7 ^ The Queensland Naturalist. April, 1926 
THE LATE PROFESSOR S. B. J. SKERTCHLY. 
By Heber A. Longman. 
Al the retjut^st ol' the Editor \ have made a few ex- 
frtHds frojii a. uit'iiioi'ial address giv'en at tiie aimual. 
meeting of the riiib, to mark the passing of its first 
President, Professor Skertchly, who died at Molendinar, 
on Febrnary 2nd, 1926. 
]My association with him goes batdc for al)ont 25 
years, and ailhongh there are many in Queenslami who 
knew iiim for a far longer period, probably few have 
been more intimate. After looking throngh a big budget 
of hdters and manuscript and tfi inking of his work as 
a whole, I must confess that any tribute that I can pay 
will be necessarily inadequate. 
Sydney Barber Josiah Skertelily was a most remark- 
able and many-sided man, with a distinct touch of genius, 
lie. Avas not a si)ecialist in the modern sense, for lie took 
a keen interest in every branch of science. This eosmo- 
])o]itanism was largely due to the influence of the great 
Victorian scientists in the later half of the last century.. 
There ^\'er(' giatits in those days, and Blvertchly was very 
fo)‘t unate in being associated witli them, lie was very 
ju’oud of his old fi'ineds and loved to talk of tliom. Wc' 
of a later generati(m may not fully aiipreciate tlie signi- 
ficance of these associations, but we can partly under- 
stand his pride. For here was a man who had cor- 
res])onded with Darwin, whose work and ability had 
bi'en jn-aised by Darwin, and who had assisted in the 
eouipiliition of such notable books as -fames Geikie's 
“Gnsit lee Age^' and Alfred Russel Wallace's “Island 
Life." and who luid been tlianked by these authors for 
his collahonit ion. Here was a man wlio had sat at the 
feet of L>'eil. wlio had been taught by Huxley, who^ 
heard Bates tell tales of tlie Amazon before bis book 
made that womlerland known to tlie public, who had 
been liel]ied by tlie Tylors of geographical and anthro- 
poloirii'al fame, and who stood in tiiat rich stream of 
intellectual lifi^ which even now raises the Victorian 
period abov(‘ tlie medioci'ity of liistoi'V. And here was a 
man who was something nioi'e than an assistant to 
others, for, amongst other studies, he made a notable 
contribution to our knowledge of the antnpiity of man. 
