Xlii PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



" Some Observations on a Bed of Trap occurring in the Colliery 

 of Birch Hill, near Walsall, in Staffordshire." These papers, like all 

 those published by the Society at that period, were of a much more 

 mineralogical character than those now constituting the bulk of 

 our publications. Palaeontology had then made but little pro- 

 gress. Its value and importance in assisting our knowledge of the 

 relative ages of rocks was hardly recognized, nor amongst the illus- 

 trations which accompany the early volumes are there any figures of 

 organic remains. At a subsequent period he was appointed to the 

 Secretaryship of the Society of Arts ; this circumstance is supposed to 

 have led to his retirement from the office of Secretary to this Society ; 

 but he continued for many years longer to serve on the Council, of 

 which he was a member for the last time in 1830. One of the 

 earliest members of the Society who knew him well thus writes to 

 me of him : — " He had a very logical head, and a calm and imper- 

 turbable temper, and drew up abstracts of the papers read at the 

 meetings with a precision that might stand in comparison with those 

 of Dr. Wollaston at the Royal Society." As an instance of character 

 it is mentioned that in early life he had been a minister of the 

 Unitarian persuasion, but resigned his cure on conscientious grounds. 

 He was a corresponding member of the Academy of Dijon, &c. He 

 died in London, on the 1 5th April, at the advanced age of eighty. 



Dr. Stanger, the able and energetic naturalist of the ill-fated 

 Niger Expedition, was born at Wisbeach, in Cambridgeshire, in 1812. 

 He took his degree of Doctor of Medicine at Edinburgh, and subse- 

 quently visited Australia. He afterwards superintended, under the 

 direction of the Government, the construction of roads near Cape 

 Town, then returned to England, and settling in London, commenced 

 the practice of his profession. 



But the pursuit of natural history had greater charms for his 

 enterprising character. In 1841 he joined the Niger Expedition 

 under Captain H. Trotter, R.N., and was one of the few of that 

 gallant but unfortunate band who were not struck down by the 

 devastating fever of the country. It was mainly owing to his energy, 

 assisted by Dr. M 'Williams, that one of the steamers was brought 

 down the river. In 1845 he was appointed Surveyor-General to the 

 new colony of Natal, where, with the exception of a short interval 

 of two years passed at home, he continued until his death. In this 

 young colony his time was spent between the conscientious discharge 

 of the duties of his office and a zealous investigation of the natural 

 history of the district. But the pressing calls of his official duties 

 did not permit of his reducing to order his many observations on 

 natural history. One of his last contributions to botanical science, 

 to which he was particularly devoted, was the discovery of a plant 

 belonging to the family of the Cycadese, combining many peculiar 

 characters, and named after him Stangeria. There is now a plant 

 of it in the Royal Gardens at Kew, producing fruit. Exhausted 

 by fatigue and cold, after travelling from Maritzburg to Natal on 

 horseback, he died on the 21st March, 1854, and was honoured 



