18 Proceedings of the Eoyal Society 
but bad till then been rejected as rubbish, Lord de Dunstanville, 
one of the principal proprietors of the mines, offered him a per- 
manent appointment in them, which, however, he declined, pre- 
ferring to give his studies a wider range, probably with a view to 
devote his powers to the service of his native country. He accord- 
ingly visited the mining districts of Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Durham, 
and Northumberland. This brought him to Edinburgh, where he 
formed the acquaintance of Sir James Hall, Professors Playfair, 
J amieson, and Hope, by whom he was held in such high estimation, 
that in 1808, when only twenty-three years of age, he was unani- 
mously elected a Fellow of this Society. He now returned to 
Dublin, and, under the influence of the Royal Dublin Society, at 
once commenced “ a geological and mining examination of the 
Leinster coal district.” The publication of the results of his labours 
in this field was completed in 1814. In 1809 he was selected by 
the Commission appointed to inquire into the practicability of 
draining and improving the bogs of Ireland to be one of their 
engineers. In 1812 his surveys and reports were published by the 
authority of Parliament. At this date he received the appointment 
of Inspector-General of the Royal Mines in Ireland, as successor to 
the eminent mineralogist Richard Kirwan. Three years later he 
issued the first instalment of a geological map of his native country, 
to which he regularly made additions during the space of forty 
years, when it was published in a completed form. The Geological 
Society of London in 1855, in recognition of its value, awarded him 
the Wollaston Palladium Medal. Professor Edward Forbes, in pre- 
senting the medal, described the map as “one of the most remarkable 
productions which had ever been effected by a single geologist.” 
This map he had the honour of presenting personally to Her 
Majesty, who took a lively interest in it. The result was that in 
1858 Griffith was created a Baronet. 
It is a remarkable testimony to the knowledge which Sir Richard 
had early acquired of the geology of his native country, that in the 
map he had coloured a district as Upper Silurian, whilst the officers 
of the Geological Survey who followed him held it to belong to a 
formation between the Silurian and the Old Red Sandstone. Sir 
Richard, however, adhered to his opinion. To get the matter 
settled, Mr Hall, the present director of the Geological Survey of 
