Eminent Living Geologists — Dr. R. H. Traquair, F.R.S. 243 



Natural History ia the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, where 

 his principal duty was the teaching of botany to agricultural students. 

 Here he studied Oolitic geology and collected many fossils, but had 

 no longer any opportunity to collect Carboniferous tishes. In 1867 

 he published his first paper on fossil fishes, entitled "Description of 

 Pygopterus Greenocki, Aguss., with Notes on the Structural Relations 

 of the genera Pygopterus, Amblypterus, and Eurynotns''\ in the 

 Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. This paper was 

 important as containing the beginnings of his original work on the 

 Palseoniscidse and Platysomidse, though it suffered in completeness 

 by being founded entirely on specimens collected by himself in the 

 neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 



In the month of August, 1867, Dr. Traquair was appointed by the 

 Lords of the Committee of Council on Education Professor of Zoology 

 in the newly constituted Royal College of Science, Dublin, this 

 college being in fact a new development of the old " Museum of Irish 

 Industry". This new appointment afforded him more congenial 

 occupation than teaching botany to agricultural students, though 

 owing to the comparatively small amount of the endowments it could 

 not be looked upon as a permanency. He remained six years in 

 Dublin, but during that time he did not write much. One paper on 

 the imperfectly known Carboniferous Dipnoan fish, JJronemus lohatus 

 of Agassiz, attracted the attention of Sir Philip Grey-Egerton, at 

 that time the leading authority on palaeichthyology in Great Britain, 

 and gained for him the personal acquaintance both of Sir Philip and 

 •of his friend the Earl of Enniskillen, so well known for his magnificent 

 private collection of fossil fishes. 



In the autumn of 1873 Dr. Traquair was transferred to Edinburgh 

 to occupy the post of Keeper of the Natural Histor)- Collections in the 

 Museum of Science and Art, now, since 1902, known as the Royal 

 Scottish Museum. At that time the "Natural History" Collections 

 in that Museum included also the mineralogical and palseontological 

 collections as well as those of recent zoology. Though his time was- 

 much more occupied by official work than in Dublin and his vacations 

 curtailed, he had now the wished-for opportunity of devoting himself 

 seriously to fossil ichthyology^ as a speciality, for the Museum already 

 contained a large collection of Scottish fossil fishes, including the 

 Hugh Miller Collection and the specimens collected by John Fleming 

 and by Robert Jameson, besides which the Carboniferous rocks round 

 Edinburgh were and are extremely rich in fossil fishes and fish- 

 remains. In his official capacity he was enabled by fresh purchases 

 year by year to develop the fossil fish collection, and more especially 

 . that part which was Palaeozoic and Scottish, to a high degree of 

 excellence. This was especially desirable in a Scottish National 

 Museum, for it is the wonderful richness in fish-remains of its 

 Devonian and Carboniferous strata which especially distinguishes the 

 palaeontology of the northern part of the island of Great Britain. 

 Dr. Traquair retained his Keepership for thirty-three years, and retired 

 in August, 1906, having obtained extension of time for one year after 

 reaching the age-limit of 65 years. During that time he also 

 held the Swiney Lectureship in Geology at the British Museum, the 



