Obituary — Sir Richard John Griffith, Bart. 525 



Eicbavd Kirwan, as Inspector-General of His Majesty's Mines in 

 Ireland. 



After the famine in the South of Ireland, in 1822, he was em- 

 ployed by the Marquis Welleslej^ then Lord-Lieutenant, to improve 

 and construct roads in the counties Corl;:, Kerry, and Limerick, a 

 task which, had it been Mr. Griffith's sole achievement, was carried 

 out so successfully as to merit the highest praise. Whilst engaged 

 on this laborious undertaking, he constructed two hundred and fifty 

 miles of new roads through a mountainous district, previously quite 

 inaccessible, and the favourite resort of " Whiteboys," who made it 

 their stronghold, and defied the laws. 



Before the Ordnance Survey was established, Mr. Griffith was 

 appointed General Boundary Surveyor, and so long ago as the year 

 1812 the first outlines were attempted of one of the most valuable 

 and important works with which his name is identified, namely, the 

 preparation of a Geological Map of Ireland. No labour seemed to 

 Griffith too great in order to carry out this great work satisfactorily, 

 and also its subsequent revision ; indeed, throughout his life, he 

 never lost his intei'est in it. Four editions of it were published, the 

 latest of which was issued in 1854. 



In 1828 he was appointed Commissioner for the General Survey 

 and Valuation of Rateable Property, while his services were used 

 by the Government in connexion with various other commissions, 

 such as the Shannon Commission, etc. In 1848 he was appointed 

 Deputy Chairman of the Board of Works (Dublin), and in 1854 he 

 became Chairman, an office which he held until his death, although 

 relieved of its active duties. It should be mentioned that he was 

 twice elected President of the Geological Society of Ireland, and 

 took a very active part in its proceedings, and in promoting the 

 study of geology in his native city. 



Dr. Griffith records that the Meeting of the British Association in 

 Dublin in the year 1835, gave a fresh impulse to his labours, and 

 in 1838, Major Larcum, R.E., of the Ordnance Survey Office, 

 Dublin, constructed for him an entirely new Topographical Map of 

 Ireland on a scale of four miles to an inch, " the most accurate Map 

 of Ireland that has hitherto been published." (See Quart. Journ. 

 Geol. Soc. 1854, vol. x. p. xx.) It was on this map that Dr. Griffith 

 final!}' laid down the fourth and revised edition of his stratigraphical 

 colouring and geological boundary lines, and the first copy of which 

 he exhibited to the Geological Society of London in February, 1854. 

 At that Anniversary Meeting the Council awarded Dr. Griffith the 

 Wollaston Palladium Medal, in recognition of his valuable services 

 to geology by the completion of his Geological Map of Ireland. 



In 1858 Her Majesty conferred a Baronetcy upon him in acknow- 

 ledgment of his long and valuable public services.' One who knew 

 him well, Mr. G. H. Kinahan, M.E.I. A., writes :— " Griffith had extra- 

 ordinary powers of endurance, memory, and foresight. He usually 

 travelled by night, and after spending the night in a post-chaise 

 would do a hard day's work in the field. Scarcely twenty years 



1 Much of the foregoing is taken from the Dublin Daily Express, Sept. 27, 1878. 



