80 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



medal to Professor J. S. Newberry ; the Lyell medal to Professor 

 H. Alleyne Nicholson. 



Obituary. 



Roland Duee Irving. — Prof. Irving of the University of Wis- 

 consin, died suddenly of paralysis at Madison, Wisconsin, on the 

 30th of May. Mr. Irving had won for himself the reputation 

 of one of the world's best geologists by his elaborate memoirs as 

 geologist of Wisconsin, and also of the United States Geological 

 Survey, on the Archaean and Copper-bearing rocks of Wisconsin 

 and the adjoining regions about Lake Superior, and much was 

 expected of him in the continuation of his labors. He was born 

 in New York on the 27th of April, 1847, and therefore had passed 

 but a few days beyond his forty-first birthday. He graduated in 

 1869 at the Columbia College School of Mines as a Mining 

 Engineer, and ten years later the Institution conferred on him the 

 title of Doctor of Philosophy. In 1870 he entered on his duties 

 as Professor of Geology, Mining and Metallurgy in the Univer- 

 sity of Wisconsin, a position which he held until his death. From 

 1880 to 1882 he was one of the United States Census Experts. 



The new geological survey of Wisconsin, authorized by the 

 State in 1873, included Prof. Irving among its geologists. He 

 had previously begun his study of the rocks, and in February of 

 1872 published the first of his papers on the subject that appear 

 in this Journal. The results of his further labors in the study of 

 the minerals, rocks and geology of the State occupy a large part 

 of the several volumes of final reports published between 1877 

 and 1883 ; and they all bear the marks of careful, conscientious 

 work, by one who was thoroughly prepared for the difficult prob- 

 lems before him. His State work supplemented by additional 

 investigations in 1882, when he was put in charge of the Lake 

 Superior Division of the U. S. Geological Survey, was the basis 

 of his volume on the Copper-bearing rocks of Lake Superior, 

 published by the Survey in 1883, and also of other memoirs on the 

 Archaean rocks which were preliminary to a full report that re- 

 mains unfinished. He had selected assistants for the present 

 season but a few days before his death. His paper on the Huron- 

 ian in volume xxxiv (1887) of this Journal is, we believe, his last 

 publication. 



Prof. Irving leaves a widow, two sons, and one daughter. 



A. H. Woethen, the excellent State Geologist of Illinois, died 

 in the early part of the month of May. A notice is deferred to 

 the following number. 



