Eminent Living Geologists : Dr. A. R. C. Selwyn. 53 



Hemingford Abbotts, Hunts; and in the year following be was 

 appointed by the Colonial Office Director of the Geological Survey 

 of the newly-formed Colony of Victoria/ Australia, which had just 

 then entered upon all the excitement and interest of the opening up 

 of its wonderful goldfields. Here Selwyn's past experiences in 

 unravelling the intricate Lower Silurian rocks of North Wales, with 

 their associated volcanic deposits, served him in good stead in 

 mapping the Silurian strata of Victoria, with its gold-bearing rocks 

 and auriferous gravels of different ages, and in tracing the relations 

 of the latter to the Miocene beds of the Colony, so rich in their 

 varied Eocene molluscan fauna. 



Mr. Selwyn was abl}'- assisted by C S. Wilkinson, H. Y. L. 

 Brown, C. B. Brown, R. Etheridge, jun., and other geologists ; 

 and in addition to an admirable series of geologically coloured maps 

 of the Colony and reports, he made the following important 

 communications : — 



1. "On the Geology and Mineralogy of Mount Alexander and the adjacent country 



lying between the liivers Loddon and Campaspe " : Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, 

 vol. X (1854), pp. 299-303. 



2. " Eeport on the Geological Eolations of some of the Coal-seams of Van Diemen's 



Land, their probable extent, and relative economic value" : Van Diemen's 

 Laud, Eoy. Soc. Papers, iii, 1855-9, pp. 116-141. 



3. "On the Geology of the Goldfields of Victoria": Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, 



vol. xiv (1858), pp. 533-538; and Geologist, vol. i (1858), pp. 163,164. 



4. " Notes on the Geology of Victoria " : Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xvi (1860), 



pp. 145-150. 

 6. " Geological Notes of a Journey in Soiith Australia from Cape Jervis to Mount 



Serle " : Geogr. Soc. Proc, vol. v (1861), pp. 242-244. 

 6. " Eeport on the Auriferous Drifts and Quartz-reefs of Victoria. — Observations on 



the probable Age of the ' Lower Gold Drifts ' " : Victoria, Australia, May 4, 



1866. Eeprinted in the Geol. Mag., Vol. Ill (1866), pp. 457-459. 



The communication made to the Geological Society by Mr. Selwyn 

 on March 10, 1858, and the Report on Auriferous Drifts, etc., 

 Victoria, 1866 (Geol. Mag., Vol. Ill, p. 457), are among the most 

 important of Mr, Selwyn's written contributions to the geology of 

 Victoria. 



He was" almost continually engaged in the field with his 

 assistants, or in travelling over the Colony, and was indefatigable 

 in the discharge of his duties as Director of the Survey from 1853 

 to 1869, when he retired, the Survey having been brought to an 

 abrupt close by the Colonial Legislature refusing to vote the 

 necessary supplies to carry on the work. 



In 1865 Mr. Selwyn sent over to the care of the late Mr. H. M. 

 Jenkins, at that time Assistant Secretary of the Geological Society, 

 an excellent collection of Murray River Tertiary shells, which have 

 since been deposited in the Museum of the Geological Society, 

 Burlington House.^ 



1 The ivhole area of the Principality of Wales is 7,378 square miles : Victoria is 

 the smallest of the AustraHan colonies and its area is 87,884 square miles ! What 

 a contrast for Selwyn after seven years among the mountains of Wales ! 



^ For a most interesting account of the Tertiary deposits of Victoria, based upon 

 Mr. Selwyn's reports and papers, see British Association, Section C (Geology), 

 Norwich, 1868 ; and Geol. Mag., Vol. V (1868), p. 566, by H. M. Jenkins, F.G.S. 



