lxxiv PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [April 1914, 



appeared under his name three volumes on the Liassic and Oolitic- 

 rocks of England and Wales, which alone would serve as a lasting 

 monument to his untiring industry, his inexhaustible patience 

 in collecting all that Avas worthy of note from the writings of his 

 predecessors, and his skill in combining their materials with his 

 own observations to make an intelligible narrative. 



In 1892 his intimate knowledge of the Jurassic rocks led to his 

 being temporarily engaged in mapping parts of the Islands of 

 Raasay and Skye for the Geological Surve} r of Scotland. The 

 account of his work in Skye is published in the Glenelg Memoir. 

 In Kaasay he was the first to recognize that iron -ores of economic 

 value occurred in the Lias at the same horizon as the Cleveland 

 ores, and it was due to his suggestion that explorations were started 

 which have brought into existence an important industry. 



Later he showed a marked facility for putting geological in- 

 formation into a form that was palatable to the general reader, 

 in his Memoirs on Soils and Subsoils (1897; 2nd ed. 1906) and 

 on the Geology of the London District (1909). Among less 

 popular, but eminently useful works may be mentioned the 

 Water-Supply Memoirs on Lincolnshire (1904) and on Bedford- 

 shire with Northamptonshire (1909). One of his last official 

 publications was a 2nd edition of the Geology of Sidmouth (1906 ; 

 2nd ed. 1911). 



Among his published works, apart from the official Memoirs, 

 the ' Geology of England & Wales ' comes first to mind. The 

 2nd edition, published in 1887, 11 years after the issue of the 

 1st edition, was designed 



' to afford a book of reference, useful not only to students of the scientific 

 aspects of the subject, but also to engineers and others interested in its 

 practical applications.' {Op. tit. p. v.) 



It displays in a marked degree the power of the author to present 

 in a small space and in a convenient form a mass of varied in- 

 formation collected from many sources. The author himself was 

 too modest to realize the place filled b}^ this book as a work of 

 original research, but it may be claimed for him that his profound 

 knowledge of British Geology enabled him to review doubtful 

 propositions, and to present conclusions which in themselves con- 

 stitute an advance in knowledge. In stratigraphieal questions he 

 was a master. Modern palaeontology did not appeal to him : to 

 the last lie was averse to the alterations in nomenclature which 

 are the inevitable accompaniment of increasing refinement of 

 method, and he made no attempt to disguise his regret at the 



