lxii PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [vol. lxxiv,. 



to geology of this Rochdale group was the working-out of the 

 Middle Coal-Measure shales of Sparth and the discovery therein 

 of a rich collection of fossils, including numerous interesting 

 Crustacea, besides arachnida and insects. Parker died in his 64th 

 year on January 14th, 1918. 



Robert Boyle, born at Auchinleck (Ayrshire) in 1883, studied 

 engineering at the University of Glasgow, and practised the pro- 

 fession first at Glasgow and subsequently under the Commissioners 

 for the Port of Calcutta. He was interested in geological re- 

 search, and contributed papers to the Geological Society of 

 Glasgow, including one on the composite sill of Lugar. The 

 Council of this Society awarded to him a grant from the Daniel- 

 Pidgeon Fund in 1910, and in the following } r ear he was elected a 

 Fellow. About the end of 191(5 he went to Western Australia 

 for the sake of his health, and died there on May 22nd, 1917,. 

 aged 34. 



The War has again levied its toll upon the ranks of the Society. 

 In Alexander Moncrieff Finlayson we have lost one who bade 

 fair to attain a high place as a mining engineer. From New 

 Zealand, where he received his early training, he came to London 

 with an 1851 Exhibition Scholarship, and spent two years in 

 research work at the Royal College of Science. In 1910 he took 

 up an important appointment in Burma as oil technologist, but 

 on the outbreak of war he returned to England, and joined the 

 Army. As lieutenant in the South Lancashire Regiment, he was 

 wounded in France, and, returning to active service, again received 

 a wound, from the effect of which he died on July 23rd, 1917. 



For so young a man, he had accomplished a large amount of 

 geological work. Before coining to London he had carried out 

 researches on the goldfields, the scheelite deposits, and the nephrite 

 of New Zealand, besides contributing to the geology of the Sub- 

 Antarctic Islands. While in England he made a comprehensive 

 study of the British ore-deposits, and endeavoured, to classifj" them 

 with reference to their geological age. His results were embodied 

 in two papers read before this Society in 1910. He also visited 

 Spain, and made important contributions to our knowledge of the 

 pyritic deposits of Huelva. His death is deeply deplored by those 

 who enjoyed the privilege of his friendship. 



