Xliv PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



spondence with myself, he became fully aware of the Silurian 

 classification which I announced in 1835, and was one of the first 

 to suggest its application to the formations of North America. 

 During his long residence in the United States, Mr. Feather- 

 stonhaugh, having lost his first wife, was married in 1831 to Miss 

 Cater (a near relative of the eminent General Eobert Lee), his 

 present widow, by whom he leaves three children : — Harry, who 

 served in the Artillery in India ; Albany, now a Lieutenant in the 

 Boyal Engineers ; and Georgiana, an only daughter. 



*' In 1839 he returned from America, with strong recommendations 

 from Mr. Pox, the British Minister at Washington, and the Earl 

 Durham, the Governor of Canada, and was appointed a Commissioner 

 to determine the boundary between the United States and British 

 North America. Having executed this arduous duty during the fol- 

 lowing three years, associated with Alexander Baring, afterwards 

 Lord Ashburton, and Colonel Mudge, E.E,, he was rewarded in 

 1844 by the Earl of Aberdeen by being appointed Her Majesty's 

 Consul at Havre. It was in that year that he published an account 

 of one of his former travels, in two volumes, under the title of 

 * Excursion to the Slave States.' These volumes, which, from the 

 lively descriptions of the scenery and the inhabitants, whether 

 American or Indian, had a considerable sale, are even now weU 

 worthy of perusal by geologists and mineralogists, from the accounts 

 of natural phenomena which are interspersed. Seeing the success 

 of these volumes, Mr. Featherstonhaugh subsequently, i. e. in 1846, 

 published two others, describing his north-eastern travels, entitled 

 *A Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor, with an Account of the 

 Lead- and Copper- deposits in Wisconsin, and of the Gold Eegion 

 in the Cherokee Country.' As both these works, made up from 

 sketches of notes taken on the spot, delineate in a lively style 

 the popular manners of the Anglo-Americans and settlers of that 

 day, Mr. Featherstonhaugh was well aware that they would be iU 

 received by the masses in the United States; for he spoke with 

 freedom of the bad efi^ects of universal suffrage and the government 

 of an uncontrolled democracy. Though severely handled by the 

 adulators of their great Republic, these works were applauded by 

 many of its enhghtened inhabitants, including his intimate friend 

 Mr. Henry Clay, as beneficial criticisms on a country of which, 

 though he honestly indicated its defects, the author had a lively 

 admiration. 



*' In the capacity of Consul at Havre, Mr. Featherstonhaugh earned 

 the approbation of various Foreign Ministers under whom he served; 

 and it is not to be forgotten (the Ex-Eoyal Family of France now 

 in England wiU, I know, never forget it) that it was entirely due 

 to the timely sagacity, zeal, and devotion of our deceased Associate 

 that King Louis Philippe and his Queen were brought out of a very 

 critical position and landed on our shores. 



" In conclusion, let me say that those who remember Mr. Feather- 

 stonhaugh wiU dwell upon those genial social quahties and telling 

 anecdotes which rendered him so agreeable and instructive a com- 



