96 Obituary — Samuel Hughes. 



page 191, are these words : "Colonel Gr. Greenwood has favoured us 

 with a letter on the improbability of the existence of real meteoric 

 stones." In your this month's number, page 571, Professor Kamsay 

 takes my side.^ He thinks that the Greenland (meteoric !) stones 

 may be of terrestrial origin ; '' that, supposing the earth to have in 

 part an elementary metallic core, eruptive igneous matter might oc- 

 casionally bring native iron to the surface." 

 Brookwood Park, Alresford. George Greenwood, Colonel. 



MINERALOGY OF CORNWALL AND DEVON. 



Sir, — In the very favourable review of my "Handbook to the 

 Mineralogy of Cornwall and Devon," which appears in the Dec. 

 number of the Geological Magazine, your reviewer remarks that 

 " Stenna Gwynn is given as a locality for Wavellite, while under 

 Tavistockite it is correctly stated that this is the mineral, as first 

 noticed hy Dana, that really occurs there, and not Wavellite, for 

 which it was formerly mistaken." 



On this point I should wish to make two remarks. First, that I 

 did not give Stenna Gwynn as a locality for Wavellite, but merely 

 stated that "it is said to have occurred" there, which is perfectly true. 



Second, the authority for Tavistockite is not Dana, but Mr. Michell, 

 of Calewich, near Truro, who discovered what he calls " Soft Wavel- 

 lite," but which appears to have been what is now called Tavistockite, 

 more than fifty years ago, and mentioned it in a book published 

 anonymously at Truro, in 1825 or 1828. J. H. Collins. 



Falmouth, Dee. 26, 1871. 



Obituary. — Samuel Hughes, Civil Engineer, of Park Street, West- 

 minster, was elected a Fellow of the Geol. Soo. of London in 1847, 

 and died in October, 1870, at the age of 55. He early evinced a taste 

 for natural sciences, and the most successful results of his more 

 important undertakings in connexion with the supplying of water 

 to towns was due to his knowledge and practical application of 

 geology. He wrote the "'Water Works" for Weale's Series, and 

 throughout it he insists upon the necessity of possessing a familiar 

 acquaintance with the stratigraphical relations of our rock groups. 

 During the latter part of his life he rose to be amongst the first 

 scientific gas engineers of the day, which was in great part due to 

 those habits of careful observation and, rational deduction which 

 result from the study of physical phenomena. In this branch of 

 engineering also he wrote the text-book for Weale's Series. 



^ Prof. Ramsay thought the Greenland (Meteoric) Iron miffht be of terrestrial 

 origin ; but he did not (like Col. Greenwood) deny the existence of real meteoric 

 stones. If the Colonel will visit the British Museum any day, he may see a very 

 large series of iron and stone meteorites, the circumstances attending the I'all of many 

 of which are well authenticated. As spectrum-analysis has revealed to us that many 

 of the heavenly bodies are composed of like elements with our own planet, it need not 

 surprise us to find that fragments of such bodies, falling on our earth, should be com- 

 posed of the same materials. — Edit. Geol. Mag. 



