ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 21 
supply. * * * Would it not be wise in the Govern- 
ment to make provision against wilful destruction of the 
woods and forests that border our rivers ; to prevent clearing 
and ring-barking, except under regulations—tho latter, as 
sometimes practised being one of the most suicidal of schemes, 
as will be found perhaps at no distant date?” And he quotes some 
eloquent words from a lecture on Forest Culture, by the Baron 
von Miieller: “I regard the forest as an heritage given to us by 
Nature, not for spoil or to devastate, but to be wisely used, 
reverently honoured, and carefully maintained. I regard the 
forests as a gift entrusted to any of us only for transient care 
during a short space of time, to be surrendered to posterity again 
as an unimpaired property, with increased riches and augmented 
blessings, to pass as a sacred patrimony from generation to 
generation.” 
With this imperfect outline of Mr. Clarke’s scientific labours, I 
must hasten to a close. The hardships and exposure incident to 
his geological explorations had made inroadson what must have 
been a sound and healthy constitution, and in his later years he 
had several attacks of severe illness. In 1870 he resigned the 
ministerial charge of the parish of Willoughby, although retaining 
his position as a clergyman of the diocese of Sydney ; and thence- 
forward he devoted his leisure, so far as health would allow, to 
geological studies, and to the arrangement and naming of his large 
collection of specimens. It is pleasant to think that in his last 
days he suffered little pain; he seemed even to be brighter and 
more cheerful, and his faculties remained unclouded to the end. 
He had seldom to intermit his favourite studies. He had just 
finished his geological map, and his book on the Sedimentary 
Formations; and on the last day of his life he busied himself 
a arringing fossils, and in writing a letter to Professor de Koninck. 
Through the kindness of the family, I am permitted to quote from 
_ this letter, and I introduce the greater portion of it for the sake - 
: of the interesting particulars relating to Mr. Clarke's last illness: : 
—‘“ Branthwaite, 15th June, 1878. My dear Professor der 
