Eminent Living Geologists : 



Professor Sir T. W. Edgeworth David, 



K.B.E., C.M.G., D.S.O., B.A., Hon. D.Sc. (Oxon.).- F.E.S., F.G.S, 



Lieut. -Colonel Australian Imperial Forces. 



(PLATE I.) 



pKOFESSOR SIR EDGEWORTH DAVID was born in 1858 at 

 -*- St. Fagan's Rectory, near Cardiff, and was educated at 

 Magdalen College School, Oxford, becoming head of the school and 

 captain of the football and boat clubs. In 1876 he was elected to the 

 Senior Classical Scholarship at New College, Oxford, and graduated 

 in 1880, having won further distinctions in classics and in athletics. 

 He had included in his studies a course of geology under Pro- 

 fessor Prestwich, and had commenced in South Wales his life-long 

 research \ipon the problems of glaciation. His geological studies 

 were contii^ued in London under Professor Judd, at the Royal 

 School of Mines, and in 1882 he was appointed to the Geological 

 Survey of New South Wales, under the late Mr. C. S. Wilkmson. 

 On his arrival in Sydney in November of that year he made an 

 investigation of the very fossiliferoas Silurian beds of Yass, and 

 shortly afterwards commenced the study of the rich tin-bearing 

 deep-leads and alluvium of New England, completing a large quarto 

 memoir thereon in 1887. His duties led him to visit many parts of 

 the State, but attention was now devoted chiefly to the Survey of 

 the Hunter River Coalfield, which has occupied much of his time 

 ever since ; indeed, part only of his researches thereon has yet 

 appeared. This investigation has been of immense value both 

 economically and scientifically. The western portion, or Maitland 

 coalfield, the extension of which was discovered during his survey, 

 has proved the most important coalfield in Australasia. Here, too, 

 were investigated the problems of the Permo-Carboniferous period, 

 its glacial phenomena and peculiar flora and fauna. The 

 distinguishing feature of all his work, the constant comparison of 

 the area or problem immediately under investigation with kindred 

 phenomena in other regions, has rendered this stud}' of the Hunter 

 River Coalfield of classic miportance. During its progress he devoted 

 also much attention to microscopical petrology, drawing up a 

 classification of the rocks of the State and mvestigating, in particular, 

 a series of those rare rocks, leucite-basalts. At the same tune the 

 broader j^roblems of volcanic action attracted his uiterest. His 

 official connexion with the Geological Survey ceased in 1891 on his 

 appointment to the Chair of Geology in the University of Sydney. 



In 1891 the Geological School of that L^niversity was quite a small 

 department, but under the enthusiastic teaching of its new head, 

 and with the stimulus of the rapidly increasiiag importance of the 

 mining industries, its influence spread widely throughout Australia', 



