33 
of Edinburgh, Session 1878-79. 
The alteration of the curriculum of the Queen’s Colleges in 
Ireland included a very great increase in the duties required of the 
professor of geology at Cork. Professor Harkness struggled with 
this accession of toil for two years, but finding it too much for his 
strength, and having some premonitory symptoms of the disease 
which ultimately cut him off, he resigned his chair, after having 
occupied it for a quarter of a century. It was his intention to 
settle at Penrith, to which place he had for many years been used 
annually to repair to spend a portion of his holiday with his sister. 
It was when on his way to carry out this intention that he died 
suddenly of heart-disease at Dublin, on 4th October 1878. 
Important as was the scientific work accomplished by Professor 
Harkness, it did not receive a wider or heartier recognition among 
his brother geologists than his admirable qualities of head and heart. 
No one who has been privileged with his friendship will fail to 
cherish the memory of his earnestness over even the driest details, 
his quiet enthusiasm, his generous admiration for the work of others, 
and his unfailing cheerfulness. His beaming ruddy face, always 
full of kindliness, was seldom to be missed from the platform of 
Section C at the British Association meetings. It often rose 
among the speakers, and it never failed to reappear at the festive 
evening gatherings. There have been men who have graven their 
names more deeply on the registers of scientific thought and progress, 
but there have been few whose sunny nature has more endeared 
them in the recollection of their friends than Bobert Harkness. 
A few words in conclusion. — Just twenty years have elapsed since 
I had the honour of delivering an address to this Society on its 
opening day. On that occasion, I took the place of Sir David 
Brewster, who was suffering from temporary illness. The feelings 
which arise on casting one’s thoughts back through twenty years 
are full of sadness when they fasten on individual members of this 
Society, whose presence at our meetings was a source of pleasure not 
unmixed with pride, but of sadness, brightened by glimpses of the 
future when we think of them as members of a living body, as 
workers even now in the field which man has been sent into the 
world to cultivate — the field where truth is to be sought and found. 
Great men like Sir David Brewster are not all lost to us; they live 
VOL. x. 
E 
