Charles Gould (geologist)

Summary

Charles Gould (4 June 1834 – 15 April 1893) was the first geological surveyor of Tasmania 1859–69.

Career edit

He was born in England.[1]

He conducted three expeditions into Western Tasmania in the 1860s.

He named many of the mountains on the West Coast Range.[2]

He also worked as a consultant geologist and land surveyor in Tasmania, the Bass Strait Islands and in New South Wales. He left Australia in late 1873 and died 20 years later, in Montevideo, Uruguay.

His father was the ornithologist John Gould and his mother was the natural history illustrator Elizabeth Gould (née Coxen).

Charles Gould was a member of the Royal Society of Tasmania and an amateur naturalist as well as geologist. He published observations of the distribution, diet and habits of the Tasmanian giant freshwater crayfish in 1870.[3] The species was named Astacopsis gouldi in honour of him by Australian freshwater crayfish ecologist Ellen Clark in 1936.[4][5]

Cryptozoology edit

Gould was the author of the book Mythical Monsters (1886) considered an early work on cryptozoology.[6][7] Prior to this, Gould published in the Papers and Proceedings of Royal Society of Tasmania on the possibility that the Australian mythical creature the "bunyip" was a freshwater seal.[8]

Publications edit

  • Mythical Monsters (1886)[9]
  • Gould, C. 1870: On the distribution and habits of the large fresh-water crayfish (Astacus sp.) of the northern rivers of Tasmania. Monthly Notices of Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania: 42–44.[3]
  • Gould, C.1872: Large aquatic animals, Monthly Notices of Papers & Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania , pp. 32–38.[8]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Gould, Charles - Bright Sparcs Biographical entry
  2. ^ footnote 21 on page 172 of Binks, C.J. (1980). Explorers of Western Tasmania. Launceston: Mary Fisher Bookshop. ISBN 0-908291-16-7.
  3. ^ a b Gould, Charles (1870). "On the distribution and habits of the large fresh-water crayfish (Astacus sp.) of the northern rivers of Tasmania". Monthly Notices of Papers & Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania: 42–44.
  4. ^ Clark, Ellen (1938). "The freshwater and land crayfish of Australia". Memoirs of the National Museum, Melbourne. 10: 5–58. doi:10.24199/j.mmv.1936.10.01. ISSN 0311-9548.
  5. ^ Mulhern, T. D. (2018). "Correcting misconceptions about the names applied to Tasmania's giant freshwater crayfish Astacopsis gouldi (Decapoda: Parastacidae)". Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania. 152: 21–26. doi:10.26749/rstpp.152.21.
  6. ^ South, Malcolm. (1987). Mythical and Fabulous Creatures: A Source Book and Research Guide. Greenwood Press. p. 30
  7. ^ Nigg, Joe. (1999). The Book of Fabulous Beasts: A Treasury of Writings from Ancient Times to the Present. Oxford University Press. p. 339
  8. ^ a b Gould, Charles (1872). "Large aquatic animals". Monthly Notices of Papers & Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania: 32–38.
  9. ^ https://archive.org/details/mythicalmonsters00gouluoft

Further reading edit

  • Blainey, Geoffrey (2000). The Peaks of Lyell (6th ed.). Hobart: St. David's Park Publishing. ISBN 0-7246-2265-9.
  • Stoddart, D.Michael, ed. (1993). Walk to the West. Hobart: The Royal Society of Tasmania. ISBN 0-9598679-9-6.

External links edit