52 PKOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [May 1 894, 



The Eev. H. W. Crosskey, LL.D., was born at Lewes, in Sussex, 

 on the 7th December, 1826. After some experience as a minister 

 in the Midlands, he accepted in 1852 the charge of an Unitarian 

 congregation at Glasgow, where he remained for 17 years. During 

 the whole of that period he evinced much interest in scientific 

 matters, being actively connected with the Philosophical and Geo- 

 logical Societies of that city. Subsequently he returned to Birming- 

 ham, where he resided for the last 24 years, always evincing an interest 

 in science and education. He was well known as an authority on 

 Glacial Geology, and the author of a valuable series of Eeports on 

 the Erratic Blocks of this country, communicated during the past 

 20 years to the British Association. He became a Fellow of this 

 Society in 1868, and occasionally contributed papers on post-Tertiary 

 fossils. He also co-operated with Robertson and Brady in describing 

 the post-Tertiary Entomostraca in the Palseontographical Society's 

 volume for 1874. 



Dr. Crosskey died at Edgbaston, near Birmingham, on the 1st 

 October, 1893, having nearly completed his 67th year. 



John Bailey Denton, M.Inst.C.E., was born in November 1814. 

 In early manhood he was associated with Brassey and Locke in the 

 construction of the Great Northern and many other railways. 

 More than half a century ago he acquired celebrity by the enquiry — 

 still a very pertinent one — ' What can be done for British agri- 

 culture?' His fame as a drainer of soils is well known, and it 

 was, in all probability, the interest that he took in this branch 

 of practical science which induced him to join the Geological 

 Society. This step was taken in 1854, but Mr. Denton never made 

 any contribution to our Proceedings, nor participated in any way, 

 so far as I know, in the active work of the Society. Still there can 

 be little doubt that our publications were useful to an engineer 

 who devoted his attention for so many years to the storage of water, 

 and the methods of purifying sewage by means of percolation through 

 soil. Mr. Denton had been a Hertfordshire magistrate for upwards 

 of a quarter of a century, and died at Stevenage, in that county, 

 on November 19th, 1893, in the 79th year of his age. 



John Plant, Major of Volunteers, was born in Leicester about 

 1820. Early in life he evinced a love of natural history, and assisted 

 in forming the local museum in his native town. In 1849 he wa& 

 selected by the Corporation of Salford as their librarian and curator 

 of the borough museum, duties which he discharged with great 



