414 



The talent which he displayed in those different illustrations, and 

 his varied knowledge of natural history, led to his being permanently 

 employed on the Geological Survey of Ireland when again revived, 

 first under the local direction of Captain (now Sir Henry) James, in the 

 labours of which he took part up to the moment of his death. 



Du Noyer was before everything an artist ; his knowledge in exact 

 science only served to bring into the foreground, to place in better relief, 

 his artistic qualities. His educational tableaux, even the mere sketches 

 scattered here and there in the explananations of the published sheets 

 of the Geological Survey of Ireland, have that artistic effect which he 

 knew so well how to give to his productions of a higher art. His water- 

 colour drawings of objects of natural history, Irish roses, grains, birds, 

 &c, possess a charming truthfulness ; but it is as a geological landscape 

 painter that his productions show so much Qf poetry and truth — his 

 brilliant colouring brightening, and giving, so to speak, life to his 

 pictures. 



Du Noyer had the special peculiarity, that his artistic inspiration 

 kept company, was associated with his daily work — practical geology; 

 and his pictures were, so to speak, the expression of his thoughts — a kind 

 of poetry which belonged to him. The charm and artistic merits of his 

 pencil might have been for him a source of profit; but, alas, questions 

 of money never occupy much the thoughts of men like him. This 

 may no doubt be a great fault; nevertheless, in spite of all our 

 utilitarian tendencies, we love yet to see the flower of the field 

 occupying a modest place in the midst of our corn fields, and con- 

 trast, by the vivacity, of its colour with the golden yellow of the well- 

 filled ear. 



As an archaeologist, the name of Du Noyer will remain honourably as- 

 sociated with the labours of this Academy. His contributions, the nume- 

 rous sketches which he so spontaneously offered to the Academy, were 

 the fruits of his leisure moments during his geological wanderings. 

 There is not a ruin, not a stone, that he did not faithfully reproduce in 

 his album, fearing to see it disappear, and always with the disinte- 

 rested intention of increasing our archaeological archives. This labour 

 of predilection, the result of that love for everything Irish which he 

 had acquired from his early associations with Petrie, he pursued with 

 zeal up to the moment of his death. 



As a private man no one knew better than Du jSToyer how to be 

 so simply happy. Seriously occupied with his daily work, that poetry 

 which animated him for the things of nature accompanied him to his 

 home. His life passed between his duties, art, and family. The 

 simplest and truest eulogium we could pass upon him would be to say, 

 that he always met his best friends among his fellow-labourers. 



At his death he reckoned almost thirty-three years of active service, 

 part in the Ordnance Survey and part in the Irish branch of the Geolo- 

 logical Survey of the United Kingdom. Let us hope that his long and 

 faithful services and his merit, so well appreciated by this Academy, 

 may draw the benevolent attention of her Majesty's Government to hii 

 wife and children. 



