192 Obituary— Charles William Peach, A.L.S. 



which book is devoted to a biographical sketch of Mr. Peach, to 

 which we are indebted for many of our facts. Here he con- 

 tinued his study of geology and zoology. Whilst travelling round 

 the coast of Caithness in search of wrecks, he made good use of 

 his spare time, hammering the rocks in search of fossil plants with 

 which the dark flagstones of the district abounded. He was the 

 first to find fossils in the limestones of Durness in Sutherland. 

 Obscure organic remains had been detected by Macculloch in the 

 quartz rocks of Sutherland ; but they passed out of mind, and their 

 organic nature was stoutly denied by Sedgwick and Murchison. 

 Peach, however, in 1854 brought to light a good series of shells l 

 and corals, which demonstrated the limestone containing them to 

 lie on the same geological horizon as some part of the Lower 

 Silurian of other regions. He also found a new fossil fish, which 

 was described in the Decades of the Geological Survey. At the 

 meeting of the British Association at Liverpool, 1854, Peach read a 

 paper on "The Eemains of Land Plants and Shells in the Old Eed 

 Sandstone of Caithness." In August, 1858, Mr. Peach accompanied 

 Sir E. I. Murchison to the Orkney and Shetland Islands, and 

 finally the two geologists landed at Cape Wrath, and proceeded to 

 visit the Durness Limestone, where all that Peach had already 

 discovered was confirmed by the personal observation of Sir 

 Eoderick, who, proceeding to Leeds, laid before the Geological 

 Section of the British Association, " The Eesults of his Ee- 

 searches among the older rocks of the Scottish Highlands," 

 doing full justice to Mr. Peach's discovery of organic remains of 

 the Lower Silurian age in the Crystalline Limestone of Sutherland, 

 similar to those which occur in the Lower Silurian rocks of 

 North America. 



He was a Fellow, and served the office of President of the Eoyal 

 Physical Society of Edinburgh. 



In 1868 Peach was elected an Associate of the Linnasan Society 

 of London. 



The " Neill Gold Medal " was awarded to Mr. C. W. Peach in 

 1874, by the Eoyal Society of Edinburgh, for the addition of about 

 20 species of Ecliini, Medusae, and Sponges made by him to the 

 known fauna of the British seas. 



Though his long and active life had entitled him to rest both from 

 official and scientific work, his vigorous mind and great love for 

 science urged him to further investigations, and in the plant-bearing 

 beds of Edinburgh, Falkirk, and Fife, he made important discoveries, 

 not only of new forms of plant-life, but of materials which inci'eased 

 our knowledge of already described forms. 



He died at 30, Haddington Place, Edinburgh, on February 28th, 

 in his 86th year. His son, Mr. B. N. Peach, F.E.S.E., F.G.S., has 

 for many years been attached to the Geological Survey of Scotland, 

 and is the author of several important geological and palseontological 

 memoirs. 



1 Maclurea Peachii, which was named after Mr. Peach, and several other forms. 



