﻿Obituary — William Harris. 381 



only prepared to affirm that the Huronian rocks on the Lake of the 

 Woods are in great part volcanic, but putting forward the theory 

 that the Huronian formation is largely composed of metamorphosed 

 contemporaneous igneous matter. This is the view to which I was 

 myself led by my study of these rocks in the field, and I published 

 this opinion in a paper on the Geology of the North Shore of Lake 

 Superior some years ago (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxix.). In 

 this paper I expressed the o|)inion that the great masses of " talcose" 

 and " chloritic " slates which, together with interbedded traps, make 

 up the greater part of the Huronian formation between Lake 

 Superior and Lake Shabendowan, are " truly of the nature of bedded- 

 felspathic ashes ; " and I also drew attention to the singular resem- 

 blance which they present to the Borrowdale series, or Green Slates 

 and Porphyries, of the North of England. It affords me, therefore, 

 much pleasure to find that these views, at that time quite unsup- 

 ported, should have been corroborated by the wide opportunities for 

 observation and the extended experience of Mr. Dawson. 

 United College, St. Anukews, H. Alleyne NiOHOLSON. 



July 1th, 1877. 



WILLIAM HARRIS, ESQ., F.G.S. 

 Born 1797. Died 1877. 

 With regret we announce the death of William Hareis, Esq., 

 E.G.S., on the 13th May, aged 80, at Charing, in Kent, where he 

 had resided for many years. He was greatly esteemed by a large 

 circle of friends for his genial disposition and real philanthropv ; 

 and he obtained deserved reputation for his untiring researches 

 among the fossils of the Chalk, and into the geological history and 

 structure of the country around him. He was elected a Fellow of 

 the Geological Society of London in 1839. After a long life of 

 useful activity his health failed him eigbt or nine years ago, and he 

 gi-adually lost his power of moving about and attending to business, 

 as well as his interest in those scientific pursuits which were formerly 

 his pleasure. He had for many years assiduously collected the 

 organic remains found in the Chalk-pits of the neighbouring hills, 

 especially the Sponges and Fishes. Of the former he communicated 

 many to Mr. J. Toulmin Smith, who figured and described the 

 VentncuUdcB of the Chalk in 1848. Of the Fishes he collected and 

 prepared a great many, but they were never classified. The 

 enormous numbers of Entomostraca, Folyzoa, and Foraminifera, 

 together with small Brachiopods, Serpula3, fragments of Corals, 

 Encrinites, etc., which Mr. Harris obtained, by careful and patient 

 search, from the Chalk and Chalk-marl, were freely and liberally 

 distributed to his friends, and to others interested in palaeontology. 

 Many a one has been instigated to take up geological studies, with 

 microscope at home and hammer abroad, after participating in some 

 of these minute organic treasures from " the Charing Detritus," as 

 the disintegrated Chalk-mari of the locality was termed by our 

 lamented friend. 



