524 
_ four years following. He was on all occasions a most liberal con- 
tributor to the wants of the Society. He assisted also in providing for 
the publication of Count Bournon’s work on Crystallography, and 
was a firm friend and supporter of that distinguished mineralogist, 
of whose aid he availed himself in forming one of the finest mineral 
collections of that time. 
When, in the infancy of our establishment, an attempt was made 
to withdraw from the Geological Society all those members who 
were Fellows of the Royal Scciety, Mr. Fergusson steadily adhered 
to that line of conduct which our then President, Mr. Greenough, 
recommended, and which proved successful. He was an active 
member of our Council, and took great interest in all our proceed- 
ings, and was a frequent contributor also to our collection of minerals 
and Library; besides many other books, we are indebted to him for 
a complete series of the Journal de Physique, the numbers of which 
were transmitted at his cost as soon as published. 
Mr. Fergusson was generous and amiable in disposition, courteous 
in manners, an ardent lover of truth, tolerant and charitable to- 
wards those from whom he differed in opinion ; his hospitable man- 
sion at Raith was ever open to the cultivators of science; the dis- 
ciples of the school of Playfair found there an especial welcome, 
Leslie -had a room in his house, and a workshop for himself when- 
ever he chose to come. With Leslie he visited Cambridge in 
1806, in the time of Dr. Edward Daniel Clarke ; mineralogy and 
the Huttonian theory being at that time the principal scientific ob- 
jects of his attention. During the peace of 1802 he travelled on 
the Continent, and visited Constantinople, Greece and Paris, where, 
and likewise at Constantinople, he met Dr. E. D. Clarke. 
He never published any scientific memoirs, but was eminent as 
an enthusiastic patron of science and an encourager of knowledge 
of every description; mineralogy, geology and the fine arts were 
his favourite pursuits; he had a sound judgment in matters of 
geological theory ; and was to the last one of our most steady 
friends and coadjutors, and among the most frequent attendants at 
our Meetings. In his death the Geological Society has to deplore 
the loss of one of its earliest associates, and most zealous and liberal 
supporters. 
Mr. Joun Gipson was a native of Yorkshire, engaged in large 
ehemical works at Stratford-le- Bow in Essex, to whom we are indebted 
for our first knowledge of the existence of fossil remains of extinct ani- 
mals in the cave at Kirkdale. Being on a visit to his friends near 
Helmsley in 1821, his attention was attracted by some bones he 
found thrown upon the road, together with stones from an oolite 
quarry adjacent to the church at Kirkdale. He at once perceived 
that they were not, as the quarry-men supposed, the bones of cattle 
that had perished by some murrain and been cast into a chasm of the 
rock, but that they were derived from animals no longer existing — 
in the country. These bones were in quantity sufficient, not only 
to supply the cabinets of gentlemen in the neighbourhood, but also 
to enable Mr. Gibson to bring a collection of them to London, 
