SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, BART.,

K.C.B., D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., ETC.

DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE UNITED
KINGDOM.

Το say that at long past seventy years of age health and intellect. are vigorously retained, is saying much; but to say that at that advanced age, one of the latest scientific labours is brilliant as any in a long series of incessantly active life, is saying that which few indeed can lay claim to. Yet such may be-nay, must be-truthfully said of Roderick Impey Murchison. Famous as he everywhere is as the author and elaborator of the Silurian system,— that wonderful classification of the oldest, most unknown, and vastest of geological formations,-his last labours, in 1860–61, "On the Classification of the Mountain Rock-masses of the Highlands of Scotland," go far to eclipse his former successes in grandness of intellectual grasp and simplicity of reduction. Whatever Sir Roderick might have attained to as a soldier,-for in early life he served in the Peninsula and elsewhere, from 1807 to 1816, under Wellesley and Moore,-he must ever be looked upon as a Commander-in-Chief amongst geologists. The same quickness of sight and command of combinations, the same careful and forethoughtful collecting of materials for a decisive blow, and the same decisive energy of attack when the means are ready, which are essential to the General dealing with troops, Sir Roderick exhibits in his intellectual marshalling of scientific facts, and his power of hurling them upon the decisive point. But so long, so voluminous, so excellent are his numerous works, that what would form important items in many a biography sink into secondary

positions, or can only receive the merest passing glance, in anything but a special memoir of his long and indefatigable career.

Sir Roderick is the eldest son of the late Kennett Murchison, Esq., of Tarradale, in the county of Ross. His mother, who was Barbara, the eldest sister of the late General Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Bart., of Fairbairn, N.B., lived to see her son achieving distinction in the field of geology.

A Highlander by birth, it must have been a gratification in the highest degree to bring the mature knowledge of his most experienced life to bear upon the grand, massive hills of his childhood, and there to gather his crowning laurels.

Murchison was born at Tarradale, an estate which he inherited, on February 19, 1792. He was first educated at Durham Grammar School, and afterwards at the Military College, Great Marlow. In 1807 he obtained an ensigncy in the 36th Regiment of Infantry, and served in the battles of Vimeira and Roldia, under Sir A. Wellesley, at Corunna, under Moore, and afterwards in Sicily, the Siege of Cadiz, etc. After the close of the great war, seeing no hope of active employment, he retired from military service with the rank of Captain of Dragoons (6th Regiment).

After some subsequent years, divided between foxhunting, which he pursued eagerly, and tours in the Alps, Italy, and various parts of Europe, he commenced his geological career with an observant paper, entitled 'A Geological Sketch of the North-Western Extremity of Sussex and the adjoining Parts of Hampshire and Surrey,' in which he ably made out and described the succession and physical structure of the Cretaceous and underlying rocks of the western portion of that very interesting district-the Weald of Sussex and Hampshire. In this year, too, he made a tour with his accomplished wife,-the only daughter of General Hugonin, of Nursted House, near Petersfield,-to the Isle of Wight, and along the south coast of England to the Land's End in Cornwall. The summer of 1826 was spent in exploring the coasts of Scarborough and Whitby, the Western Isles and North Highlands of Scotland, and in comparing Brora, in Sutherland, with the eastern moorlands of Yorkshire.

From 1825 to 1829 Sir Roderick was one of the Secretaries of the Geological Society, and in that period he contributed to its Transactions the following papers :-"On the Coalfield of Brora" (1827); "On the Isle of Arran" (1828); "On the Primary Rocks