50 Eminent Living Geologists— 
It was in his early student days that he became acquainted with 
Professor I’. Rupert Jones, F.R.S., at that time Assistant Secretary to 
the Geological Society and editor of its Quarterly Journal, working 
for some months as Professor Rupert Jones’ volunteer assistant, 
and afterwards for a time he was engaged as assistant in the 
Museum of the Society. Here he developed his interest in geology 
and bibliographical research, which governed his career in after life. 
On the Ist of April, 1857, Whitaker joined the English staff 
of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom, under Sir R. I. 
Murchison, with Ramsay as Local Director, and Aveline, Bristow, 
Howell, and Hull among the senior officers. He was at first engaged, 
with Professor EK. Hull, T. R. Polwhele, and Hilary Bauerman, on the 
geology of parts of Oxfordshire and Berkshire, and on the country 
around Brill, in Buckinghamshire; and later on, with H. W. Bristow, 
on Berkshire and the northern part of Hampshire. Early in 1859 he 
was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society, and now is 29th 
Fellow in seniority. In 1863 Mr. Whitaker was promoted to the 
rank of Geologist. 
The writer recalls with pleasure a week’s holiday spent with 
Whitaker in Bath, during the Meeting of the British Association in 
1864, when several agreeable evenings were passed with the late 
_ Wilbam Pengelly (familiarly known at that time as Pun-gelly), 
Professor Rupert Jones, Joseph Beck, and some others, when much 
innocent fun and enjoyment at dinner relieved the more serious 
business of the day’s scientific proceedings. Many pleasant geological 
excursions were also taken to Frome, the Vallis, to Watchet and 
elsewhere. 
Proceeding on in his work he took up the original survey of the 
geology of the London Basin, particularly the Chalk and Kocene beds 
of the Southern and Western ‘I'racts from Newbury eastwards into 
Surrey, Southern Bucks, Middlesex, Herts, Essex, and Kent. 
In his researches, which extended for more than thirty years, 
Whitaker worked over ground much of which had been rendered 
classical by Prestwich’s earlier researches, following, more than any 
other man had done, in his footsteps. Speaking of this period of 
Prestwich’s work (1841-1860), Whitaker remarked ‘‘that it might 
well be called ‘the Prestwichian period,’ as it was he who first 
clearly made out the structure of the London Basin” (Mem. Geol. 
Surv., vol. iv, p. 395). The Drift Survey of the Jiondon area was 
in 1869 carried out mainly under his guidance, though nominally 
under the superintendence of Mr. Bristow. 
Later on we find Whitaker working out the geology of Walton- 
on-the-Naze and Harwich and other parts of the counties of Essex, 
Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire. Indeed, it may be said that the whole 
of Essex and Suffolk and parts of West Norfolk and Cambridgeshire 
were suryeyed by him, with the aid of colleagues who worked under 
his direction. 
Among those who, at various times, worked under his superintendence 
were Richard Trench, H. B. Woodward, W. H. Penning, W. H. 
Dalton, Thomas Adams, F. J. Bennett, W. A. E. Ussher, J. H. Blake, 
A. C. G. Cameron, C. E. Hawkins, 8. B. J. Skertchly, Clement Reid, 
