242 



3n fIDcmoiiam. 



Sir JOHN EVANS, 



K.C.B., D.C.L., LL.D., Sc.D., F.R.S., F.S.A., F.G.S., F.C.S,, F.Z.S. 



One of the most painful duties that one can have surely is to 

 deal with the personality and work of some intellectual giant, 

 knowing full well that all it is possible to say must fall 

 very far short of what the subject of the notice is worthy. This 

 difficulty is increased ten-fold when, as in the present instance, 

 the writer is deeply indebted in so many ways to the person 

 he refers to. 



Sir John Evans died on May 31st, less than a month 

 before, I had received a letter from him in which he said : ' T 

 am in my eighty-fifth year, having been born in 1823. I am 

 very well in general health, but suffer from local troubles 

 incidental to old age, and there seems much difficulty in getting 

 rid of them.' 



But evidently, he had more than ' old age ' to trouble him, 

 and an operation for appendicitis was soon afterwards 

 necessary, but did not avail. 



To say that it will be exceedingly difficult to fill the place 

 left by Sir John Evans, is to fall far short of the mark. It will 

 be impossible to do so. No man living has the knowledge that 

 Sir John possessed ; none in the future can have it. He had 

 kept pace with the discoveries in geology and archaeology during 

 the nearly three-quarters of a century in which those sciences 

 have developed from primitive beginnings into the numerous 

 and complex branches which now characterise them, and of 

 several of these branches he was the master. At the age of 

 nine he made a geological excursion to the well-known ' Wren's 

 Nest,' and Wenlock Limestone quarries at Dudley. So long 

 ago as i860 he contributed a paper to ' ArchcTologia,' dealing 

 with ' Flint Implements in the Drift,' and from then until the 

 present year various publications have been enriched by the 

 products of his pen. But even these, and his numerous Presi- 

 dential addresses to various scientific societies, sink into 

 insignificance in comparison with his three magnificent volumes 

 dealing respectively with the Coins, Stone Implements, and 

 Bronze Implements of the ancient Britons. The first of these 

 was pubhshed in 1864 (supplement in 1890), the second in 1872 

 (second edition in 1897), and the third in 1881. Each 



Naturalist. 



