Ixx 



an Assistant Geologist on the Government Geological-Survey of the 

 United Kingdom. It was a stirring time in the geological world. 

 Hntton had clearly enunciated, and Scrope had emphasized the 

 doctrine that the ground had been carved into its present form by 

 the action of subaerial denudation. But the old notion that the sea 

 had been the main agent in this work still held sway. The question 

 was now again being brought to the front by the vigorous advocacy 

 of Greenwood, and debated by such men as the late Sir A. C. 

 Ramsay, Mr. (now Sir) A. Geikie, and others of less note ; bnt there 

 was to be some fierce fighting before anything like unanimity of 

 opinion could be arrived at. There are very few districts better 

 suited to test the relative value of the two views than the Weald of 

 Kent and Sussex, and it was thither that Mr. Topley was sent to 

 work nnder the direction of Dr. (now Professor) C. le Neve Foster. 

 In 1865 they furnished one of the most important contributions to 

 the controversy in their paper, " On the Superficial Deposits of the 

 Medway, with Remarks on the Denudation of the Weald." (' Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc.,' xxi, (1865) 443). By this memoir, Mr. Topley, 

 at the very outset of his career, did much towards settling a long- 

 debated point in geological speculation. 



In addition to Messrs. Topley and Foster, several members of the 

 staff of the survey took part in the mapping of the Weald ; but on 

 the completion of the work all but Topley had resigned, and to him 

 was entrusted the task of writing the memoir descriptive of the area. 

 It gives a masterly account of the great leading features in the 

 structure of the district ; liable to modification it has necessarily 

 proved as to details, but it is and will long 'remain the standard 

 work on the subject. 



On the completion of his Weald en work, Mr. Topley was trans- 

 ferred to the Carboniferous district of Northumberland, and in 1880 

 was recalled to London to superintend the publication of the maps 

 and memoirs of the survey at the office in Jermyn Street. Here and 

 at this work he remained till his death. 



But a sketch of Mr. Topley 's official career, and a notice of some 

 of his more important work in the domain of pure science gives no 

 idea of the many sided character of his tastes and occupations. 



From the first he was strongly attracted towards the practical 

 side of geology. The aid that it can give to the agriculturist 

 occupied a good deal of his attention ; and a work on soils, for which 

 he had collected much material, is one of the many projects which 

 his early death prevented him from finishing. He was also an au- 

 thority on water supply, on which subject his advice was sought by 

 engineers. Among the schemes on which he was consulted, that 

 for bringing water from Mid- Wales to Birmingham, was one of the 

 most important. The writer was here associated with him, and can 



