333 
Su Wemoriam. 
GEORGE ROBERT VINE. 
Microscopic Geology has just recently lost one of its most 
enthusiastic and ardent supporters—one well known to all readers of 
‘The Naturalist,’ and as well appreciated for his valuable and 
extensive original contributions to the ‘ Proceedings of the Yorkshire 
Geological and Polytechnic Society’; we refer to Mr. G. R. Vine, of 
Sheffield. A brief notice of his death appeared in our September 
number, p. 282, but since then we have been enabled to secure 
the following summary of his life and labours. 
Mr. Vine was born in Portsmouth, Oct. zoth, 1825. His 
parents were poor, but brought up their children in_ strict 
conformity with their religious beliefs, and with such a sense 
of honour and honesty that their son George never wavered 
from the paths of upright dealing with his fellow men. He 
found in the National School in Portsmouth a place where the 
rudiments of education could be obtained for a few pence per week, 
and for a short time he was a diligent pupil at that institution. Like 
all school boys, he got into numerous and frequent scrapes, but took 
full benefit of the advantages there offered, which, at the best, were 
far inferior to those of the present day. Soon, however, he had to 
bid ‘ good-bye’ to school and commence daily work, but his desire for 
knowledge was not to be allayed, and, procuring a Latin and a Greek 
grammar, he became familiar with the elements of these languages. 
Poetry and history were his favourite subjects, and his memory for 
what he had read was truly marvellous; he would often recite 
lengthy rome from a poet without having seen the book for ten 
or more to him, but into 
almost every sco ihe branch of learning he prt more or less 
extensively. No particular subject, however, had as yet seized upon a 
_ his =n, though his reading became more and more general, and 
_ the consequent breadth of thought and sympathies brought him into 
contact with many men of ability. With W. J. Linton he was very — 
— intimate, and many others well known in the ‘forties and fifties’ 
were his almost c t He was connected with the 
: WEIS LIS al 
: - movement for hie ‘abolition of the tax on knowledge, with the . 
Chartist cause, with noted foreigners—Kossuth, Mazzini, and others. 
But, at last, becoming tired of - and of the many vagaries _ 
ne ‘So freely conainaarene at the time, he began 1 ete down.’ His 
- ‘Treland —— 1853, as the manager of a corset manufactory in oe 2 
_ Athlone. Here he was located in — of a fine limestone — 
bly until he arrived i in = 
