President's Address. 



213 



Mr Oliphant. You are all aware, too, what an interest Mr 

 Oliphant took in our scientific pursuits, and that it was 

 through hirn, in the first instance, that an introduction was 

 obtained to the Calabar missionaries, whose contributions 

 to the zoology of Western Africa have afforded so many 

 interesting communications. 



During the recess, another and venerable member of our 

 Society has also paid the debt of nature, — Mr Alexander 

 Rose, long a well-known lecturer on geology and mineralogy 

 in this city, who, as often as the growing infirmities of a 

 good old age would permit, was always a welcome and re- 

 spected member among us. Mr Eose, a native of Dingwall, 

 Ross-shire, not far removed from the birth-place of another 

 of our late lamented and celebrated associates, Mr Hugh 

 Miller, was also, like hirn, a self-taught geologist and man 

 of science — if it may not be said that every man of science 

 is, in a great measure, self-taught. Mr Rose in early life 

 became a citizen of Edinburgh ; and, after some years, re- 

 linquishing an art in which he was both expert and inge- 

 nious,* he resolved to follow the irresistible bent of his taste 

 and inclinations, and in time became a celebrated practical 

 mineralogist and geologist, He, too, was characterised by 

 his unassuming and genial disposition ; and there are not a 

 few of his attached friends and former pupils who can bear 

 testimony to his suavity of manners, and the readiness and 

 ability with which he was ever glad to communicate his 

 stores of knowledge. 



Mr Rhind then referred to the beautiful Ordnance maps 

 of the county of Edinburgh now before the Society, and 

 observed that it was no small pleasure to find every inch of 

 ground which several of us have gone over again and again, 

 so accurately and so artistically displayed in one compre- 

 hensive view before us. To those who many years ago 

 began their studies in the only field where real knowledge 

 can be obtained, — in the open field of nature, — such maps 

 would have been invaluable. What labour, and doubts, and 



* Mr Kose was originally a turner of wood and ivory. He was much em- 

 ployed by the late Sir John Leslie in the construction of his many meteoro- 

 logical instruments. 



