valents of the Llandeilo flags and Caradoc sandstone. This sagacious determination has since been confirmed by Mr. Salter as regards the Caradoc sandstone; the fossils of Bala and the typical Caradoc sandstone of Sir Roderick Murchison in Shropshire being the same. The more elaborate paper of 1844 is accompanied by a geological map of North Wales, and is less happy. Mr. Sharpe's genius chiefly lay in the paleontological determination of the age of rocks, and, in this case at least, the time he allowed himself to map North Wales was too short for the satisfactory elucidation of the problems he proposed to solve.

Pursuing at intervals these subjects, Mr. Sharpe produced in 1847 an elaborate analysis and comparison of the Silurian fossils of North America (collected by Sir Charles Lyell) with those of Great Britain, and confirmed the views entertained by the American geologist, Mr. Hall, that the American Silurian strata, like the British, consist of two great divisions, viz. Upper and Lower.

While engaged in these investigations, Mr. Sharpe's attention was drawn to the subject of slaty cleavage and foliation, which affects the more ancient rocks of Devonshire, Wales, the North of England, the Highlands of Scotland, and Mont Blanc. In 1846, 1848, 1852 and 1854 he produced four memoirs on these subjects, the two first and the last of which are published in the Journal of the Geological Society, and the third in the Philosophical Transactions. These questions had previously been made the subject of special investigation by Professor Sedgwick, Mr. Darwin, and Professor Phillips. It has been said that from imperfect data Mr. Sharpe generalized too largely; and though this may be the case, an attentive perusal of the memoir of 1846 proves that in some important points he materially advanced the subject at that date in the direction to which the labours of Mr. Sorby have since tended. He attributes the cleavage of rocks, and consequent distortion of fossils, to pressure perpendicular to the planes of cleavage, and asserts that rocks are expanded along the cleavage planes in the direction of the dip of the cleavage. In the communication of 1848, the doctrine that pressure is the cause of cleavage is still more distinctly insisted on, and remarkable instances are given in which pebbles were observed which appeared to have been compressed and elongated in the planes of cleavage. He also recognizes the fact, since so beautifully explained by Mr. Sorby,

that the fine particles composing the slaty rocks are arranged lengthwise in the direction of the cleavage planes, and he attributes bends in the cleavage in its passage from one bed to another, to beds of different lithological character offering different degrees of resistance to pressure. The idea that cleavage may be due to crystalline action, he altogether repudiates. The two last of the series, published in 1852 and 1854, describe respectively the cleaved and foliated rocks of Scotland and Mont Blanc, and are chiefly devoted to the development of his theory of the great "cylinders" or arches, in which he asserted that the lamina of cleaved and foliated rocks lie. In these memoirs he made no advance beyond his previous ideas, for he attributed the formation of cleavage and foliation to the same cause; and though he indicated the fact, he gave no explanation of the reason of the occurrence of planes of cleavage and foliation in arched lines, a subject that has since in part been acutely treated of by Mr. Sorby, and of which the full explanation seems not far distant.

Besides these memoirs, Mr. Sharpe contributed to the Geological Society various papers on special subjects :-"On the Quartz Rock of MacCulloch's Map of Scotland;" "On the Southern Borders of the Highlands of Scotland ;" and various palæontological communications: "On the genus Trematis; ” “On Tylostoma, a new genus of Gasteropods from the Cretaceous beds of Portugal;" "On the genus Nerinæa ;" and a note on the fossils of the Boulonnais, appended to a paper by Mr. Austen on that district. He also furnished several parts of a Monograph to the splendid publications of the Palæontographical Society, "On the Fossil Remains of the Mollusca found in the Chalk formation of England," and on this important work he was still engaged when he met with the unhappy accident that caused his untimely death.

Such is a brief outline of some of the scientific labours of Daniel Sharpe a man, whose mind alike powerful and active, and well cultivated, urged him successfully to grasp and make his own a wider range of subjects than many geologists dare to attempt. Neither should it be forgotten that all the while he was unceasingly engaged in mercantile pursuits, and it was only during brief intervals of leisure, when more imperative labours were over, that he accomplished what many would consider sufficient work for their lives. And it is not in geology alone that he is known and appreciated :

philologists and ethnologists equally esteemed him. With marvellous versatility of talent he grappled with the ancient Lycian inscriptions, brought home by Fellows, Forbes and Spratt, and revealed the secrets of an unknown tongue written in an unknown character.

In debate he was clear, keen, severely critical, and at times somewhat sarcastic, occasionally alarming to an opponent unaccustomed to his style; but those who knew him best were well aware that an unvarying fund of kindly good humour lay beneath, and that if he hit his adversary hard, no man than himself more rejoiced in a harder blow in return. His private life was full of unostentatious benevolence. In conversation with his familiars he was intelligent, lively, and quick in perception, and his attached friends of the Geological Club, of which he lately was President by virtue of his office as head of the Society, will long mourn his loss, and miss the quaint humour and quiet laugh that so often helped to animate their board.

