336 
THOMAS WILLIAM EMBLETON. 
on December 12th, 1866, he was called in, with other eminent 
mining engineers, to control the recovery of the workings. He 
contributed to the Midland Institute of Mining Engineers a very- 
interesting paper on the steps adopted for this end, with registers 
of the readings of the barometers, thermometers, and pressure gauges 
during a period of ten months. Mr. Embleton was a member of the 
North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, 
from the year 1855, contributing various papers to its Transactions. 
Mr. Embleton's connection with the Yorkshire Geological and 
Polytechnic Society forms a thread which begins with the organiza- 
tion of the Society and runs without interruption for fifty-six years. 
In the History of the Society by the late Hon. Sec, Mr. J. W. Davis, 
published in 1889, the author acknowledges his indebtedness to 
Mr. Embleton for the most important facts connected with its 
earliest years. It was his habit to preserve particulars of Meetings 
of the Council and of the Society, and it was from notes taken 
by him that reports of its earlier gatherings were furnished to the 
newspapers. It was on the proposition of Mr. Embleton that a 
preliminary meeting of Coalowners, held at "Wakefield, on December 
1st, 1837, adopted the initial steps for founding "The Geological 
Society of the West Riding of Yorkshire." The late Mr. Thomas 
Wilson, M.A., was the first Hon. Sec, and he received from 
Mr. Embleton the most cordial co-operation in the details of 
organization. The Society's object was declared as " Collecting 
and methodising Geological and Mechanical Information in connec- 
tion with the Coal Fields of Yorkshire." 
At about this period Mr. Embleton conducted several of his 
colleagues in expeditions in the Middleton coal pits, under his 
management, and in other collieries. The result was the discovery 
of fossil remains of fishes, &c. The head of Megalichthys Hibberti 
had been found at Low Moor a few years earlier. This classical 
specimen was described by Professor Louis Agassiz, after it came 
under his notice during the visit which he paid with Professor 
Buckland, in 1824, to the Museum of the Leeds Philosophical and 
Literary Society. 
Amongst geologists outside Yorkshire who watched witli interest 
the birth of the new Society, none offered more hearty co-operation 
