428 Obituary— Professor J. F, Blake. 



flie Rocky Mountains. His impressions of the district aro embotlieil 

 in a paper read at the meeting. 



The more noteworthy of Professor Blake's contributions to 

 geological science were those on the Kimmeridge Clay and Portlaiul 

 Beds, and that, prepai'ed conjointly with Mr. Hudleston, on the 

 Corallian rocks — papers that have become classic in the literature of 

 Ih'itish geology. It is much to be regretted that the monograph on 

 the Fauna of the Cornbrash, on which he was engaged up to the time 

 of his death, was not completed by the author. 



Blake was not averse to geological battles, and he entered into 

 sundry controverted matters with characteristic energy, but 

 occasionally with more zeal than discretion. Thus he dealt with 

 (what were at the time) the thorny subjects of the Pre-Cambrian 

 rocks of St. David's, the North-West Highland problems, the 

 Oligocene of the Isle of Wight, and the older rocks of North Wales. 



With regard to Professor Blake's work in Anglesey, one who has 

 had occasion to follow it in detail writes : — It seems hardly to 

 have met with the recognition that it deserves. That he erred on 

 certain points is true, but in regions such as Anglesey who has not ? 

 The " Monian System " did not, indeed, find general acceptance, but 

 what Pre-Cambrian system has ? On the other hand, his principal 

 sub-divisions, as such, hold good for the most part. He discovered, 

 the Glaucophane Schist. He discovered the Variolite. These facts 

 alone are enough to show how great an advance his work represents 

 in our knowledge of the older rocks of Anglesey. 



He leaves a family of three sons and one daughter to mourn his 

 loss, the eldest of whom is Demonstrator of Chemistry in Queen's 

 College, Belfast, and a Public Analyst in Ireland. 



Publications. 

 " A Catechism of Zoology." 12mo ; London, 1873. 

 " The Yorkshire Lias." 8vo ; London, 1876. (In conjunction with Professor 



Ealph Tate.) 

 " Astronomical Mj-ths." 8vo ; London, 1877. (Based on Flammarion's History of 



the Heavens.) 

 " The Geological Results of Arctic Exploration." 12rao ; London, 1878. 

 " A Monograph of British Fossil Cephalopoda." 4to ; London, part i, 1882. 

 ' ' Catalogue of the Collection of Metallurgical Specimens formed by the late John 



Percy, Esq., M.D., F.R.S." 8vo ; London, 1892 (E\Te & Spottiswoode) . 

 " Annals of British Geology." 4 vols., 1890-93 ; London (Dulau & Co.). ^ 

 " Catalogue of T^-pe- and other Specimens in the Museum of the Geological Society." 



Svo ; Loudon, 1902. 

 " A Monograph of the Fauna of the Cornbrash," part i ; Monogr. Paheont. Soc. 59 



(1905), pp. 1-100. 



List of Scientific Papers and Memoirs. 

 "The Red Chalk": Proc. Yorkshire Nat. Club, 1869 (1870); Geol. Mag., 



Vol. VII, p. 300. 

 "The Yorkshire Lias and the Distribution of its Ammonites " : Brit. Assoc. Rop., 



vol. xli (1871), pp. 90-92. 

 " On the lufralias in Yorkshire " : Geol. Mag. (1872), p. 137 ; Quart. Journ. Gcol. 



Soc, vol. xxviii (1872), pp. 132-146; PhU. Mag., vol. xliii (1872), 



pp. 543-544. 

 "Additional Remains of Pleistocene Mammals in Yorkshire": Brit. Assoc. Rep., 



vol. xliii (1873), p. 75. 

 " On the Oldest known British Trigonia " : Geol. Mag. (1S73), p. 186. 



