li 



PEOCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETr. 



tastes, and he preserved liis activity of mind and body to the last, 

 ever taking a deep interest in the progress of science, humanity, 

 and freedom all over the world. His quiet manners and general 

 knowledge rendered him widely popular. 



Although not a Member of this Society, I must not omit the 

 name of Ai^deew Gteddes Baix, to whose explorations we owe so 

 much of our ]iuowledge of South African G-eology. He was a 

 native of Scotland, and emigrated to the Cape in early life. The 

 earlier years of his colonial life were passed in various occupations, 

 including the construction of a military road through the Ecca 

 Pass, in which he displayed great engineering talents, and he 

 subsequently had the direction of most of the roads constructed 

 in the colony. 



Here it was that a perusal of Ly ell's 'ElemxCnts' turned his 

 attention to Greology, and while exploring the rocks with which 

 his daily avocations were connected, he discovered the remains of 

 the Dicynodon and other fossil Eeptiles in the Lacustrine or 

 Karoo beds near Fort Beaufort. Of these he sent a large collec- 

 tion to England ; and some idea of their scientific value may be 

 formed from the large sums of money expended by the British 

 Museum and by this Society in having the oi-ganic remains 

 chiselled out of the hard rocky matrix in which they were im- 

 bedded, and by tlie interesting account given of them by Professor 

 Owen in our ' Transactions,' vol. iii. second series, p. 53. In 

 1845 the Council of this Society awarded him the balance of the 

 proceeds of the WoUaston Donation-fund, as a mark of their high 

 appreciation of the importance of his discoveries. 



He subsequently examined the rich Devonian deposits in the 

 "Western province, and added many new species to their fauna. 

 In fact, wherever he was employed, the whole of his leisure mo- 

 ments were devoted to the study of the geology of these little- 

 known regions, and he crowned his labours by the construction 

 of a Greological Map of Southern Africa, which was afterwards 

 published by this Society. 



After an absence from England of many years, Mr. Bain re- 

 visited this country last year, and I need not remind you of the 

 satisfaction with which most of us then saw for the first time 

 tlie discoverer of the Dicynodon. The state of his health had 

 brought him to England, and the same cause hastened his depar- 

 ture after a short stay in this country on the approach of winter. 

 Pie returned to the Cape, where the milder climate was considered 

 as the only chance of prolonging his life. He died a few days 

 after landing, and with him we have lost our best hopes for the 

 present of seeing the geology of Southern Africa completed. 



In addressing you on the present occasion I regret that I have 

 been unable to take up any one particular subject, Avhich, after 

 the example of some of my immediate predecessors, I might have 



