bth, 1887. 



SIR J. F. JULIUS VON HAAST. 



Sir John Francis Julius von Haast, K.C.M.G., Ph.D., F.E.S., 

 F.L.S., F.G.S., Ord. Fr. Jos., Ord. Coron. Ferr. Austr. Coron. Ital., 

 etc., etc.. Director of the Museum, and Professor of Geology in 

 Canterbury College, New Zealand. 



It is with deep regret that we learn, through a Eeuter's telegram 

 from Wellington, that our friend and fellow-geologist, Sir Julius 

 von Haast, died suddenly of heart disease, on the 15th August. It 

 seems but yesterday that he was here with us, and although com- 

 plaining of rheumatic gout, which he attributed to the severe work 

 and endless engagements arising out of the duties he was called 

 upon to fulfil last year, as Commissioner in charge of the New 

 Zealand exhibits at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, he appeared 

 to have many more years of good work lying before him. 



Sir Julius von Haast has done excellent service to science in New 

 Zealand, not only in connection with its Geology, in which he took 

 an active part, but also in the discovery and collection of remains of 

 the great extinct Wingless Birds of those Islands with which the 

 Museum of Christchurch (N.Z.), and those of nearly all the prin- 

 cipal European and American Museums, have been enriched. 



Sir Julius received the honour of Knighthood in. recognition of his 

 services in connection with the Colonial and Indian Exhibition ; but 

 so far back as 1867, he had been elected a Fellow of the Eoyal 

 Society in recognition of his services to science. Upwards of thirty 

 memoirs are credited to him in the Eoyal Society's list of scientific 

 papers, mostly on the Geology and Extinct Birds of New Zealand. 

 His loss will be keenly felt in the Colony where he has laboured so 

 long and diligently. — H. W. 



PROFESSOR LAURENT-GUILLAUME DE KONINCK. 



Prof. C. Malaise informs us of the recent death (on 16 July last) 

 of our venerable friend, Prof, de Koninck, For. Memb, Geol. Soc. 

 Lond., late Professor of Chemistry and Palaeontology in the Univer- 

 sity of Liege, Belgium. Prof, de Koninck's labours on the Fauna 

 of the Carboniferous rocks of Belgium, England, Australia, etc., are 

 well known. We hope to give a notice of his life in a later Number. — 

 Edit. Geol. Mag. 



