iii 



where, the difficulties of Australian geology are not apparent. When 

 Mr. Clarke set out on his explorations there was no other means of 

 travel but horses, with pack-horses for provisions, tents, and instru- 

 ments. In some parts of the country there were no roads or land- 

 marks of any kind, and the maps of the district were nearly useless, 

 as being only skeleton outlines of boundaries. He had to carry on 

 his work single-handed, and gradually to form his own library. 



Mr. Clarke's travels extended to Tasmania, Victoria, and Queens- 

 land, and he has written various exhaustive reports relating to these 

 countries. His writings have guided persons to various profitable 

 gold mines, and the successful tin industries of Australia and 

 Tasmania have been commenced from indications furnished by him. 



In 1863 the Legislature of New South Wales voted Mr. Clarke 

 £3,000, at a time when his various ailments seemed coming to a head, 

 to enable him to secure a little comfort in his old age ; but since that 

 time his " pen of a ready writer " has never been weary ; and we are 

 almost tempted to say that his latter years have surpassed the former, for 

 his facts seemed to have accumulated more quickly, and his experience 

 being, of course, more matured, enabled him to seize upon the more 

 salient points of the geology of the country. The fruit of his labours 

 during this part of his life consists of a geological map of the whole 

 colony, which has been compiled from his note- books and memoranda. 

 Up to 1870 he never ceased from the work of his sacred calling, even 

 when on his explorations ; but on 1st October of that year, his in- 

 creasing infirmities obliged him to retire from his parochial labours. 

 He was thus in a position to avail himself of the improved locomotion 

 afforded by the railways to revisit his old haunts, and to visit other 

 jDlaces of interest, so as to fill up gaps in his former works. 



He was an indefatigable observer of meteorological facts and of 

 general natural history. 



Mr. Clarke was elected F.G.S. in 1826. He was a member of the 

 Geological Society of France, and held a diploma from the Imperial 

 and Royal Geological Institution of Austria, F.R.G.S., and one of the 

 early Fellows of the Zoological Society. 



Mr, Clarke contributed largely to the periodical literature of 

 England prior to 1839, and his poetical effusions are by no means un- 

 deserving of praise. 



In 1876 he was elected F.R.S., and in 1877 he was awarded the 

 Murchison Medal of the Geological Society of London. The terms in 

 which the award was made express the results of his geological 

 labours in Australia. 



The excessive heat of March, 1878, combined with the labour of 

 preparing a new edition of " Sedimentary Formations of New South 

 Wales," proved too much for Mr. Clarke's strength. He was seized 

 with paralysis on the 16th of that month ; and though he rallied, so 



VOL. XXVIII. b 



