A FAMOUS GEOLOGIST.

Otago Witness, Issue 2387, 30 November 1899, Page 61

A FAMOUS GEOLOGIST.

William Buckland, father of Frank Buck* land, was one of the happy men who have a strong . natural bent, and are able to follow it. The first president of the British' Association, and " one of the founders of the science of geology," began his studies early. As he himself said, speaking at Bristol : " The rocks of this city were my ' geological school.. They stared me in_fho : face, they wooed- me "and caressed- me/ say- • ing at every turn, ' Pray/ be a geo.- ■ logist!'" He 'spoke as an enthusiast; 'and' an enthusiast he was. In those days col-"' lectors of rocks, minerals, fossils, and the like* -were less common than they, have' since become, and Buckland's queer doings - aroused endless^ curiosity; and provoked endless amusement. ' ;

While a student at Oxford he passed some of his vacations near .Lyme Regis, and for ' many years tha gossip of the neighbourhood • was full'of Jiis remarkable appearance and doings. In particular, the " cluttered " con- • dition of his lodgings was remembered : " His breakfast-table loaded with beefsteaks and belemnites, tea and terebratula, muffins and madrepores, toast and trilobites," the floors and the chairs covered with fossils ,

and books. The confusion was greatest at breakfast time, that being the only hour Syhen the local collectors whose services he iiad enlisted could be sure of finding him at home to receive what they had brought and pay them for their trouble. ; One of his friends even dropped into boetry about the " comforts of a professor's tooiri " : — iHere see the wrecks of beasts and fishes, /With broken saucers, cups, and dishes; Skins wanting b^ones, bones wanting skins, •And various blocks to break your shins. The sage amidst the chaos stands, Contemplative, with laden hands — 'This grasping tight his bread and butter, 'And that a flint, whilst he doth utterStraifge sentences that seem to say, " I see it all as clear as day ! " Once, according, to these neighbourhood gossips, the youthful geologist, riding upon ■the mail-coach, dropped his handkercliief and his hat, and when the coach pulled up, Jhe got not only Avhat he had dropped, but un interesting fossil, the sight of which from the coach-top had been the occasion of the " accident." At another time, when he had fallen asleep upon the coach, after having been collecting specimens for half the night, proJbably, z kind-hearted old Avoman relieved his pockets of a quantity of stones' with rwhich she happened to see them loaded. It was af a later period that he Avas gravelling in Ireland with .several friends on a hot, dusty day, and came to a fine lot of interesting specimens .which had been laid as stepping-ttones across a stream.' He quickly got them into !fche carriage, apologising to his friends at Ithe same time for obliging them to walk for the rest of the way. The stones were really too valuable to leave. At one time, his biographer tells us, he had a favourite horse that seemed to knoAv jjvhat her master was about, and even to i_ake an interest in Jus pursuits. She .would ' stand patiently Avhile he examined sections and strata, and then, Avith equal patience, receive the load of specimens he put upon her. Finally, she greAv so accusfcomed tb the Avork that she Avould stop of her OAvn accord AvheneA'er she came to a stone quarry. Once, at such a quarry. Dr Buckland was in some danger from falling stones. The bystanders shouted to him to look out, but h.2 answered calmly — "Never mind, the stones knoAv me."