Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 27.djvu/51

 pointed in 1841 to construct that important work the Ganges Canal. This difficult and great public work, probably the greatest then executed under British rule in India, its main channels being 820 miles in length, was equally to the honour of those who promoted and of him who projected and successfully carried it out. It was completed in 1854. Soon after this, Col. Cautley returned to England, where he was made a K.C.B., and in 1858 he was selected to fill one of the new seats in the Indian Council, which he held till 1868, when he retired into private life after a service of 50 years. Sir Proby Cautley was born in 1802, elected a Fellow of this Society in 1836, and died last month at his residence in Sydenham.

In Lord Chief Baron Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart., we have lost another early and distinguished Fellow. He was elected in 1818. I cannot ascertain that he ever wrote on any geological questions ; but the Transactions of the Royal Society are enriched with several memoirs by him on the curious problems connected with mathematical theories of numbers.

Dr. Collier joined the Society in 1838. In early life he saw much of the world as a staff- surgeon in the army, and paid particular attention to the conchology of Ceylon when stationed there. He was also eminent as a Greek scholar. He died last May at the advanced age of 86.

In Mr. Bradford the Society has lost a promising young Member, who took first-class honours in Natural Science at Cambridge, and afterwards during five years taught English Literature and Science at Hooghly College in India. He died at the early age of 32.

The Rev. C. Erle was elected a Fellow of the Society in 1837. For many years he was a very constant attendant at the evening- meetings, and he will be remembered by many for the pleasant part he took in some of our discussions. He travelled much in France and Italy, and paid great attention to the volcanic phenomena of those countries. In 1833 he was appointed to the living of Hardwich, near Aylesbury, where he resided till his death last year. Of the Saurian remains of that district he made a large collection. Mr. Erie was also a distinguished classical scholar. He was born in 1790.

Amongst our foreign Members, science has sustained a great loss in Professor Gustav Bischoff, of Bonn, who died last year at the age of 78. At an early period of his life, he devoted himself to Chemistry and Physics ; and his attention becoming afterwards di-