XXIV PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



opportunity of recording some sentiments of my own, wliicli are enter- 

 tained, I feel certain, by all geologists who have witnessed the rise and 

 progress of our associate, and which, if acted upon, will assuredly be 

 most grateful to his feelings. 



The earlier years of Sir H. De la Beche having been spent in 

 those labours in the field, and in the composition of many of those 

 works to which you have adverted, the remaining portion of his life 

 has, as you have stated, been devoted to the foundation, arrange- 

 ment, and successful completion of a great National Establishment. 



Let me add, that this design, entirely his own conception, was begun, 

 carried out, and matured by the combination of scientific skill with 

 those practical evidences of the value of his project, in the absence 

 of which he never could have commanded success in an undertaking 

 which, though applauded by ourselves, was alien to the pursuits of 

 the great body of Englishmen. 



And how did he succeed? — At his own expense he traced the 

 boundaries and relations of certain rock-formations, and, laying them 

 down on the Ordnance Survey Maps, accompanied by illustrative 

 Sections, he thus took the first step in leading public men (otherwise 

 little versed in our science) to see the good which must result from 

 the extensive application of such a scheme, in making all proprietors 

 alive to the importance of obtaining a better acquaintance with the 

 subsoil of their estates. 



Having gradually attracted the notice of the Government, and 

 having obtained the use of rooms in Craig's Court, and the employ- 

 m.ent of a limited sum of the public money. Sir H. De la Beche then 

 attached to his new-born establishment able men of science, who could 

 decipher formations in the field, describe the fossils they contained, 

 or chemically analyze the structure of the rocks and their associated 

 minerals. Soon filling to repletion the small space allotted to him 

 with models of mines, illustrative drawings, and specimens of fossils, 

 ores, and building-stones, he convinced our rulers, and particularly 

 that illustrious statesman Sir Robert Peel, that the dignity and 

 interests of the country required that an adequate and appropriate 

 building should be erected, and exclusively devoted to the fulfilment 

 of a project so lucidly devised, and thus far so well realized. 



Then arose, and very much after the design of the accomplished 

 Director himself, that well-adapted edifice in Jermyn Street, which^ 

 to the imperishable credit of its author y stands forth as the first 

 Palace ever raised from the ground in Britain^ lohich is entirely 

 devoted to the Advancement of Science ! 



Once possessed of halls worthy of so noble an object. Sir Henry 

 De la Beche next rendered them practicall}^ useful to the public, and 

 on a vastly extended scale, by embracing, as necessary adjuncts, me- 

 tallurgy and mechanical science in addition to the branches of know- 

 ledge previously cultivated. When we reflect on the eminence of the 

 men of science with whom he surrounded himself, including our last 

 and deeply lamented President Edward Forbes, and have seen how 

 admirably they presided over their schools, what solid instruction 

 they imparted, and all directly supporting geology, — when we visit 



