Yol.  49.]  ANNIVERSARY  ADDRESS  OF  THE  PRESIDENT.  53 
with  the  Indian  coal-hearing  rocks,  for  both  the  underlying  Talchir 
division  and  an  overlying  mass  were  separated  from  the  Damuda 
or  true  coal-bearing  beds.  For  some  time  after  this  Mr.  H.  F„ 
Blanford  was  engaged  in  Calcutta  in  charge  of  the  Survey  Office, 
and  was  occupied  with  palaeontological  work  in  the  Museum,  hut  in 
1857  he  was  placed  at  the  head  of  a  strong  Survey  party  that  was 
despatched  to  Madras,  and  he  was  chiefly  engaged  for  the  next 
three  or  four  years  in  examining  the  Cretaceous  beds  near  Trichi- 
nopoly  and  Pondicherry,  some  fossils  from  which,  described  by 
Prof.  E.  Forbes  and  Sir  P.  Egerton,  had  attracted  much  attention 
in  Europe.  The  stratigraphical  work  on  the  Indian  Cretaceous 
beds  was  mainly  palaeontological,  but  the  classification  established 
by  Mr.  Blanford  was  fully  confirmed  by  Dr.  F.  Stoliczka’s  well- 
known  description  of  the  fauna.  A  commencement  of  this  descrip¬ 
tion  was  made  by  Mr.  Blanford  himself,  who  published  an  account 
of  the  Nautilidse  and  Belemnitidae  in  the  ‘  Palseontologia  Indica  5 
before  he  left  the  Survey  in  1862.  The  geology  of  the  area  was 
described  in  a  report  published  in  the  fourth  volume  of  the 
Memoirs  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  India.  An  account  of  the 
geology  of  the  Nilghiri  Hills  in  the  first  volume  of  the  same 
Memoirs  was  the  only  other  report  on  the  Madras  Presidency  by 
Mr.  Blanford  that  was  published  by  the  Survey. 
The  causes  of  Mr.  Blanford’s  retirement  from  the  Survey  were 
partly  injury  to  his  health  produced  by  exposure  to  the  climate, 
partly  strained  personal  relations  with  the  Superintendent  of  the 
Survey,  the  late  Dr.  T.  Oldham.  After  staying  for  a  short  time  in 
Europe  and  recovering  his  health,  Mr.  Blanford  was  appointed  to  the 
Science  Professorship  at  the  Presidency  College,  Calcutta,  and  was 
from  1864  to  1872  on  the  staff  of  the  Bengal  Educational  Depart¬ 
ment.  He  became  in  1864  one  of  the  Hon.  Secretaries  of  the 
Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal,  and  about  this  time  took  up  the  subject 
of  Indian  meteorology,  at  first  in  connexion  with  cyclonic  storms, 
of  which  a  very  severe  one  visited  Calcutta  in  1864.  He  was  for 
some  years  a  member  of  a  Meteorological  Committee  appointed  by 
the  Government ;  in  1867  he  became  Meteorological  Beporter  to 
the  Government  of  Bengal;  and  finally,  in  1874,  a  new  department 
having  been  formed  by  the  Government  of  India,  he  was  placed  at 
its  head.  This  post  of  Meteorological  Beporter  to  the  Government 
of  India  he  held  until  his  retirement  from  the  Indian  Service  in 
1888.  After  his  retirement  he  resided  at  Folkestone  until  his 
death  on  January  23rd,  1893. 
