ii2 Annual Report of the Council. 



death, and occasionally appeared at its meetings. He 

 was a donor of £125 to the Society's Centenary Fund. 



J. TV 



One of the personal losses of the Society during the 

 past session has been the late Professor W. C. 

 Williamson, LL.D., F.R.S., &c, a former president 

 of the Society. He was born at Scarborough on the 24th 

 November, 1816, and died at 43, Elms Road, Clapham 

 Common, London, 23rd June, 1895. Dr. Williamson's 

 father was a gardener by occupation, but natural gifts 

 had made him a geologist on one of her most fertile 

 domains — the oolitic and cretaceous rocks of Yorkshire. 

 The late Professor Phillips tells us, in the preface to the 

 third edition of his classical work, " Illustrations of the 

 Geology of Yorkshire," how he had, in company with his 

 uncle, William Smith, "the father of English geology," 

 gathered fossils beneath the romantic cliffs of Whitby and 

 Scarborough, and that in 1824 he had the good fortune 

 to become acquainted with two of the most valuable of 

 all his early friends, Mr. William Bean and Mr. John 

 Williamson (the father of the future professor), and to 

 profit by their admirable collections of recent and fossil 

 shells, Crustacea, echinida, and corals, dredged from the 

 neighbouring sea, or hammered out of the adjacent rocks. 

 The elder Williamson naturally trained his son to pursue 

 studies which were so fascinating to himself, and with 

 pardonable pride the son, in later years in his college 

 teaching, paid many an eloquent tribute of gratitude to 

 his father for the tastes then implanted and fostered. He 

 also rejoiced in the happy circumstance which brought 

 William Smith to reside under the elder Williamson's 

 roof, as it brought him into close contact with the veteran 

 geologist, and with Smith's nephew and biographer, the 

 late Professor Phillips. 



