SIR RODERICK MURCHISON.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 333, 23 July 1875, Page 3

SIR RODERICK MURCHISON.

There was not much in Murchison's early character or tastes to give any au- ■ gury of his future.intellectualeminence, or of the untiring energies of more than half his life. Sprung from an old Scottish family not Unknown in Highland story, and within (he last century eager on the Ja- : cobite side of politics, young Roderick was, three year's after .his birth, , which took place on February 19, 1792, severed from the ancestral home at Tarradale, Ross-shire, his father's ill health requiring a more southern residence,/and ending in death within-the year at Bathampton.; Moving .to. Edinburgh, Mrs. Murchison placed the-boy with his brother under the care of Bishop Sandford, under whose ministry were gathered the little knot of Episcopalians and Jacobites who still lingered in the Northern capital. Her marriage --with/Colonel Murray; whom she accompanied, on ..service in Ireland, led to young Roderick, being sent to the gram-mar-school at' Durham, where in the course: of six years he won fame by dare-devil pranks, and picked up a smattering of Euclid and the classics. His holidays, spent with his -mother's brother, General Murchison of Fairburn, gave him a burning desire for a soldiers life, and after a short period of practical training al Marlow Col- : lege he-, was gazetted -to the 36th Regiment at the age of "fifteen. ' Active service soon followed. and< the youhg-'e'nsi'griras he tells the, tale iii a spirited letter to his uncle, carried the colors of his regiment atthV battle of Vimiera. He" had his full share of the hardships and risks of the retreat to, Corunna.; Cut off from all. participation in "the exploits of the Peninsula; Captain Murchison chafed under the dulness and ennui of barrack life in Scotland, finding an outlet for,exuberant animal spirits in feats of pedestrianism or in the .hunting-■ .field, turning out somewhat of a' dandy hV dress, and running up debts; to I settle which he could'only look forward. to the sale-pf his.patrimony. An occasional trip to London brought him-into contact ;with,al wider sphere, of interest,/and;a glimmer of his taste for science is" to be seen in ,his jor; the .-l-2th'o£'January7 1812,«-a ; hiembeVof the GWcgicafSbciety. :, Jtis=qUite"a"rneWirevelatioh on the par¥ .of Murcbison's looking arpund ioit a'calling,"the,ex-captain of-dra-. goons seriously thought of becoming a cler-' .gymanyTJotting down a goodly list of books hi Gfeek, :! Latih, .French, and Italian, under the' head/ of history, he lies ietires, consulting friends as to the feasibility of taking a degree,at Oxford at iGanibridge. His notions of .a.cterical, lot form a capital, il lustration/of; what /was' then thought of taking orders .—r" I saw; that my wife had; been brought up. to look after the poor, was a goo.d,botenist, enjoyed;a garden, andiliked tranquility ; and as parsons! then enjoyed a little, hunting,'shooting, and fishing without beingn-ailed^at,•]> thought that I might slide into-that isort" of comfortable domestic -life.-' His wife ! s - better-judgment : gested the idea'.of a year or two of foreign travel,-and thpsight of the Alps and; gla 7 "; ciers of Savoy L and' Switzerland, with 1 'the contact of, men like ,-Pictet and de Cankolle, first kindled-the flame ot physicalresearch which burnt irr,his, nature through life. At the same time'a ruiv through the chief galleries of-the Continent awakened in him a love and appreciation of art. Two years thus spent in Italy were .followed by five years cf.ardent fox-hunting at Melton. A note written forty years later lelisus that a dayV sport with Davy, ending in the|pro r -; mise of getting him eai>ly r into the Royal. Society, was the'meanl of finally -weaning, his mind from, this waste of life, aryl deciding him to" follow up .the-observationis he had already made upon the Alps andAppenines.: . Murchison : had henceforth a calling wherein his' Hove:" of out-door; life, combined witli his, energy .of intellect iand his s'ertse both of the sciehtfie' and ! aesthetic aspects.of nature,.:fqund unlimited scopes : Raised.in 1831 to the Presidency of the Geological - Society- Murchison- found the great turriirigipbiht of his scientific life in.the. determination to face resolutely' the -prpblpm 'bt^trie/rQcks.-.fdf,:■' older date- than those.of the:sec,ondary-series whieh-had hi--therto engrbssMHs'att&nlitfh;"' ''•''-.-; '; On resigning the chair of trie'. Geological Society in" 1833 he gave the first detailed account of the work of . two years on! the borderland of England and Wales, out of which was developed in the course of five years more the famed ' Silurian System.' Among his contemporaries there was no observer more keen-eyed, more careful, or more correct. Having the shrewdness, ; too, to know where his strength lay, he seldom ventured beyond that domain of fact in which his earliest succesf.es were won, and in which through life he worked so faithfully and so well. In that domain he had few equals, and the list of his published writings'and memoirs"testifies to the energy and industry with -.which he worked at the labours.of his choice. ; Ih"? the..'-official duties which devolved upon him.for the last fifteen years of his life, and which might have been a sore burden to. one reared in liberty.,and more.used to out-of-door research than to the routine of office or 'desk-work, he was Unflagging, and 'even .zealous, to a degree that would- be: occasionally galling-to functionaries set in high places over him..— c Saturday Review.' ~