Correspondence — Prof. Edicard Hull. — Obituary. 335 



THE DISCOVERT OF UPPER SILURIAN ROCKS UNDER THE CHALK 

 OF HERTFORDSHIRE. 



Sik, — Allow me to call attention to the fact that the dis- 

 covery of the Upper Silurian Rocks in Hertfordshire under the 

 Upper Cretaceous — an account of which has been given by Mr. 

 Etheridge, F.B.S., in The Times 1 — corroborates the views I stated 

 as far back as 1861, in the second edition of ' The Coal-fields of Great 

 Britain,' and again in the third edition of 1873. The little ideal 

 section, by which 1 intended to show the structure of the central and 

 eastern counties, represents (p. 475) the " Silurian and Cambrian " 

 rocks as underlying the Cretaceous in the part of the country corre- 

 sponding to Hertfordshire. This ought to convince sceptics that 

 geologists can see deeper than other men into a millstone. 



Geological Survey of Ireland, Edward Hull. 



Hume Street, Dublin. 



OBITUAET. 

 JOSEPH WILSON LOWRY, F.R.G.S. 



Born October 7, 1803. Died June 15, 1879. 



Death has just erased another well-known name from the roll of 

 workers on the Geological Survey of Great Britain — that of J. W. 

 Lowry, the eminent engraver, whose maps, sections and plates of 

 fossils form so interesting a part of the records of this important 

 branch of the scientific public service. 



Joseph Wilson Lowry was the only son of Wilson Lowry, F.K.S., 

 and Bebecca Lowry, well known as a mineralogist some seventv 

 years ago. His father was the leading architectural and mechanical 

 engraver of his time, and he trained up his son to follow his own 

 pursuits. From his early youth his father's house was the resort of 

 men of high intellectual culture, and his mother's pursuits leading 

 her also to associate with the scientific men of the day, what wonder 

 that young Lowry early imbibed his parents' tastes, and became an 

 ardent lover of all Natural History studies and pursuits, an accom- 

 plished draughtsman, and a well-informed scientific man. 



His first practical effort was directed to the construction of a 

 model in plaster of the Isle of Wight, geologically clooured, and 

 divided transversely so as to give a section (also geologically 

 coloured) through the centre of the island. 



His pursuit of Natural Science led him early in life to become 

 acquainted with John Phillips, at that time Keeper of the Yorkshire 

 Philosophical Society's Museum in York, and later on, when 

 Assistant- General- Secretary of the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, and when associated with De la Beche on 

 the Geological Survey, or when Professor of Geology in Oxford 

 until his death, Prof. Phillips remained the attached friend of J. W. 

 Lowry. 



1 See also Geol. Mag. 1879, for June, pp. 286—289, with a complete list of the 

 fossils determined. 



