V 



period, and that the St. Gothard was younger than Mont Blanc. The 

 most eminent geologists of the time adopted the new doctrines, which 

 were enthusiastically propagated by Arago. Thus encouraged, Elie de 

 Beaumont prosecuted his studies of the origin of mountain-ranges with 

 renewed vigour, and his ' Systemes des Montagues ' was the result, fol- 

 lowed in after years by large additions of facts and the development 

 of his great idea of the pentagonal network of mountain-chains. His 

 views have not met with universal concurrence either from geologists 

 or mathematicians. They have been ably controverted by other geo- 

 logists, among whom are Sir Charles Lyell and Mr. Hopkins in his anni- 

 versary address to the Geological Society in 1853. 



In 1832, on the death of Cuvier, Elie de Beaumont was elected almost 

 unanimously to the vacant chair in the College de Erance. There he 

 created a school of Geology, and for upwards of twenty years his lectures 

 were numerously attended by students of geology. 



He was early in his career elected into the Erench Academy, and on 

 the death of Arago in 1853 he was selected for the important post of 

 Perpetual Secretary of that learned body, which post he retained until 

 his unexpected death on the 21st September, 1874. 



After long service as Inspector-General of Mines he became, in 1861, 

 Vice-President of the Conseil-General des Mines, and a Grand Officer of 

 the Legion of Honour. He was also a member of the Erench Senate. 

 Eor nearly 50 years of his life (that is to say, from his entrance as pupil 

 in 1819 until his superannuation in 1868) he was attached to the Ecole 

 des Mines. 



The extent and number of his writings can only be judged of by a 

 complete list ; but his ' Geologie Pratique' may especially be noticed. 



M. Elie de Beaumont married a lady of the distinguished house of 

 Quelen. Her death and the miseries of the late war no doubt tended to 

 hasten his end. 



