Xlvi PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



With unusual endurance and a determined resolution to meet the 

 well-known dangers of such a position, Mr. JefFcock laboured at the 

 work of humanity until about nine the next morning, when a second 

 explosion occurred, followed at ten by a third, of still more fearful 

 violence. One man only escaped as by a miracle ; Mr. Jeffcock and 

 his brave comrades all perished. 



The death of James Smith, P.R.S., of Jordan Hill, on the 17th of 

 last month, has robbed our Society of one of its oldest veterans. 

 Born at Glasgow, the 15th August 1782, and educated at the 

 Grammar School and University of that city, he evinced at an early 

 age a love of literature, of science, and of nautical adventure. He 

 was fortunately possessed of the means and time requisite for 

 indulging his tastes, and, making his first cruise in a yacht of his 

 own in 1806, appears before many years were over to have paid 

 attention to various points of arch£eology and natural history 

 suggested to him in sailing about the west coast of Scotland. He 

 became a Pellow of the Geological Society in 1836, and in that year 

 read a paper on " Indications of Changes of Level in the West of 

 Scotland," the substance of which was amplified in a communication 

 read in 1838 to the Wernerian Society. Polio Aving up Ly ell's 

 account of the shells at UddevaUa in Sweden, and aided by a hint 

 received from Dr. J. E. Gray in 1837, Mr. Smith was led to study 

 the peculiarity of an Arctic fades appearing to characterize the 

 fauna of the elevated marine beds of the Clyde ; and in 1839 he 

 brought before the Society a paper '' On the Climate of the newer 

 Pliocene Tertiary Period," and another " On the Relative Ages of 

 the Tertiary and Post-Tertiary deposits of the Basin of the Clyde." 

 In this latter year he took with him the then rising naturalist 

 Edward Porbes, who afterwards wrote, of his cruise, that he felt 

 proud to acknowledge that his " first insight into ' Kewer Pliocene ' 

 Geology was acquired through the instructions of that distinguished 

 geologist Mr. Smith of Jordan Hill, when accompanying him in one 

 of his arduous but delightful journeys of investigation in the Clyde 

 district and north of Ireland." Observations on changes of level 

 at a more remote period were made by Mr. Smith in the Madeira 

 group of islands, and he obtained evidence that a Tertiary lime- 

 stone has there been elevated to the height of 2500 feet, " previous 

 to the ejection of the overlying volcanic products " (Proc. Geol. 

 Soc. vol. iii.). 



In 1845 he read a paper on " Scratched Boulders and Pocks of 

 the Coal-field of Scotland," in which, whilst admitting the pro- 

 bability of the former existence of glaciers and icebergs in Scottish 

 latitudes, he nevertheless contended vigorously against adopting the 

 extreme views of glacial action which had been promulgated by 

 Agassiz. The subject was resumed in other communications at 

 the meetings of April and May 1848, in which, although arguing 

 against the view that the boulders in the Till had been furrowed and 

 scratched by glaciers or icebergs, he was nevertheless willing to 

 allow that ice must have assisted in the operation ; and coupling 



