■238 Obituary— J. Jlopicood Blake, F.G.S. 



the Denbigbsliire, South Staffordshire, and Nottinghamshire coal- 

 fields, as they are indistinguishable from the productive measures in 

 the absence of Blackband ironstones. In each of these areas there 

 are divisions in the Upper Coal-measures which correspond with the 

 three highest divisions in North Staffordshire, and in all cases, 

 except near the margin of the basin, where overlap occurs, they are 

 underlain by ordinary Coal-measui"es with coal-seams. It is there- 

 fore concluded that these higher Coal-measures were deposited in one 

 basin which included all the four areas dealt with, and that whatever 

 movements occurred were of a local, and not of a regional character. 

 Judging by published descriptions, the higher series of measures 

 appear to be present in other Midland and North-Western coalfields, 

 and in most of them the Keele Series corresponds to the Salopian 

 Permian of Professor Hull. 



OZBXTUJ^'IRir. 



JOHN HOPWOOD BLAKE, 



Assoc. M. Inst. C. E., F.Gt.S., of the Geological Survey of 

 England and Wales. 



Born July 22, 1843. Died March 5, 1901. 



Mr. J. H. Blake was a son of Mr. George John Blake, of the 

 firm of Messrs. Allen & Blake, Wine Merchants, and was born 

 in Great Tower Street in the city of London. After completing his 

 education at King's College, London, he was apprenticed to Mr. R. P. 

 Brereton, M. Inst. C. E., under whose directions he was engaged for 

 several years with Mr. S. H. Yockney in railway work in Cornwall 

 and South Wales. Having been attracted to the science of geology 

 while at King's College, he became further interested in the subject 

 during his engineering experiences, and was thereby tempted to 

 join the Geological Survey in April, 1868, at a time when the staff 

 under Murchison was considerably augmented. During the first 

 few years of his official career he was engaged in the re-survey of 

 portions of Somerset, along the Mendip and Polden Hills, at Shepton 

 Mallet, Street, Chewton Mendip, and Axbridge, and subsequently 

 at Watchet and Minehead. He was also occupied for a time in the 

 first detailed Drift Survey of the area north-west of London. Later 

 on he was transferred to Suffolk, to survey the country around 

 Stowmarket, and that bordering the sea north and south of Lowestoft, 

 whence he proceeded to Yarmouth and continued his investigations 

 inland and along the coast as far north as Palling in Norfolk. Much 

 time was then devoted to a careful study of the Forest Bed Series, 

 and his published section of the cliffs at Kessingland, Pakefield, 

 and Corton (1884) bears evidence of the painstaking character of 

 his work. East Dereham then became his home, and much field- 

 work was done in that part of Norfolk until 1884, when the primary 

 one-inch Geological Survey of England was completed. Mr. Blake 

 then removed to Reading, and was for many years occupied in 

 the re-survey on the six-inch scale of that neighbourhood, giving 