Mr. Sharpe was a Fellow of the Linnean, Zoological, and Geological Societies. In 1853 he became Treasurer of the Geological Society, and on the retirement of Mr. Hamilton was elected its President in 1856. In 1850 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. On the 20th of last May, while riding near Norwood, he was thrown from his horse, and sustained a fracture of the skull. In a few days he so far recovered as to be able to recognize the relations that were admitted to his chamber, and his numerous friends rejoiced in the prospect of his speedy restoration; but a sudden relapse succeeded, and he died on the 31st of May, sorrowed for by all who knew his worth.

JAMES MEADOWS RENDEL was born in 1799, at a village on the borders of Dartmoor, in Devonshire; his grandfather, Mr. Meadows, F.R.S., was a well-known architect, and his father, who was a county surveyor and farmer, was a man of ability, excellent common sense and determination of character, qualities which descended to the son, whilst to his mother, who was a woman of considerable acquirements, he owed the rudiments of his early education.

After being practically instructed in the executive part of his profession, he went to London and obtained an engagement under Mr. Telford, by whom he was employed on the survey and experiments for the proposed suspension bridge over the Mersey, at Runcorn, and

career.

subsequently on the survey and construction of roads in the north of Devon, where the difficulties he had to contend with contributed much to create that self-reliance so useful to him in his subsequent At that period he was introduced to the Earl of Morley, who discovering the latent talents of the young engineer, then scarcely twenty-five years of age, confided to him, with the approval of Mr. Telford, the construction of a cast-iron bridge across the Lary, an arm of the sea within the Harbour of Plymouth. This bridge, consisting of five elliptical arches, was, with the exception of that of Southwark, the largest cast-iron structure of the kind in the kingdom. Its construction, in which Mr. Rendel was engaged between 1824 and 1827, presented many difficulties demanding considerable skill and decision on the part of the engineer; but these difficulties were successfully overcome, and for the account of this work the Telford Medal of the Institution of Civil Engineers was awarded to him. About this period he designed and executed the Boucombe Bridge, where hydraulic power was for the first time applied to the machinery for working swing bridges.

Soon after the completion of the Lary Bridge, Mr. Rendel settled in Plymouth, and there exercised his profession with great activity, being engaged in surveying and reporting upon nearly all the harbours in the South-west of England, and executing the works at a large number of places, acquiring that mastery over Hydraulic Engineering on which his fame will chiefly rest. He was extensively employed by the Exchequer Loan Commissioners; in many cases executing the works thus authorized.

In the year 1831 he introduced a new system of crossing rivers by means of Floating Bridges worked by steam power; they were applied at Saltash and at Torpoint, on the river Tamar, and subsequently at Southampton and Portsmouth; but the rapid progress of the railway system prevented the further development of this useful invention, for which the Telford Medal was awarded. Descriptions of the structure of these bridges, as well as of that over the Lary, were published in the Transactions of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

The repairs of the Montrose Suspension Bridge, after its fall, were confided to him, and he there introduced the system of imparting that rigidity to the platform of the roadway which is now admitted to be so essential to the safety of these structures. He was also

engaged in the surveys for a railway between Exeter and Plymouth, but the necessary funds not being provided, the scheme was abandoned, and the district eventually falling under the control of the Great Western Railway Company, the present line of railway was constructed by Mr. Brunel.

In the year 1838 Mr. Rendel removed to London, where he was soon consulted upon many important works, and was engaged in the chief parliamentary contests of that remarkable period in the history of engineering. About this time he designed the Pier at Millbay, where he introduced the system of construction since employed with so much success at the harbours of Holyhead and Portland. Engagements poured in fast upon him, and his career was for the next few years one of unceasing activity, chiefly in the construction of Harbours or Docks, and the improvement of Rivers and Estuaries.

In the year 1843, the projected construction of Docks at Birkenhead, in Cheshire, of such an extent as to create a formidable rival to Liverpool, brought Mr. Rendel very prominently before the world; and the protracted contests on this subject will be long remembered in the history of Parliamentary Committees, for the ability with which he defended his positions; and the evidence given by him and other Engineers, as now collected, forms a valuable record of the state of engineering practice. The almost incessant labour, and the mental anxiety inseparable from this undertaking, were more than even his powerful constitution could support, and it is feared that they tended to shorten his valuable life.

The daring project of constructing a dock at Great Grimsby, by projecting the works far out upon the mud-banks of the River Humber, was next successfully accomplished; and he commenced the two great works which alone suffice to hand down his name to posterity, beside those of Smeaton, Rennie, and Telford,-the Harbours of Refuge of Holyhead and Portland; both these works were conceived with the largest views, and have been carried on with great rapidity. In both cases the system was adopted of establishing timber stages over the line of the jetties and depositing the large and small stones together, as they came from the quarries, by dropping them vertically from railway waggons into their positions; thus bringing up the mass simultaneously to above the level of the sea. In this manner as much as 24,000 tons of