ANNIYEKSAKY. ADDRESS OP IHE PEESIDENT. xli 



first observations made by tbe aid of tlie lamp and beliostat were 

 successfully effected. This was Portlock's start in Ireland; and 

 all the preliminary arrangements being complete, he remained 

 attached to the trigonometrical branch of the work, of which he 

 soon became the senior, and ultimately the sole officer. 



In the following year (1827), with one other officer, he accom- 

 plished the observations with the great theodolite at the Vicar's 

 Cairn and other mountain-tops, remaining at Slieve League under 

 canvas 2000 feet above the sea until the middle of January. 

 Indefatigable in his duty, and carried forward by his zeal, he 

 exposed his health to such an extent as to call down the friendly 

 remonstrances of his chief, Colonel Colby. In addition to this 

 laborious work, he also undertook in the following year to direct 

 the operations connected with the secondary triangulation, and 

 subsequently organized an elaborate system of vertical observa- 

 tions and calculations for altitude, and personally carried a line of 

 levelling across the island, from the coast of Down to the coast of 

 Donegal, and caused similar lines to be observed in other places. 



This laborious work he continued for several years. In 1832 it 

 was determined to compile a descriptive memoir on the physical, 

 social, and productive aspects of Ireland. In this effort Captain 

 Portlock, having completed the great triangulation, actively co- 

 operated, and undertook the geology and productive economy. 

 He had, however, great difficulties to contend with. As he said 

 himself, " Geology was permitted, not commanded." In 1834, 

 however, he was enabled to engage competent assistants in the 

 various branches ; and in 1837 he formed a geological and statis- 

 tical office, a museum for geological and zoological specimens, and 

 a laboratory for the examination of soils. The results soon 

 appeared in his section of the memoir, but unfortunately the work 

 was suspended by the Government on the score of expense. It 

 was a miserable shortsighted policy. Various retrenchments 

 were suggested, and it was even proposed to drop the figures of 

 altitude as a useless topographical luxury ! Better counsels, 

 however, at last prevailed to a certain extent ; the survey was 

 resumed in an efficient manner, but the memoir was doomed, not- 

 withstanding the efforts of the British Association, the Eoyal 

 Irish Academy, the Grand Juries of Ireland, and men of science 

 and progress in both countries. So strongly, however, was public 

 opinion expressed that in 1843 a Commission was appointed by 

 Sir Robert Peel, which recommended its resumption and continu- 

 ance. The memoir, however, never was resumed, and Captain 

 Portlock was ordered to draw to a close the work he had already 

 begun. This was done in 1843, when he published the volume 

 which bears his name, on the " Greology of Londonderry, Tyrone, 

 and Fermanagh, with portions of the adjacent Counties;" after 

 this he was restored to the general duties of the corps of Eoyal 

 Engineers, and the surveying parties were removed to England. 



This valuable work of Captain Portlock's, which may be justly 

 termed the commencement of the Geological Survey of Ireland, is 



