A MEMOIR OF ROBERT ETHERIDGE, F.R.S. 187 
Godwin-Austen, as the area where we should expect to 
find the Coal Measures, ranging probably under or north 
of the North Downs.” These suggestions received con- 
firmation from the subsequent discovery of coal in the 
deep boring at Dover ; and Etheridge was afterwards 
appointed consulting geologist to the promoters of the 
Dover Coal Exploration. Thus for a number of years he 
had the congenial task of noting' the strata and recording 
the fossils that were obtained at Dover and at other 
localities in the south-east of England where trial borings 
were made. He .laboured at this work until within a short 
time of his decease. 
It should be mentioned that in 1893 he contributed to 
the Proceedings of the CoUeswold Club an elaborate essay 
“ On the Rivers of the Cotteswold Hills within the Water- 
shed of the Thames, and their Importance as Supply to 
the Main River and the Metropolis.” ^ This was an amplifi- 
cation of the evidence given by him before the Royal 
Commission on Metropolitan Water Supply. 
One of his latest tasks in connection with this subject 
was to advise the late Thomas Hawksley, M.Inst.C.E., 
with regard to the water supply for Bristol. 
Personally, Robert Etheridge was beloved by all who 
knew him. He was ever ready, publicly and privately, 
to give assistance and information to those who sought it. 
In disposition he was cheery and good-humoured, active 
and alert on all occasions, and he maintained a youthful 
energy until almost the close of his life in his 85th year. 
He was three times married, and leaves (by his first wife) 
one son, Robert Etheridge, who is distinguished as a 
palseontologist, and is now Curator of the Australian 
Museum at Sydney, New South Wales. 
1 Vol. xi. pp. 49-101. 
