G8 Memoir ofCapt. Jas. Forsyth, by the Rev. Jas. Forsyth. 



and erudition in a public document. He was unfortunately 

 drowned, in the endeavour to cross a river while in flood. James 

 lamented his loss, with a deep and sincere regret. He was, I 

 believe, attached to the Free Church.* 



On the termination of his duties as Settlement Officer, my 

 son, became personal Assistant to the Chief Commissioner, 

 afterwards obtaining the preferment of Assistant Commis- 

 sioner 1st class, in 1870. While holding this preferment, he 

 does not seem to have had any special official duties to dis- 

 charge, but simply took part in the business of the general ad- 

 ministration, for which he was well qualified by the large ex- 

 perience he had acquired, by his acquaintance with the general 



* [The Rev. Stephen Hislop, whose worth and merits receive, as they 

 deserve, this honourable testimonial, was my fellow-lodger and com- 

 panion, while attending the Universities. His letters to me, of that period, 

 would fill a volume ; and they very much relate to our early scientific 

 pursuits, botanical and geological, on which we often took counsel to- 

 gether. Mr Hislop was born at Dunse, 8th September, 1817. He was a 

 distinguished student at both the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. 

 After the Disruption, he completed his studies at the New College ; and 

 was appointed a missionary to Nagpore, in 1844. An. account of his 

 arduous operations in the mission field has been put on record, in the Eev. 

 Robert Hunter's " History of the Missions of the Free Church of Scotland in 

 India and Africa," London, 1873. His tragic end occurred 4th September, 

 1863. In February, 1864, Professor Ramsay, in his presidential address to 

 the Geological Society, gave an obituary notice of Mr Hislop. ' ' There is, ' ' adds 

 Mr Hunter, "a Nagpore mineral called Hislopite ; several fossils have appended 

 to them the specific name Hislopi, while one has Hislopianus ; and if it were 

 possible that the Church which sent the first Nagpore missionary forth should 

 ever forget him, the geological world'would not allow his name to die." His 

 name is also recorded in Hislopia lacustris of Carter, a parasite on Palunina 

 Bengalensis. In conjunction with the Rev. R. Hunter, Mr Hislop wrote me- 

 moirs on the geology of the Nagpore district, published in the " Quarterly 

 Journal of the Geological Society," vols. x. and xi. ; and on a visit to this 

 country in 1860, an article " On the Tertiary Deposits associated with Trap- 

 Rock in the East Indies, with a description of Fossil Shells," &c, which also 

 appeared in the " Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society,'' May, 1860 

 A collection of his papers was published under the editorship of Sir Richard 

 Temple- Mr Hislop' s two other brothers, both natives of our district, may 

 also be referred to as distinguished by their attainments in literature or 

 science. His eldest brother, the late Rev. Alexander Hislop, of Arbroath, 

 was the learned author of "The Two Babylons." His second brother, Mr 

 Robert Hislop, is a well-known contributor on entomology to the Club's 

 Proceedings ; and occasionally honours our meetings by his presence. — J.H.] 



