267 ba 
He performed many of his surveys under a burning sun, the 
thermometer ranging from 100 to upwards of 112 degrees. As 
many of his observations were required to be taken at mid-day, the 
consequences were frequent suffering and illness from strokes of the 
sun; but he continued his labours until his health totally failed. 
He died at Aberdeen in December last, at the age of forty-seven, 
having apparently sacrificed his life to the promotion of science, 
stimulated in his labours by the wish to benefit mankind, without 
the hope of worldly remuneration. 
To his late equally zealous and indefatigable brother, Dr. James 
Gilbert Gerard, surgeon of the Hill corps stationed at Subathu, 
and the companion of Captain, now Sir Alexander, Burnes, in his 
perilous journey through Central Asia, we owe the discovery of 
extensive collections of fossil shells in the Himalaya mountains, at 
the height of 17,000 feet. The greater part of these closely re- 
semble shells that occur in the Oolite formation of Europe, particu- 
larly Ammonites and Belemnites; whilst a few, e. g. Orthoceratites 
and Spirifers, are similar to shells we find in rocks of our Transition 
Series. The Rev. R. Everest has described and figured some of 
these in the eighteenth volume of the Asiatic Researches. 
His third brother, Captain Patrick Gerard, is remarkable as the 
author of a Meteorological Journal, kept in 1819-20 at Kotgerh, 
Subathu, and the intermediate places in the Himalaya mountains, 
and recording hourly observations during nearly two years*. 
* See Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. il. p. 615. 
VOL. IIl. on 
