Obituary — The Rev. R. Hunter. 383 



competition for the Mathematical scholarship to be held for two years 

 arrived, finding Hunter still confined to his bed. But the same 

 indomitable pluck which carried him through numberless other severe 

 trials in later life, stood him in good stead. He arose and entered 

 the lists " pale and emaciated," but came out bracketed first with 

 another student, with whom Hunter divided the spoil. At the end 

 of the arts curriculum, these two young men were singled out to 

 receive from the University the degree of Master of Arts " with 

 honourable distinction." Hunter afterwards, in the Divinity Hall, 

 obtained the Lord Kector's prize for Hebrew. 



On quitting Aberdeen he went out as a tutor to the Bermudas, 

 and determined to occupy his spare time in studying the Natural 

 History of those islands. Having been introduced to Professor Owen 

 by one of the Scotch Professors, he received particular directions 

 for collecting corals, and preservative fluid in which to place the 

 living coral-polypes for subsequent examination. In this task Hunter 

 was most successful, bringing back, in 1845, excellently preserved 

 examples of the " Brain-coral," Meandrina cerebriformis, with the 

 animal, which Owen declared to be the finest specimens which (at 

 that time) had reached this country. He was also placed in 

 communication with Sir William Keid, the Governor of Bermuda, 

 and through him was introduced to Sir William Hooker, of Kew, 

 who evinced a warm interest in Hunter's botanical researches. At 

 this time he might have readily obtained an engagement as 

 a naturalist ; but he was so strongly impressed by the conviction 

 that his vocation was in the service of the Free Church of Scotland, 

 that he once more resumed his'' theological studies. 



Subsequently Mr. Hunter oiTered himself for the Foreign Mission 

 Service, was accepted, licensed, and ordained, and in 1847 he was 

 sent to be the colleague of the Eev. Stephen Hislop, at Nagpore 

 (Nagpur), Central India. Hislop, like himself, was a born 

 naturalist. For upwards of eight j'ears Hislop and Hunter worked 

 together in the heart of the old Mahratta kingdom, which was not 

 then, as now, under British, but under native rule. 



Whilst earnest in the missionary cause, in their walks and 

 mission tours their keen scientific proclivities impelled them to 

 take note of the geology, the fossils and the minerals, of the country. 

 Thus we find them sending home papers to be read at the Geological 

 Society of London — "On the Geology of the Neighbourhood of 

 Nagpur, Central India " (see Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1854, x, 

 pp. 470-473, and 1855, vol. xi, pp. 345-383, pi. x) ; "On the 

 connection of the Umret Coal Beds with the Plant-beds of Nagpur, 

 and of both with those of Burdwan" (op. cit. 1855, xi, pp. 555-561). 

 After 1855, the geological work in India wholly devolved upon the 

 Eev. S. Hislop, although sympathized in most warmly by the Eev. 

 Dr. Hunter here at home. " Tertiary Deposits associated with 

 Trap-Eock in the East Indies, and Fossil-shells from those deposits " 

 (op. cit. 1860, xvi, pp. 154^182, and pis. v-x) ; " On the Age of the 

 fossiliferous thin-bedded Sandstone and Coal of Nagpur " (op. cit. 

 1861, xvii, pp. 346-354) ; " Supplementary Note on the Plant- 

 bearing Sandstone of Central India" (op. cit. 1862, xviii, p. 36) ; 



