52 
PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  GEOLOGICAL  SOCIETY.  [May  1 893, 
the  doctrine  of  Evolution,  nor  was  his  attitude  in  later  years  one  of 
active  hostility. 
When  all  is  summed  up,  we  recognize  in  Owen  a  man  highly 
gifted  by  Nature,  and  who  knew  how  to  make  use  of  his  talents — a 
rare  faculty  in  a  genius,  as  Owen  most  undoubtedly  was.  His  very 
presence  had  in  it  something  remarkable,  and  that  he  possessed  the 
power  of  fascinating  his  hearers  is  amply  testified  by  what  fell  from 
the  Prince  of  Wales  on  a  recent  occasion.  Some  people  may  fancy 
that  cataloguing  museum  specimens  and  describing  the  remains  of 
extinct  animals  is  necessarily  associated  with  a  peculiarity  of 
character  in  unison  with  the  subject.  But  the  whole  history  of 
Owen  contradicts  such  a  supposition.  Skilled  beyond  others  in  the 
science  of  comparative  anatomy,  an  eloquent  lecturer,  a  courteous 
and  sympathetic  official,  an  indefatigable  writer,  Owen  also  presented 
a  bright  social  side,  as  those  who  had  the  pleasure  of  knowing  him 
have  ever  testified.  Surely  we  cannot  be  far  wrong  in  ranking  him 
among  the  Great  Men  of  the  Nineteenth  Century. 
Henry  Erancis  Blanford,  E.B.S.,  was  born  in  1834  in  Bouverie 
Street,  Whitefriars,  where  his  father  had  a  manufactory,  on  the  site  of 
the  ‘  Daily  News  ’  printing-office.  His  early  education  was  obtained 
at  private  schools  in  Brighton  and  Brussels,  and  after  studying  for 
some  time  at  the  old  School  of  Design  in  Somerset  House,  he  joined 
the  Boyal  School  of  Mines  at  its  commencement  in  1851,  and  a  life 
that  might  otherwise  very  possibly  have  been  devoted  to  art,  for  he 
was  an  admirable  draughtsman,  was  thenceforward  gained  to  science. 
At  the  Boyal  School  of  Mines  he  took  the  first  place  in  his  year, 
and  received  the  Duke  of  Cornwall’s  Scholarship,  then  the  only 
prize.  After  a  year’s  study  in  Ereiberg  and  another  year  in  London, 
which  he  employed  in  preparing  a  translation  of  v.  Kobell’s  work 
on  the  Blowpipe,  his  first  publication,  he  was  appointed  to  the  staff 
of  the  Geological  Survey  of  India,  together  with  his  brother,  Mr.  W. 
T.  Blanford,  and  landed  in  Calcutta  at  the  end  of  September, 
1855. 
Almost  immediately  after  their  arrival  in  India,  the  two  brothers 
and  Mr.  W.  Theobald  were  despatched  to  examine  and  report  upon 
an  almost  unknown  coal-field  around  Talchir  in  Orissa.  The  work 
done  was  chiefly  memorable  geologically  for  one  discovery,  that  of 
the  Talchir  boulder-bed,  and  for  the  circumstance  that,  chiefly 
through  Mr.  H.  E .  Blanford’s  observations,  the  first  step  was  taken 
towards  the  classification  of  the  remarkable  series  of  beds  associated 
