C. Lapioorth — Life of Dr. J. G. Linnarsson. 5 



of Palaeozoic geology the Swedish sequence is regarded as the most 

 reliable and authoritative standard of reference yet defined. And this 

 magnificent result we owe almost wholly to Linnarsson's personal 

 labours, and to the influence of his example upon his fellow-workers. 

 Linnarsson was one of those rare geologists who have learnt that 

 in developing the true succession in any region, stratigrajohy and 

 paleontology must work together hand in hand. We see the 

 guiding thread of this conviction running through all his researches, 

 and it is to this, I believe, we owe it that he accomplished so much, 

 and performed it so perfectly. The difficulties he had to encounter 

 were altogether distinct from those which beset the student of the 

 fossilifei'ous Lower Palceozoic rocks of Britain. In Southern Sweden 

 the strata are of such remarkable tenuity that the fossils peculiar 

 to several subformations in the vertical series lie in close proximity ; 

 and unless collected inch by inch, in situ, are certain to become 

 intermixed in the collection. The floor of the country is so buried 

 up from sight by the universal mantle of drift, that exposures of 

 strata are few and far between ; and it is impossible to trace any 

 of the beds from point to point over the ground. In such a region 

 no one could hope for success but he who possessed an eye trained 

 to recognize the most minute distinctions in petrological and palceon- 

 tological characters in the field, a memory gifted to retain them, 

 a power of generalization suffi^cient to group them at once in their 

 natural relationships, a faith in his own judgment enough to follow 

 the conclusions they indicated to their widest issues, and above all 

 an intense delight in the labour itself. Linnarsson, pre-eminent 

 among his contemporaries, seems to have possessed all these qualifi- 

 cations, and his success was proportionably great. 



Linnarsson's geological career falls very naturally into three very 

 distinct periods. In the first of these, 18&6 to 1870, he employed 

 himself in working out the geology of the district of Westrogothia, 

 and in establishing on both stratigraphical and pala3ontological 

 grounds a detailed scheme of its Lower Palaeozoic succession. The 

 second period, 1870 to 1876, he spent in rigidly testing and develop- 

 ing this scheme, and in making it available for the entire mainland 

 of Scandinavia, by frequent and extended tours to other Lower 

 Palaeozoic areas, at home in Dalarne, Jemtland, Scania, and Oland, 

 and abroad in Denmark, Germany, Bohemia, and the Baltic Provinces 

 of Russia. The third period, 1876 to 1881, he occupied in field- 

 work on the Geological Survey, in palaeontological research, and in 

 working out the subordinate zones of his original geological scheme. 

 The first scene of Linnarsson's geological labours was his native 

 region of Westrogothia. The rocks and fossils of this region had 

 been already made known to geologists in the works of Linnseus, 

 Wahlenberg, Dalmann, Hisinger, and Angelin ; but it was reserved for 

 Linnarsson to detect the true order of succession amongst them, and 

 to make them the accepted prototypes of all the corresponding forma- 

 tions of his native land. Linnarsson commenced the study of the 

 Lower Palaeozoic strata of this district immediately after his candi- 

 date-examination in 1866. His first geological paper — " On the 



