lvi PEOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [May I907, 



the Livraisons of the Geological Commission of Switzerland. This 

 is undoubtedly Renevier's masterpiece. It was the result of more 

 than a quarter of a century of mental and bodily toil, and will 

 remain an imperishable monument of his genius. Xo one can 

 travel over the ground so well described and so admirably illustrated 

 in this lEemoir without a profound admiration for the enthusiasm, 

 endurance, patience, and skill of the kindly and gentle Professor of 

 Geology at Lausanne. 



Besides his prolonged application to the task of elucidating the 

 stratigraphy of his native country, Eenevier took a wider view of 

 the subject, and devoted himself with great zeal and unwearied 

 persistence to the still more arduous labour of trying to convert the 

 geological world to his views as to the necessity of introducing 

 greater uniformity into the terminology of geology, more especially 

 in the department of stratigraphy. He was the originator and the 

 prime source of the energy of the Committee formed by the Inter- 

 national Geological Congress for the consideration and codification 

 of this subject. The reports of this Committee bear eloquent 

 witness to the amount of time and thought which he bestowed 

 upon them, and the subject with which they deal. His chief con- 

 tribution to this branch of geological literature is his ' Chronographe 

 Geologique/ which, first issued in 1873-7-1, reached its culminating 

 and gigantic proportions in the second edition published in 1896. 

 There is much that is both attractive and suggestive in the orderly 

 method and symmetrical nomenclature embodied in the huge strati- 

 graphical table in this work. Even where we may be reluctant to 

 see time-honoured stratigraphical and other appellations crushed 

 into the Procrustean bed which Eenevier so skilfully prepared for 

 them, we must admit the wisdom of his general aim, and recognize 

 the good service done by him in holding this laudable aim pro- 

 minently and persistently before the geological world for so many 

 years. 



One of the duties in which he took more especial pleasure at 

 Lausanne was the supervision and enlargement of the Geological 

 Museum. AYith but slender financial resources he succeeded in 

 forming an admirable collection of fossils and minerals. He was 

 practically its founder, and he watched over its welfare and growth 

 as a father over his child. Each year he would issue a little tract 

 giving an account of the progress of the collections, and distribute 

 copies of it among his friends and correspondents abroad, who were 

 always glad to receive these friendly tokens of the ceaseless activity 



