﻿XXV111 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



In the spring of 1832, having realized a small independence, he 

 set out alone on an expedition to explore the Crimea, the Caucasus, 

 and the adjoining countries of Circassia, Georgia, and Armenia, in- 

 cluding Mount Ararat. In this arduous undertaking he persevered 

 for several years, patiently undergoing great bodily fatigue and priva- 

 tions while wandering through the territories of barbarous and uncivi- 

 lized tribes, frequently unaccompanied even by a guide, and, although 

 the Russian authorities gave him every assistance in their power as 

 soon as they were made acquainted with the objects of his travels, 

 often exposed to the most imminent personal danger. The fruits of 

 nearly four years of observation were given to the scientific world in 

 1839 and 1842, in a splendid work in six volumes octavo, illustrated 

 with plates and maps, entitled, ' Voyage autour du Caucase, en Col- 

 chide, iVrmenie, Georgie, et en Crimee.' 



In these travels, M. Dubois first recognized the existence of strata 

 of the age of the gault, upper greensand, and lower greensand in the 

 Crimea, as well as portions of the upper and middle oolites of the Me- 

 diterranean type. He also traced the same formations together with 

 the white chalk along the northern base of the Caucasus, as far as the 

 river Kuban. In the same work he described the volcanic rocks of 

 middle Armenia and Mount Ararat, recently the theatre of the labours 

 of M. Abich, whom we have had the pleasure of seeing at several of 

 our meetings during the past session. M. Abich, after spending 

 seven years in the same countries, does ample justice to the accurate 

 descriptions and enlightened views of the indefatigable pioneer, in 

 whose footsteps he has so successfully trodden and whose discoveries 

 he has so greatly enlarged. 



In 1836 M. Dubois returned home to Switzerland, where he was 

 appointed, in 1843, Professor of Archaeology in the University of 

 Neufchatel. He died on the 7th of May, 1850, at the age of fifty- 

 two, an intermittent fever which he had caught in his travels having 

 attacked him every spring with increasing intensity, slowly under- 

 mining his constitution, although his activity of mind and love of 

 science continued undiminished to the last. 



Among the ordinary Members whose loss we have to deplore since 

 our last Anniversary, I have to mention the names of Sir Robert 

 Peel, Lord Northampton, and Dr. Pye Smith. 



