438 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
coral reefs, for which these islands afford singular facilities. It is. 
not too much to say that to these early investigations of General 
Nelson the scientific world was indebted for the first true con- 
ception of the nature of coral growth, until his time utterly 
misconceived. The result of his labours the young officer embodied 
in a series of papers, communicated to the Geological Society of 
London in the years 1830-33, under the title, “Observations on 
the Geology of the Bahamas ;” and they appeared in the “ Trans-. 
actions” of the Geological Society for 1837. Of their high value 
testimony was borne by the most competent authority, Dr. Duncan, 
F.R.S., in his recent address .as president to the fellows of the 
Geological Society, in the course of which he said: “Of all the 
careful research that has influenced the paleontology of late years, 
none is equal in importance to that which has partly settled the 
question regarding the morphological value of tabule in corals. 
Louis Agassiz described Hydractinian-looking polyps on millepora, 
a tabulate coral; and General Nelson (the Lieutenant Nelson 
whose classical description of the “Geology of Bermuda” has had 
such a good influence on our science) made drawings of similar 
organisms, and investigated the peculiar tabular character of the 
corallum.” 
General Nelson had long ceased to take any active part in the 
prosecution of scientific enquiry. Professional duties, as they in- 
creased with rising rank, left little opportunity for rearing the 
superstructure of the building, the foundations of which he had 
laid so well; and when he retired from active service he chiefly 
concerned himself with efforts of a philanthropic and religious. 
character. He died, after a short illness, at his residence at Stoke. 
