528 Obituary — George Don her. 



pp. 407-437, and vol. liii, 1897, pp. 67-106). Wlien Mr. Marr 

 sees fit to proiliiue satisfactory palajuiitolugical proof's in support of 

 his views as to the Keisiey Limestone I shall be quite prepai'fd to 

 modify mine, but until then I see no reason that certain features 

 of phj'sical structure capable of other explanations should be 

 considered sufficient to nullify the evidence of the organic remains ; 

 and accordingly I maintain that the Keisiey Limestone cannot be 

 brought forward as an illustration of Mr. Marr's theory of the 

 formation of knoll-reefs, whatever may be the value of that theory 

 in other areas. F. R. 0. Eeed. 



October 10, 1899. 



OBITTJJ^I?,:^". 



GEORGE DOWKER, F.G.S. 



Born April, 2, 1828. Died September 22, 1899. 



This virell-know^n Kentish Geologist, Botanist, and Arch geologist, 

 passed away at Ramsgate on the very day of his return from the 

 Meeting of the British Association. He was born on April 2, 1828, 

 at Stourmouth House, Stourmouth, the home of his father, James 

 Dowker, and vv^as educated at Sandwich Grammar School; he 

 afterwards studied farming at Hoddesdon Agricultural College, and 

 at the age of 30 farmed his own estates. It is probable that an 

 eai'ly love for botany was due to his schoolmaster, the Rev. J. 

 Layton, and it is certain that a warm friendship with William 

 "VVhitaker turned his attention seriously to geology. He was 

 a good antiquary and contributed numerous papers to Archaologia 

 Cavtiana, chiefly dealing with Richborough, Reculvers, Wingham, 

 and Preston Roman remains, and with the Anglo-Saxon cemetery 

 at Wickharabreaux. His botanical researches are mainly contained 

 in " The Flora of Kent," edited by Hanbury & Marshall, and his 

 geology found expression in the following papers : " On Tertiary- 

 Strata at Bekesbourne," " Water Supply of East Kent," " On the 

 Junction of the Tertiaries and the Chalk," " Chalk of Thanet," 

 " On the Mouth of the River Stour." 



Dowker was a good microscopist and was well acquainted with 

 the pond life of his district. He was President of the Margate 

 Microscopical Club, a prominent member of the East Kent Natural 

 Histoi'y Society, and was its President for several years. He paid 

 special attention to coast erosion, and contributed a paper on the 

 subject to the last meeting of the British Association, while one on 

 Dungeness formed the subject of a recent lecture to the Geologists' 

 Association of London. Dowker was a good draughtsman ; his 

 fossils found a home some years ago in the Maidstone Museum, 

 but he leaves a valuable local herbarium. He was a F.G.S. for 

 thirty-five years, and a member of the Dover Antiquarian Society. 

 He leaves a widow and nine children to mourn his personal loss ; 

 but his death deprives Thanet, and indeed Kent, of an energetic 

 and devoted servant of science, of a type only too rare in his district. 



