AlfNIVEESAET ADDKESS OE THE PEESIDENT. xliii 



his former contributions to the geology of Ireland, or liis services 

 in favour of the Greological Society of Dublin, of which he M^as 

 again elected President. He contributed a paper " On the varia- 

 tions in depth in the Tertiary deposits, as exhibited in a section of 

 borings at Portsmouth;" and another "On the schistose condition 

 of the rocks in Pantry Pay," in addition to his Annual Addresses 

 on the 12th of February 1851 and 12th of February 1852. He 

 also furnished an excellent article on Palgeontology in the third 

 volume of the "Aide-Memoire." 



In 1850 he read a paper to the Pritish Association at Edin- 

 burgh, on the manner in vphich Trap or Igneous Pocks intrude 

 into the Sandstone and Conglomerate near l^orth Perwick. 



During this period he also entered vpith great zeal into the 

 question of the employment of convicts on military public works 

 in Ireland, a measure which has since received so great a develop- 

 ment, and in Ireland at least has been attended with such beneficial 

 consequences. In 1851 Lieutenant-Colonel Portlock became In- 

 spector of Studies at the iioyal Military Academy at Woolwich. 

 Here he found full scope for those occupations to which his 

 thoughts and attention were becoming more and more exclusively 

 devoted. He was an ardent advocate for education in the army, 

 and particularly for that of the scientific corps. He took an 

 active share in all the plans and schemes for the improvement of 

 military education, which were at that time occupying the atten- 

 tion of the military authorities ; but in the meantime, dealing 

 with the then existing state of things, he devoted himself to the 

 improvement of the course of education at the Academy, by 

 extending the mathematical course, and the study of chemistry; 

 and by introducing, amongst other details, the addition of lectures 

 in G-eology, in Mineralogy, and in Natural Philosophy. During 

 this time he also furnished to the 8th edition of the ' Encyclo- 

 paedia Pritannica' the articles on "Cannon," "Fortification," 

 and " Gunnery." 



In 1852 Colonel Portlock was President of the Greological 

 Section of the Pritish Association at Pelfast; and about this time 

 it was that he wrote an admirable memoir of his former chief, 

 Major-General Colby, of which Major-General Larcom, from whose 

 memoir I have collected most of the materials in this notice, speaks 

 in the highest terms, as recording, in the life of General Colby, the 

 origin and progress to maturity of the topographical branch of 

 the service. 



In 1856 he resigned his post at Woolwich ; influenced by a 

 sense of public duty, he retired at the very moment when the 

 result of his labours was beginning to appear. He carried away 

 Avith him the esteem and the regret both of the authorities and 

 of all connected with the Academy ; and by no one was this regret, 

 and the approbation of his useful labours, more warmly expressed 

 than by Lord Panmure, then Secretary of State for War. On 

 leaving the Poyal Military Academy he held the command at 

 Dover from November 1856 to May 1857, when another field was 



