xxx Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



be better, considering the inevitable difficulties, than the scientific portions. 

 He had succeeded in determining the true succession of the principal rock 

 systems in Abyssinia and in denning more accurately their character, and he 

 had collected zoological specimens, representing about 350 species of Vertebrata 

 and 500 others, mostly Mollusca. His second book was the volume in the 

 Keport of the Persian Boundary Commission on the ' Zoology and Geology of 

 Persia,' which maintains the high level of its predecessor and gives a very 

 suggestive account of the physical geology of a region characterised by 

 climatic extremes and a very low rainfall. The third was his contribution 

 to the 'Manual of the Geology of India,' equal in bulk to rather more 

 than one of the two descriptive volumes, a work the value of which is 

 universally acknowledged, and the fourth in order were the volume on 

 Mammals and two of those on Birds, contributed to the Fauna of British 

 India, the whole of which series, 17 volumes, he edited for the Government 

 of India. 



His shorter papers, according to a list printed in the ' Geological Magazine,'* 

 exceed 175. The first, published in 1854, was geological, a short notice of a 

 section exposed in excavating for the West India Docks. The first zoological 

 paper (the fourth of the series), written in conjunction with his brother, and 

 published in 1860-1, was entitled " Contributions to Indian Malacology." 

 The papers on the former subject mostly appeared in the publications of the 

 Indian Geological Survey, the ' Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society/ 

 and the ' Geological Magazine.' They cover a wide field, physical geology, 

 stratigraphy and palaeontology, but it will suffice to mention three of a more 

 general character, characterised no less by breadth of view tha,n by accurate 

 knowledge of the subjects. The first, his Address to the Geological Section 

 at Montreal, discussed the occasional conflict between the evidence for 

 geological age derived from marine formations on the one hand and terrestrial 

 (land and freshwater) on the other. The second, the Presidential Address to 

 the Geological Society in 1889, contained a clear account and some valuable 

 criticisms on the work done at the first and second meetings of the Inter- 

 national Geological Congress ; the third, the corresponding address for the 

 next year, was " On the Permanence or otherwise of Ocean Basins." In this 

 valuable contribution to a very difficult subject, Blanford exhibits the judicial 

 character of his mind and adopts neither extreme, holding that while the 

 general evidence in favour of the permanence of land areas and of ocean 

 basins is very strong, there are certainly exceptions, where large tracts of the 

 former have been submerged, and this for more than a thousand fathoms, and 

 cases where portions of the latter, now at least that depth, have been raised 

 above the sea to connect distant lands. His other writings show the same 

 mental qualities, for, in the words of an anonymous writer, " His work in 



* Decade 5, vol. 2 (1905), p. 1. It goes down to 1901. I have made great use of 

 this excellent article in drawing up the above notice, because I have been informed on 

 good authority that a near relation of Dr. Blanford supplied many of the facts, and he 

 himself revised the list of publications. 



