ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XXXlll 



pointed in 1841 to construct tliat important work the Ganges Canal. 

 This difficult and great public work, probably the greatest then exe- 

 cuted under British rule in India, its main channels being 820 miles 

 in length, was equally to the honour of those who promoted and of 

 him who projected and successfully carried it out. It was completed 

 in 1854. Soon after this, Col. Cautley returned to England, where 

 he was made a K.C.B., and in 1858 he was selected to fill one of the 

 new seats in the Indian Council, which he held till 1868, when he 

 retired into private life after a service of 50 years. Sir Proby 

 Cautley was born in 1802, elected a Fellow of this Society in 1836, 

 and died last month at his residence in Sydenham. 



In Lord Chief Baron Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart., we have 

 lost another early and distinguished Fellow. He was elected in 

 1818. I cannot ascertain that he ever wrote on any geological 

 questions ; but the Transactions of the Eoyal Society are enriched 

 with several memoirs by him on the curious problems connected 

 with mathematical theories of numbers. 



Dr. Collier joined the Society in 1838. In early life he saw 

 much of the world as a staff-surgeon in the army, and paid particular 

 attention to the conch ology of Ceylon when stationed there. He 

 was also eminent as a Greek scholar. He died last May at the 

 advanced age of 86. 



In Mr. Bradford the Society has lost a promising young Member^ 

 who took first-class honours in Natural Science at Cambridge, and 

 afterwards during five years taught English Literature and Science 

 at Hooghly College in India. He died at the early age of 32. 



The Eev, C. Erle was elected a Fellow of the Society in 1837. 

 For many years he was a very constant attendant at the evening- 

 meetings, and he will be remembered by many for the pleasant part he 

 took in some of our discussions. He travelled much in France and 

 Italy, and paid great attention to the volcanic phenomena of those 

 countries. In 1833 he was appointed to the living of Hardwieh, near 

 Aylesbury, where he resided till his death last year. Of the Saurian 

 remains of that district he made a large collection. Mr. Erie was also 

 a distinguished classical scholar. He was bom in 1790. 



Amongst our foreign Members, science has sustained a great loss 

 in Professor Gustav Bischoff, of Bonn, who died last year at the 

 age of 78. At an early period of his life, he devoted himself to 

 Chemistry and Physics ; and his attention becoming afterwards di- 



