Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 26.djvu/51

Rh beset the early life of our own Hugh Miller, has made most important contributions to our knowledge of the fauna of the oldest palæozoic rocks of France.

Mr. read the following acknowledgment on behalf of Prof. :—

In returning thanks on the part of Monsieur Rouault for the grant of the balance of the proceeds of the Wollaston-fund, I will take the opportunity of saying a few words concerning the nature and extent of the scientific work executed by this hardy and persevering geologist in his own most difficult country.

Monsieur Rouault is one of those men who are independent of and rise above all distinctions of class. Self-educated in the strictest sense of the term, a collector of fossils because his nature would not allow him to be other, he resembles the lamented Hugh Miller and our still active and useful countryman Mr. Peach, the latter of whom attained a similar distinction under very similar difficulties.

Nearly seventeen years ago the valuable collections already in the possession of Monsieur Rouault were presented to the municipality of Rennes, and formed the principal nucleus of a museum then first established. The previous owner then became Directeur-conservateur of the Geological and Palæontological Museum of the town of Rennes; and this museum has since its first establishment been greatly enriched by the same agency. It is exceedingly rich in local fossils, and contains many type specimens, some of extreme interest.

The money I receive on the part of M. Rouault will, I am sure, be employed by him in the best interests of science, and will be recognized as a fit acknowledgment of the services he has already rendered to palæozoic geology, and an earnest of work still in progress.

Among the numerous Fellows and Foreign Members of the Society whose loss during the past year we have to regret, I may refer particularly to the following:—

, Vicomte d'Archiac, was born at Reims on the 24th of September, 1802. On the completion of his education, at the Military School of St. Cyr, he entered the army, and remained a cavalry officer until the revolution of July 1830, when he quitted the service. During M. d'Archiac's nine years of military life, his great capacity for the successful cultivation of natural science appears to have lain dormant. At least, the only recorded products of his pen during that time are, a historical novel in three volumes, and a political pamphlet.

It is not until 1835 that the long series of writings which raised