﻿46 Ohituary — David Forbes. 



companied Mr. Brooke Evans to explore the mineral resources and 

 afterwards to superintend extensive mining and metallurgical works 

 at Espedal in Norway, a post wliich he held for about 12 years. 

 During this period he travelled much, and lost no opportunity of in- 

 creasing his store of scientific knowledge, as his writings testify. 

 David Forbes was a man of resolute and determined courage, and 

 when in Norway, in 1848, and a revolutionary movement threatened 

 the country, he armed 400 of his men to aid the Government. For 

 this service the King sent for Forbes, and thanked him personally, 

 and ever afterwards remained his friend. 



During this time he became a partner in the well-known firm of 

 Evans and Askin, Nickel-smelters, Birmingham, and it was in con- 

 nexion with them that he visited Chile, Peru and Bolivia, in 

 search of Nickel and Cobalt. His investigations into the mineral 

 resources of these countries extended over six years. During the 

 years 1857-60, he made a special geological exploration of certain 

 districts in South America, the result of which, entitled "On 

 the Geology of Bolivia and Southern Peru," was communicated to 

 tlie Geological Society in 1860. 



The paper is full of interesting details, and although many points 

 may appear to have been neglected, this is not the result of over- 

 sight, but, as the author truly observes, is " due to the great difficul- 

 ties and frequently severe privations encountered in exploring a 

 country in many parts entirely uninhabited, or to a great extent in 

 a savage condition, and, further, by having been limited both as to 

 'time and pecuniary resources, . and hampered by other occupations 

 and by the political state of the country." 



A second communication was to have embodied the Geology and 

 Mineralogy of the neighbouring Eepublic of Chile and the Argentine 

 Provinces, which would have strengthened his previous conclusions, 

 especially as several of the geological formations not well developed 

 or studied in the districts described in his first paper, were seen by 

 Forbes much better and more characteristically exhibited further 

 south. From South America he made an expedition to the South Sea 

 Islands, and spent some time in studying their volcanic formations 

 and minerals. 



During four years he traversed Chile in all directions from con- 

 siderably south of Santiago northwards, up to the frontiers of Bolivia 

 in the Desert of Atacama. 



He inspected all the principal and some of the lesser mining 

 districts along the range of the Cordilleras ; from these he collected 

 a valuable and extensive series of minerals, including about 190 

 species, of which he published a list (much more copious than that 

 given in the second edition of Domeyko's Mineralogy), together with 

 a classification, according to the mode of their geological occurrence, 

 in his paper " On the Mineralogy of Chile " (see Phil. Mag., 1865). 



It was with the same view that during his long residence in 

 Norway Forbes studied the Mineralogy of the several districts in 

 that country, viz. with especial reference to the circumstances under 

 which each mineral occurred and the causes which led to its ap- 



