382 Obituary— Dr. Thomas Oldham, F.R.S. 



menceraent of the attack whicli resulted in his death, on a Geolop^ical 

 Map of N. S. "Wales, and on a second edition of his " Southern Gold 

 Fields." The name of W. B. Clarke requires no encomiums from us; 

 but when we say, as we think we may safely do, that more 

 than half his papers and reports have been written with the view 

 to the development of the mineral resources of his adopted country 

 and the well-being of his fellow-colonists, some idea maybe gathered 

 of the debt N. S. Wales owes to the memory of the Eev. W. B. 

 Clarke. Few are aware of the immense amount of work per- 

 formed during his various explorations, but it is stated that he has 

 officially reported on no less an area than 108,000 square miles of 

 territory, — E, E., jun. 



[For some of the facts connected with the earlier career of the Eev, W. B. Clarke 

 we are indebted to extracts from an Australian contemporary.] 



THOMAS OLDHAM, A.M,, LL.D., F.R,S,, F.G,S., 



LATE DIRECTOR OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA, 



Born May, 1816, Died 17 July, 1878. 



Death has just deprived us of another well-known and eminent 

 geologist, who was the founder of and for twenty-five years occupied 

 the arduous and important post of Superintendent of the Geological 

 Survey of our Indian Empire, probably the greatest geological 

 undertaking carried on b}' the British Government. 



Dr, Oldham was the eldest son of the late Thomas Oldham, Esq., 

 of Dublin, in which city he was born in May, 1816, and where he 

 was educated at a private school, and entered Trinity College, Dublin, 

 before he was sixteen years of age. 



After obtaining his B.A., he devoted 1837-38 to special studies of 

 engineering in Edinburgh, where he also applied himself to acquiring 

 a sound knowledge of geology and mineralogy under Prof. Jamieson, 

 with whom he formed a life-long friendship. Subsequently he was 

 engaged in some extensive engineering works in Edinburgh. 



Returning to Ireland in 1839, he became principal Geological 

 Assistant to General (then Captain) Portlock, E.E,, at that time in 

 charge of the Geological Department of the Ordnance Survey of 

 Ireland, and with whom he surveyed the counties of Derry and 

 Tyrone, and was largel}'^ engaged in the preparation of the report on 

 those couaties, published in 1843, Subsequently he became Curator 

 and Assistant Secretary to the Geological Society of Dublin, and 

 Assistant Secretary to the Institute of Civil Engineers of Ireland. 



In 1844 he was appointed Assistant-Professor of Engineering in 

 Trinity College, Dublin, under Prof, J, MacNeill, In 1845 he 

 succeeded Prof. Phillips to the chair of Geology in Dublin Uni- 

 versity. In 1846 he became Lecturer to, and in 1848 President of, 

 the Geological Society of Dublin. 



Between 1844 and 1849 he communicated no fewer than twelve 

 papers to the •' British Association " and the " Dublin Geological 

 Society's Journal," all bearing on Irish Geology and Palaeontology. 

 On 1st July, 1846, he was appointed Local-Director for Ireland of the 



