lxii PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



near Bath, who died March 20, 1855. He was not long left behind 

 her, as he died February 11, 1856, at his house at Brislington, near 

 Bristol, aged 81. 



Charles William Wentworth Fitzwilliam, fifth Earl Fitzwil- 

 liam, K.G., was best known to the world as an enlightened liberal 

 politician, but his claim on our respect is founded upon his desire to 

 promote the intellectual advancement of his fellow men, as manifested 

 by the fact that since the year 1833 he filled the office of President 

 of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society. He has been succeeded by 

 the Earl of Carlisle, but the services of twenty- eight years' presi- 

 dency are not likely to be forgotten by the members of the Yorkshire 

 Philosophical Society. 



As a soldier myself, I cannot pass by the name of Colonel "W. G. 

 Eliot in silence, though I have been unable to obtain any specific 

 notice of his life. The officers of our military and of our naval pro- 

 fession should be encouraged to enter upon a study which is so ca- 

 pable of being made valuable in practice ; and the very fact of joining 

 our Society proves that regard for science which it is our object to 

 inculcate and to cherish. 



I have now to notice the distinguished foreign members whom it 

 has been our misfortune to lose during the past year, and I shall 

 begin with M. Andre Hubert Dumont, who was so well known to 

 many of our leading members, and whose career, though short, was 

 productive of great results. He was born in 1809 : and such was 

 his earnest pursuit of his favourite science, that at the age of twenty 

 (in 1829), he produced his first geological essay on the " Geological 

 Constitution of the Province of Liege," and addressed it to the 

 Royal Academy of Belgium, by which body it was crowned with 

 honour. Ten years afterwards the merits of this work obtained for 

 M. Dumont the award of the Wollaston Medal from our Society. In 

 1834 (April 5) he was chosen a corresponding member of the Bel- 

 gian Academy, and in 1836 (Dec. 15) he was admitted a regular 

 member. About the same time, at the recommendation of the Dean 

 of the Academy, and of the late M. Cauchy, also a member of the 

 Academy, M. Dumont was named, by the Government, Professor of 

 Mineralogy and Geology to the University of Liege, and was requested 

 to undertake the difficult and important task of drawing up a geolo- 

 gical map of Belgium ; and it is much to be feared that, honourable 

 as that work must be considered to his native country and to him- 

 self, the labour and anxiety connected with its preparation were 

 fatal to his health. 



In 1852 his Memoir on the Rhenish and Ardennes Formations, in- 

 cluding the Ardennes, Brabant, Condroz and the Rhine, shared with 

 De Koninck and Yan Beneden the first great quinquennial prize in the 

 natural sciences decreed by a jury selected from the Academy. In 

 January 1855 the Academy selected him as its director for the year 

 1856, and he had only completed his year of office two months when 

 he was snatched away by death ; and it may be considered a touching 



