Minutes of Proceedings. 60 



geology, mineralogy, and engineering in Edinburgh. In 1839 he was 

 appointed chief geological assistant to Captain (afterwards General) 

 Portlock, E.E., who directed the Geological Department of the 

 Ordnance Survey of Ireland. Oldham was engaged first in the field 

 on the geological survey of Derry, with parts of Tyrone and Antrim, 

 and subsequently in the preparation of the Report on that district, 

 which was published in 1843. In that Report Portlock speaks in 

 the highest terms of the knowledge of mineralogy, the intelligence,^ 

 and unbounded zeal of his chief assistant. In 1844 he was ap- 

 pointed Assistant Professor of Engineering in the University of 

 Dublin, and in 1845 Professor of Geology, in succession to John 

 Phillips. In 1846 he became Local Director for Ireland of the- 

 Geological Survey of the United Kingdom, and in 1848 President of 

 the Geological Society of Dublin, whose Journal contains some valu- 

 able Addresses and Papers from his pen. He it was who discovered iu 

 the Cambrian rocks of Bray Head the obscure fossil organism whicb. 

 was named after him by Edward Forbes Oldhamia. He directed the 

 Geological Survey of Ireland until 1850, when he was appointed 

 Superintendent of that of India, then just instituted by the Indian 

 Government. He carried out the duties of this office with his 

 usual zeal and ability, and being on a visit to Dublin in 1857, he 

 was able to give to the British Association, at their meeting there, 

 a long account of the work which had already been done. The 

 IMemoirs and Reports of the Survey issued under his superintendence 

 are of great extent and importance. He paid particular attention 

 to the coal-measures and the coal of India, and numerous memoir's 

 were devoted to that subject. He received, in 1875, a Royal Medal 

 from the Royal Society of London, ''for his long and important 

 services in the science of geology." After his retirement from the 

 Indian Geological Survey he resided at Rugby, where he died July 1 7 ,. 

 1878. 



W. H. Hardinge held for several years a seat on the Council, and 

 in his capacity as Treasurer was of eminent service to the Academy. 

 His position as Keeper of the Landed Estates Records gave him unusual 

 facilities for the prosecution of certain interesting lines of research,, 

 and, accordingly, to his investigations the Academy is indebted for the 

 following Papers of his which appeared in our Transactions : — Two 

 memoirs on Manuscript, Mapped and other Townland Surveys in Ire- 



