312 SHEPPARD : MARTIN SIMPSON AND HIS GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS 
Simpson's salary, £20.'"" By IS-ll, lie relinquished his duties on account 
of the state of the Society's finances. In 1842, he gave about 1,800 
fossils, " greatly above the value of Ten Guineas," which entitled 
Simpson to rank as a Life Governor of the Society. In 1842, he was 
appointed as curator of the Museum of the West Riding Geological 
and Polytechnic Society. Letters printed by Mr. J. W. Davis in his 
History of the Scciety {Proceedings Vol. X., pp. 161-168) show that 
S:mpson enleved with energy into the task of arranging the collections 
in the Society's possession, but the engagement cnly lasted a year, as 
the Council decided no longer to maintain a museum at Wakefield. 
An arrangement was en'e:ed into with the Loeds Philosophical and 
Literary Scciety that rocm^ should be f:et aside in the Philosophical 
Society's hall for the recepticn of the fossils, and that they should 
be kept there as a separate collection, reclaimable at pleasure on 
notice by the Geological S:ciety. During his curatorship at Wake- 
field, however, S.'mpson arranged with the Whitby Scciety an ex- 
change of specimens, by which the Yorkshire Society's co'Iec^icns 
received seme 203 Jurassic £o:sils, nid the Whilby Society 
apparen'ly gained CaibcnifercuB plants and fishes. Evidently 
Simp^^cn relumed frcm Wakefield to AVhitby in the summer of 
1843. In 1847, cccording to the Whitby report, he was thanked 
" for his assiduous and valuable labours in arranging and marking our 
[i.e. Whitby] collection of recent shells Mr. Simpson is proceeding 
to bestow the same patient and persevering attention on the arrange- 
ment of our other specimens," so that apparently he was practically 
the Curator, though unpaid. In 1848, the Society hoped to publish a 
" Synopsis of its Museum." Subsequent reports still record thanks 
to Simpson, who, besides possessing the talents, time and taste for 
the task, has also the disposition to exert them in the cause of science." 
By 1856, the council " regretted the state of the Society's funds did 
not admit of an adequate renumeration being awarded him," but a 
payment of £10 to him is shown in the balance sheet, and a similar 
payment appears fairly regularly each year until his death. 
For several years he compiled the Meteorological Records, which 
were published in the Report. He was a frequent lecturer to the 
Society, on a variety of subjects, among which may be mentioned 
■'Taste," "Natural History," "Geology," "Ammonites and Belem- 
nites," "The Geology of the Neighbourhood" (published in 1861, 
