﻿Yol. 64.] ANNIYERSART ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. lix 



created a Geheimer Bergrath. He was elected a Poreign Corre- 

 spondent of this Society in 1903. 



In Sir EicHARD Strachey, G.C.S.I., who was born in 1817, the 

 Society has lost almost its oldest and certainly one of its most 

 distinguished Pellows. His connection with geology dates back to 

 a time before most of ns were born, and he has been a Fellow of 

 the Society since 1851. He belonged to a family which for some 

 generations has been closely associated with administrative work 

 in India, and it was there that he also laid the foundations of the 

 great scientific reputation which he ultimately attained. Trained 

 as a military engineer, he in 1836 entered the Bombay Engineers 

 in the Service of the East India Company, and was soon engaged 

 in the construction of irrigation-canals. These peaceful operations, 

 however, were occasionally interrupted by outbreaks of war, and 

 the engineer-officers were called off into active service against the 

 insurgent tribes. In this way Strachey took part in the first Sikh 

 war, had his horse shot under him at the battle of Aliwal, and was 

 present at the action of Sobraon. Promoted to a brevet-majority 

 for his services in the field, he returned to irrigation and other 

 engineering works. Eventually, however, he was compelled by 

 frequent attacks of fever to betake himself to the hill-station of 

 Naini Tal, where he had opportunities of devoting himself to 

 scientific investigation, especially in regard to botany, geology, and 

 physical geography. It was during this time that he made his 

 expeditions across the passes into Tibet, and ascertained the exist- 

 ence of the Kumaon glaciers. He then likewise made important 

 discoveries in regard to the presence of Palaeozoic, Mesozoic, and 

 Kainozoic formations along the line of these passes. His observa- 

 tions were communicated to this Society in 1851, in a paper on the 

 * Geology of Part of the Himalaya Mountains & Tibet,' ^ with a 

 sketch-map and sections of the country that he had traversed. 

 Three years later he sent in a paper on the ' Physical Geology 

 of the Himalaya,' of which an abstract was published in the tenth 

 volume of the ' Quarterly Journal ' (1854) p. 249. 



These scientific expeditions restored his health and strength, so 

 that he was able to resume for a short time irrigation- work in 

 Bundelkhund. But he was soon called to enter on the administra- 

 tive duties which proved to be the main feature of his career and to 

 become of such lasting benefit to India. His first appointment was 



^ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. vii, p. 292. 



