Ivi PROCEEDI^^GS OF THE G-EOLO&ICAL SOCIETY, [vol. Ixxiii, 



patience, joined to an insight which had something of the detec- 

 tive's acumen and something of the poet's imagination. Dm-ing 

 ten 3'ears he produced in rapid succession papers treating of the 

 general structure of the district, the stratigraphy and fauna of 

 the Devonian formations, the ridges of Cambrian rocks which rise 

 in the midst of the younger strata, and the remarkable metamorphic 

 effects induced in connexion with the folding and overthrusting. 

 His results were finally collected in the masterly monograph 

 entitled ' L'Ardenne,' which appeared in 1888, and was at once 

 recognized as a work of the fii'st rank. 



It would take long to enumerate all the contributions which 

 Gosselet made in succeeding je^rs to almost every department of 

 geology. Remarkable for originality and freshness of interest, 

 they often had also important practical applications. Of chief 

 moment was the investigation of the structure of the Franco- 

 Belgian coal-basin. This was indeed the natural complement of 

 Gosselet's study of the Ardenne, and he Avas able to show how the 

 Ardenne massif, or its prolongation, has been driven over the 

 southern margin of the coal-basin. This work had a decided 

 influence upon the doctrines then current concerning the structure 

 of the Alps, while on the practical side it led to an extension of 

 the Avorkable coalfields. Gosselet was also attached to the Geolo- 

 gical Survey of France, and was responsible for numerous sheets 

 of the map with accompanying memoirs. 



The value of his scientific labours was recognized both at home 

 and abroad. The Academy of Sciences of Paris had awarded him 

 the Bordin Prize in 1881, and when many years later the member- 

 ship of the Academy was extended to provincial savants, Gosselet's 

 name figured on the first list. Our Society awarded him the 

 Murchison Medal in 1882, and three years later elected him a 

 Foreign Member. 



Still hale in mind and body at 70, the Professor was forced by 

 an unwelcome age-limit to relinquish his Chair ; but a kindly fate 

 sent him for successor his old pupil and attached fi'iend Dr. Charles 

 Barrois. An unofficial place was found for the elder man, and in 

 the leisure of retirement he saw merely enlarged opportunity for 

 geological activities. When darker days came, and Lille fell into 

 the hands of an ungenerous enemy, the veteran geologist refused 

 to quit the scene of his long labours. His last illness was con- 

 tracted while striving to repair the havoc wrought by an explosion 

 among his cherished collections. He died on March 20th, 1916, 



