XXVlll 



EDWAED HULL, 1829-1917. 



The pursuit of geology seems eminently calculated to prolong life, doubtless 

 due to the healthy open-air existence which its study involves. Many 

 names of distinguished geologists who have passed away might be mentioned 

 in support of this view, and now we have to add to the list that of Prof. Hull, 

 who survived to his 89th year, having maintained his usual health and 

 vigour to within a month of his death. He was the eldest son of the 

 Eev. J. D. Hull, curate in charge of the parish of Antrim, where he was born 

 on May 21, 1829. At the age of 12 he was sent to the School for the Sons of 

 the Irish Clergy, then at Edgeworthstown, in County Longford. His Ufe 

 there was not happy, but after the transference of the school in 1843 to 

 Lucan, near Dublin, and the appointment of a new headmaster, he appears to 

 have enjoyed school life. It was his father's wish that he should become a 

 clergyman of the Church of Ireland. With this object in view, he joined a 

 class of students of the Irish language, conducted by the Professor of Irish of 

 Trinity College, and gained a prize in this subject given by the University. 

 About the same time a course of experimental lectures on hydrostatics, 

 mechanics, and allied subjects, given at the school by a Dublin doctor, 

 aroused his interest in natural science, and the idea of entering the Church 

 was given up. Owing to the recent rise and progress of railway construction 

 all over the country, there were, at that time, many openings for civil 

 engineers, and it was therefore decided that he should be trained for that 

 profession. He accordingly entered Trinity College, and at the end of four 

 years not only obtained a diploma for civil engineering, but also graduated in 

 Arts. 



Among the subjects taught during the engineering course was that of 

 geology. This brought him in contact with Prof. Oldham, F.E.S., Director of 

 the Geological Survey of Ireland, whose lectures were delivered with such 

 lucidity and attractiveness that, to use Hull's own words, " I found geology 

 to be the subject that of all others captivated my mind." Failing to obtain 

 immediate employment as a civil engineer, he was introduced by Oldham to 

 Sir Henry de la Beche, who was then Director of the Geological Survey of 

 Great Britain. His application for employment on the Survey, supported by 

 Sir Eoderick Murchison, with whom his family was distantly connected, 

 was granted, and so, once again, his plans for a career were changed, for the 

 third and last time. 



Hull began work on the Geological Survey in Wales under Beete-Jukes, 

 afterwards Professor, in 1850, and during the succeeding years took part in 

 the mapping of a tract of country in the west of England, chiefly on Jurassic 

 rocks. The results of this early work are recorded on the maps of the 

 Geological Survey and in four descriptive " sheet-memoirs," of which he was 

 either author or part author, published between 1851 and 1861. One of these 



