lx PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY* 



to be the Director of the Topographical and Statistical Depot of the 

 War Department, with one assistant to attend to the details of work- 

 ing, &c, and, to act as his deputy in his absence, his son, Mr. W. P. 

 Jervis, all other assistants being merely hired by the week. This 

 was almost the last work of the Duke of Newcastle, and will doubt- 

 less be remembered as one of the greatest improvements in the orga- 

 nization of our army, for the first step taken by Colonel Jervis was to 

 impress the Minister with the importance of attaching to his office 

 a set of intelligent officers who should form a topographical corps, and 

 accompany the troops in the Crimea, Asia Minor, and indeed in every 

 campaign. The first corps sent out under Colonel Jervis, and equipped 

 with instruments, &c, went to Erzerum, where they surveyed the 

 whole sources of the Euphrates on a large scale, and the plain and 

 town of Erzerum, sketching in the hills, &c. : this survey was 

 afterwards employed in connexion with the frontier- survey from 

 Ararat to the coast. Lord Panmure did not sanction a topographical 

 corps for the troops at Sevastopol, though the Engineers of the 

 Turkish Contingent were regularly supplied with instruments and 

 materials from the Topographical Depot, and sent home some valuable 

 maps. It may however be observed that the propriety of attaching 

 a scientific corps to the Crimean army had been submitted to Lord 

 Eaglan by a different person, and that the project would have been 

 carried out had not insurmountable difficulties appeared in the way. 

 Lieut. -Colonel Jervis had the merit of originating the important 

 establishment of a Topographical Office in the War Department, and 

 he did much with limited means ; we must not however condemn 

 the higher authorities for not at once raising such an establish- 

 ment to its utmost elevation, as no men in power can neglect the 

 necessary economy of public money. It cannot be doubted that 

 the Topographical Office will go on improving in excellence and 

 importance, and that the remembrance of its first head will be long 

 associated with it. The works of Lieut. -Colonel Jervis on geo- 

 graphical and other scientific subjects were very numerous; and 

 I may mention especially, as proofs of his labour or ingenuity, his 

 model of Sevastopol, which is in the War Department (it is 14 feet 

 by 10, on a scale of ten inches to a mile, with true altitudes, and was 

 coloured skilfully by the kindness of Mrs. Colonel Jervis), and a new 

 system of projection for maps, called by him " cycloidal," and which 

 has been employed in his official maps of the Caucasus (two sheets) 

 and the S.W. of Asia, Circassia, the Caspian, &c. ; of these, nine sheets 

 are more or less completely engraved and issued. 



Lieut. -Colonel Jervis is now gone ; but we may fairly say that the 

 East India Company has seldom possessed an officer of more energy 

 and ability, that his services at home were very valuable, and that 

 in every respect he was a most kind and estimable man, fulfilling all 

 his duties, as a loyal subject, a faithful husband, and an affectionate 

 father, in the most exemplary manner. 



Geoege Weaee Beackeneidge, F.S.A., was born on the 4th of 

 January, 1775, in Hanover County, Virginia, at that time still sub- 



