1854.] 



BIOGliAPHICAL NOTICE OF SIR RODERICK MURCHISON. 



53 



mansion of the late Mr. Morritt of Rokeby, he was encouraged 

 by that eminent chemist to devote himself to science, and, at 

 his advice, attended the Lectures at the Royal Institution. 

 Here he acquired his first lessons in science between 1822 and 

 1824, and having been elected a member of the Geological 

 vSociety in 1825, he at once entered upon the duties of a prac- 

 tical geologist. In the following year he was admitted a Fellow 

 of the Royal Society, and thus took bis place among the phi- 

 losophers of England. 



After examining the Brora coal in Sutherlandsliire, and 

 showing that it was a member of the Oolitic series, and equal 

 only to the impure coal of the Oolite of Scarborough and Whitby, 

 our author visited the Highlands in the following year with 

 Professor Sedgwick, when they succeeded in showing that the 

 primary sandstone of MaccuUoch was nothing more than the 

 true old red sandstone. 



Thus prepared by his geological studies at home, our author, 

 accompanied by Lady Murchison, set out in 1828, along with 

 his distinguished friend Mr. Lyell, to study the extinct volca- 

 noes of Auvergne, and the geology of the north of Italy. In 

 this tour they vi-sited Paris, Avergue, the south of Prance, 

 Nice, and Turin. The results of this diversified journey, which 

 Mr. Lyell by himself extended to Rome, Naples, and Sicily, 

 were partly publi.shed in his " Principles of Geology," and 

 partly in three 3Iemoirs, the joint production of the two 

 geologi.sts. These Memoirs were on the excavation of Valleys, 

 as illustrated by the volcanic rocks of Central France, on the 

 tertiary strata of the Cantal, and on the tertiary fresh water 

 strata of Aix, in Provence. 



After separating from his companion, who contiued his 

 journey to the South, our author crossed the Alps from Venice 

 and Bassano, and in the journey he discovered a key to esta- 

 blish the order of sequence of the Jurassic or Golitie and 

 Cretaceous rocks, and the Tertiary strata which overlap them ; 

 and having in 1829 visited the same mountain chain in the 

 following year, along with professor Sedgwick, and again in the 

 year 1830 by himself, he was enabled with the assistance of 

 his friend, to publish a Jlemoir in the Geological Transactions 

 on the structure of the Eastern Alps, accompanied by a Geolo- 

 gical Jlap of the chain. 



xVfter these explorations of the Alps, Sir Roderick directed 

 his attention to the geology of his own country. He had been 

 led by his friend and instructor Dr. Buckland to explore the 

 banks of the Wye between Hay and Builth, in the hope of 

 discovering evidences of order among those masses of rock to 

 vi'hieh the unmeaning term of grauwacke had been applied, and 

 he was thus led to study those vast and regular deposits of a 

 remote age, which arc most clearly displayed in that part of 

 Wales and England which was occupied by the Silures, and 

 which he called tlie Sihirluti Sj/s/cm. After having est:;- 

 blishod the existence of the sy.stem in the counties of Shrop- 

 shire, Hereford, Jlontgomcvy, and Radnor, lie traced it to the 

 southwest, through the counties of Brecknock and Cacrniarthen, 

 and finally discovered the whole succession of the upper and 

 liiwer Silurian rocks, in the sea cliffs to the west of Milfin-d 

 Haven, — the only place in the Briti.sh Lsles where the whole 

 scries, down to an unf()ssiliferous base is seen to be regularly 

 surmounted by the Old Red Sandstone. 



These views were first published in the pnicecdings of the 

 Geological Society and in the Philosophical Magazine, between 

 the years 1832 and li^o'), both inclusive ; the term Si/un'mi 

 h:iving been a|i;)licd to the series in the la.st mentioned year. 

 At that time it was ticlicvi'il that the irroat slatv masses oi' 



North Wales, which had been under the .survey of Professor 

 Sedgwick, but whose fcssils had not been made known, were 

 inferior in position to the formations which liad been classed, 

 and whose fossils had been identified, as t'^ilurian. This belief 

 continued to be in force when the large work entitled the 

 " Silurian System" was published, (1839,) the supjMsnd lower 

 rocks having been tenned Cainhrian in 1836, by their explorer. 

 Professor Sedgwicli ; it being then presumed that this would 

 prove to contain a distinct group of organic remains. When 

 the masses, however, to which the name Camhrlan had been 

 given, were examined in detail by the numerous geologists of 

 the Government Survey, and were thus for the first time, 

 placed in correlation with the previously established Silurian 

 strata, it was found that the great and apparently chaotic jjile 

 of Snowden, though full of porphyiy and other igneous rocks, 

 was nothing more than the absolute physical equivalent of the 

 Llandeilo formation of the Lower Silurian, and hence these 

 gentlemen, with the entire approval of Sir H. de la Beehe, the 

 founder of the great national Geological Museum in the 

 Metropolis, restricted the term Cambrian to the underlying 

 grauwacke without fos.sils. When we add to these considera- 

 tions the fact that Silurian fossils are alone found in what were 

 called Cambrian rocks, we cannot avoid adopting the opinion 

 expressed fourteen years ago in one of his anniversarj- addresses 

 by Sir R. Murchison on his return from Russia, and which has 

 since been maintained by the great body of geologists, — Conti- 

 nental, American, and British, — that the so-called "Cambrian" 

 rocks which contain fossils, are merely geographical extensions 

 (under those different mineral characters so admirably described 

 by Professor Sedgwick) of the lower Silurian deposits of the 

 typical region of Sir R. ^Murchison in Shropshire and the 

 adjacent counties. But passing b}' this subject of nomencla- 

 ture, the difierence about which is feelingly alluded to in his 

 preface by our author, we cannot view the question as afTceting 

 the acknowledged merits of the distinguished Cambridge Pro- 

 fessor, who, whatever be the names of the rocks, will ever 

 occupy the same lofty place in the history of geology to which 

 his labours have so justly entitled him, and whose praises are 

 emphatically recorded in the volume under review by his 

 associate in many a field of research. 



Without particularly noticing the two journeys which were 

 performed hj our author and Professor Sedgwick in 1835 and 

 1839 into the Rhenish provinces, including the Hartz district 

 and Franeonia on the one side, and Belgium and the Boullo- 

 nais on the other, in the last of which they were accompanied 

 by M. de A'^erneuil, we must hasten to give a brief account* of 

 the remarkable journeys which he made to Russia in 1840 and 

 1841, in company with M. A'crneuil, whom he invited to 

 accompany him. Our geologists reached St. Petei.sburg in the 

 summer of 1840, and after vi.siting the banks of the river.s 

 Volkof and Siass, and the shore of Lake Onega, they proceeded 

 to Archangel, and the borders of the White Sea, and followed 

 the River Dwina into the Government of Vologda. After 

 traversing to the "\^olga they returned by Jloseow to St. 

 Petersburg, examining the Valdai Hills, Lake Illnien, and the 

 banks of the rivers which they pass(yl. Mr. Murchison returned 

 to England in 1840 ; but having, along with 'M. A'crneuil, 

 been invited by the Emperor to supcrintenil a geological survey 

 of Russia, our two geologi.sts travelled overland to St. Peters- 

 burg in the spring of 1841, and being joined by Count Key- 



* In the North British Rerifir, Ediiibnrjrli edition, vol. v. p. 183 wlicie 

 is revicwcil " 'flic CccoUifry of Uiis.«iii in liinoiie," our readers will Ijiul 

 a fuller ncenuiit ol' tlioye i<iuniev!'. iiiiil llieir results- 



