Ohltmry—The Rev. W. Bramchite Clarke. 381 



the first actual discovery of tin in Australia to Mr. Clarke, as detailed 

 by himself in a paper ' On Mining' contributed to the Sydney Morning 

 Herald, August 16tli, 1849. He also reported on the occurrence of 

 Cinnabar in N. S. Wales, and, by means of a collection of fossils, made 

 with the assistance of W. Hardy, Esq., first elicited the fact of the 

 occurrence of rocks of Silurian age on the flanks of the Dividing 

 Range, a discovery for which he was highly complimented by the 

 late Sir R. I. Murchison. This collection was examined and deter- 

 mined by the late Messrs. Lonsdale and Salter, but a second and 

 more extensive one, gathered from all parts of N. S. Wales by Mr. 

 Clarke, and his friends, has lately formed the subject of a detailed 

 and successful work by Prof, de Koninck.^ 



Mr. Clarke paid a geological visit to Tasmania in 1856, and an- 

 other in 1860, to examine the country around Fingal and the Don 

 River. The interest he took in all matters connected with Colonial 

 Geology cannot be better shown than by the fact that he success- 

 fully recommended no less than three Government Geologists to 

 their respective colonies, viz. the late Messrs. R. Daintree, and C. 

 D'Oyly H. Aplin, to North and South Queensland, and Mr. C. Gould 

 to W. Australia, who was succeeded by Mr. H. Y. L. Brown. We 

 believe Mr. Clarke was also instrumental, at all events to a consider- 

 able extent, in the appointment of Mr. C. S. Wilkinson, F.G.S., 

 Government Geologist for N. S. Wales. Just as he took an interest 

 in Colonial Surveys, so Intercolonial Exhibitions appear to have occu- 

 pied much of his time, taking particular interest in the Geological Sec- 

 tions, and frequently contributing articles to the official catalogues on 

 the resources of his adopted countrj'-. He was a member of the N. S. 

 Wales Commission of the Paris Exhibition of 1867, the Intercolonial 

 Exhibition of 1870, and the Philadelphia International of 1877. 

 The Rev. W. B. Clarke was appointed in 1839, by Sir G. Gipps, a 

 Trustee of the Australian Museum, Sydney, and of the Free Public 

 Library. Sir C. Fitzroy placed his name on the first list of Fellows 

 of Sydney University, an honour, however, never accepted, we be- 

 lieve. The Presidential and Vice-Presidential chairs of the Royal 

 Society of N. S. Wales were several times filled by Mr. Clarke ; in- 

 deed in the reconstitution of that Society, a short time since, he took 

 a most lively interest. The Geological Society of London elected 

 him a Fellow in 1826, and awarded him the Murchison Medal in 

 1877, " in recognition of his remarkable services in the investigation 

 of the older rocks of New South Wales." By the Royal Geographi- 

 cal Society he was elected a Fellow in 1865, and his name is to be 

 found amongst the list of members of the Societe Geologique de France, 

 and the Corr. Members of other Continental Societies. Mr, Clarke was 

 elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in June, 1 876, for " the important 

 part taken (by him) in the refounding of the Royal Society of N. S. 

 Wales, and in the promotion of Scientific Knowledge in the Colony." 

 We believe Mr. Clarke was engaged, only shortly before the com- 



1 Eecherches sur les Fossiles paleozoiques de la Nouvelle-Galles du Sud ( A.ustralie). 

 Par L. G. de Koninck, D.M. Bruselles (2 vols. 8vo. pt. 1, text and atlas, 1876; 

 parts 2 and 3, text and atlas, 1876-77). 



