XXX11 



published ' Siluria,' which has gone through several editions, he recast 

 the original work, introducing much detail regarding the extension of 

 Silurian and older Palaeozoic rocks into other countries ; but while, in the 

 later publication, the results given were necessarily often the work of 

 other observers, the ' Silurian System ' remains a monument of the inde- 

 pendent labour of a mind quick in observation, sagacious in inference, 

 patient in the accumulation of data, and full of that instinctive appre- 

 ciation of the value of facts not yet fully understood which is near akin 

 to genius. 



Upwards of a hundred memoirs in the Transactions of Societies, chiefly 

 on British and Continental Geology, addresses without number to Societies 

 and Associations, besides more than twenty memoirs written in conjunction 

 with other authors, remain as a monument of his industry. But to this 

 mass of work must be added what he published in separate volumes — the 

 8 Silurian System,' with its successor ' Siluria,' and his splendid volumes 

 on ' Russia and the Ural Mountains.' 



From the time when he began to devote himself to geology, Murchison 

 continued to be one of the most active men of science of his day. Living 

 chiefly in London, and coming daily in contact with men of every science, 

 he took a prominent part in the work of more than one learned Society. 

 In summer or autumn he usually made a tour for geological research, either 

 in this country or on the continent, and continued this habit up to within 

 two years of his death. In his Russian exploration he was absent from 

 England for two or three years. 



Of the honours heaped upon him from all parts of the world it is not 

 necessary to speak. There was hardly an Academy anywhere which had 

 not enrolled him among its Associates. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal 

 Society in 1826, and in 1849 the Copley Medal was awarded to him for 

 his three great works, 'On the Silurian System,' 'On the Geology of 

 Russia,' and 'On the Structure of the Alps.' In 1855 he succeeded Sir 

 Henry de la Beche as Director-General of the Geological Survey of Great 

 Britain, an office which he held to the time of his death. On his return 

 from Russia he had received the honour of knighthood, and at a later 

 period he was nominated a K.C.B. and raised to the dignity of a baronet. 



Sir Roderick Murchison was distinctly and specially a geologist. The 

 attachment which his early Silurian labours had given him to Palaeozoic 

 rocks never waned ; and though led now and then to make and record 

 observations on later formations, he seemed always to return to the older 

 deposits as his natural domain. He was not a palaeontologist, yet no 

 geologist could use more skilfully than he the data furnished by palaeon- 

 tology. This faculty he acquired in the Silurian region, and it continued 

 to mark his work in the field both at home and abroad : it enabled him to 

 apply to distant countries the principles which he had so successfully used 

 in his own. Perhaps the leading idea of his scientific life should be regarded 

 as a desire to establish the order of succession among rocks. It was this 



