40 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



had entered the service of Messrs. Chambers, appeared in 1844, 

 imder the title of ' Eudiments of Geology ;" and from that time till 

 the close of his life it was succeeded by an nninterrupted flow of 

 new books and new editions treating of geology and the collateral 

 sciences from various points of view. 



Professor Page became a Pellow of this Society in 1853. He was 

 also a Eellow or Member of various Geological and other learned 

 Societies, and in 1863 was President of the newly reestablished 

 Geological Society of Edinburgh. In 1867 the University of St. 

 Andrews conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of 

 Laws. Pinallj^, in July 1871, he was appointed Professor of Geology 

 and Mineralogy in Durham University College of Physical Science, 

 a position which he retained to the time of his death, which took 

 place at Newcastle on the 9th March 1879. 



Besides the numerous educational and popular works already 

 alluded to, Professor Page read several papers, chiefly relating to 

 Scottish Geology, at the Meetings of the British Association and 

 before the Physical Society of Edinburgh and the Edinburgh and 

 Glasgow Geological Societies. He never contributed to our ' Pro- 

 ceedings.' 



Prof. Page's great merit was that of being one of the earliest, 

 and throughout his life one of the most successful, popularizers of 

 geological ideas. In the preparation of text-books, and handbooks 

 for more or less advanced students, and of lighter articles for those 

 who can hardly yet be called students, and in the delivery of 

 popular lectures, he was incessantly active, notwithstanding long- 

 continued ill health ; and in these ways, as also by the zealous 

 discharge of his duties in the College of Physical Science at New- 

 castle, he no doubt contributed greatly to the general difl'usion of 

 geological knowledge. In private also his geniality of character 

 and enthusiasm gave him considerable influence over the minds of 

 those with whom he was brought into contact. 



Cael Beris^haei) von Cotta was born at Zillbach, near Eisenach, 

 in Thiiringen, on the 24th of October, 1808, and studied first at 

 the Mining Academy of Ereiberg, where he matriculated in 1827-31, 

 and subsequently at the University of Heidelberg, taking the degree 

 of Doctor of Philosophy. Erom 1839 to 1842 he formed part of the 

 teaching staff and was Secretary of the Academy for Eorestry and 

 Agricultural Science at Tharand, near Dresden, of which his father 

 was the founder and first Director. This association led him at first 

 to the study of vegetable palseontology — his earliest work, that on. 

 Dendrolites (or fossilized tree-stems), which appeared in 1832, 

 being founded upon the large collection of fossil plants in his 

 father's possession at Tharand ; but the greater attractions pre- 

 sented by the strata in the immediate neighbourhood and in the 

 adjacent Elbe valley led him to devote himself to field-geology, 

 which thenceforward became a principal work of his life. 



The first place among his numerous published works must un- 

 doubtedly be given to his geological maps. The idea of a general 



