XXX PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



discovered teeth possessing the form and structure of the fossil spe- 

 cimens." 



Similar acknowledgements are made by the Dean of Westminster 



in his ' Reliquiee Diluvianee' (p. 35), and in his paper in om* Trans- 

 actions on the Pterodactyle (vol. iii. 1829) ; some of the minute 

 particulars of the structure of that flying reptile having been illus- 

 trated by the drawings of Mr. Clift. The co-operation mdeed of 

 the Keeper of the Hunterian Collection is noticed in almost every 

 memoir descriptive of fossil bones which appeared after the date of 

 Sir Everard Home's first paper on the Ichthyosaurus in 1814, down 

 to the period when Prof. Owen began to relieve his father-in-law from 

 his duties as Curator of the Museum. Nor were the fruits of his 

 skill and industry confined to British publications, for not a few of 

 the figures in the * Ossemens Fossiles' of Cuvier were executed by 

 the same hand, and the great French anatomist often speaks of them 

 in flattering terms, as " faites par JNIons. Clift, dont le beau talent a 

 deja enrichi ce recueil de tant de planches non moins remarquables 

 par leur execution que par leur fidelite." 



The first of Mr. Clift' s own memoirs on organic remains was a 

 description of " Some Fossil Bones discovered in Caverns in the 

 Limestone Quarries of Oreston," printed in the Philosophical Trans- 

 actions for 1823. His first contribution to the Geological Society 

 was, ''An xlccount of two new species of Mastodon and other Fossil 

 Vertebrata, discovered by Mr. Crawfurd in Ava*." His second and 

 last paper read to the Society was, " An Account of the Megatherium 

 brought home in 1832 by Sir ^¥oodbine Parish from South Ame- 

 ricaf ." Valuable as are these works, they convey no idea of the 

 extent and variety of his labours in fossil osteology ; for, regardless of 

 personal distinction, he was singularly indifl'erent whether the results 

 of his original research were given to the world in publications of his 

 own or in those of his friends. He united a deep and tranquil en- 

 thusiasm for philosophical pursuits to great independence of charac- 

 ter and simplicity of mind and manners, and he never seemed to 

 need any other stimulus to excite or sustain his intellectual exertions 

 than such as were afforded by the love of inquuy or the delight of 

 arriving at new truths. 



* Geol. Trans., 2nd ser. vol. ii. 1828. f Ibid. vol. iii. 



