GENERAL NOTES. J 29 



over Lis notes and correct them, and then it will afford me pleasure 

 to present every member of the Literary Society with a printed copy 

 of my remarks. Allow me, therefore, to request the correspondents 

 of distant papers kindly to reserve their notes of my remarks until 

 they can get my own words in black and white. 



I must thank you very much for the attention with which you 

 have listened to me, and in conclusion I would simply say, that, if any 

 one here desires to ask me questions upon the subject of my address, 

 I shall be happy to do my best to repl}'. 



GENERAL NOTES. 



In his presidential address to the Linnean Society of New South 

 Wales, the chairman, Dr. J. C. Cox, made the following reference to 

 the late President of the Society: — "William John Stephens was born 

 on July 16, 1829, at Levens, in Westmoreland, where his father was 

 the vicar. He was educated first at the Haversliam Grammar School, 

 an ancient foundation which has turned out many distinguished 

 scholars, and subsequently at Marlborough College, where he was one 

 of the 200 pupils with which that institution opened. In due course 

 he became captain of Marlborough, and gained the Latin Terse and 

 English Terse prizes, the Plater prize, the Drawing prize, and the 

 College exhibition. Before leaving Marlborough he won a Tabarden- 

 ship at Queen's College, Oxford, and matriculated in that University. 

 He took his B.A. in 1852, with first-class honours in classics, and 

 third-class honours in mathematics and physics. Soon after he was 

 elected fellow and appointed tutor of Queen's. Among his pupils 

 during this period were Dr. Percival, formerly of Clifton, now head- 

 master of Rugby ; and Dr. Thornton, Bishop of Ballarat. While at 

 Oxford he read widely and deeply in the ancient classics, the love of 

 which never afterwards deserted him. Here also he laid the founda- 

 tion of that varied learning which eminently distinguished him. At 

 Oxford, too, in his early manhood, he first took up the study of 

 geology, and threw himself into that science with great zeal. To 

 geology he soon added botany, in both of which he took keen interest. 



"In 1856, at the instigation of Sir Charles Nicholson, he applied 

 for the headmastership of the Sydney Grammar School, which had 

 just been founded ; and he was elected to that position on the recom- 

 mendation of Dr. Jowett. After ten years' work at the Grammar 

 School he resigned his headmastership, and established a school of 

 his own in Darlinghurst-road, which was known as the New School, 

 and afterwards as Eaglesfield. This school he continued to conduct 

 till his appointment, in 1882, to the Professorship of Natural History 

 at the Sydney University— the title of which was afterwards changed, 

 upon a redistribution of work on the foundation of certain additional 

 chairs, to that of Geology and Palaeontology. 



"His death took place on Saturday, November 22, after short 

 but severe illness, a fatal termination being unexpected until the day 

 before his death. On November 24th his remains were followed to 

 the grave by a large concourse of friends, colleagues, and official 



