Section B.— CHEMISTRY, GEOLOGY, METALLURGY,, 

 MINERALOGY AND GEOGRAPHY. 



President of the Section. — Prof. R. B. Young, M.A., D.Sc, 

 F.R.S.E., F.G.S. 



WEDNESDAY, JULY p. 



The President delivered the following address : — 



In glancing over the past presidential addresses to the various 

 Sections of this Association, I have observed that quite a number 

 of them are of a rather general character ; doubtless the result of 

 endeavours to avoid inflicting on so mixed an assembly papers 

 that could interest only a very few. With the same mercifui 

 intention in mind, I have decided merely to illustrate the improved 

 conditions of geological research in this country by putting before 

 you a contrast between its past and present state, with some 

 random reflections on the latter. I shall endeavour to be brief. 



We are at present fast approaching what I might term the 

 humdrum period of geology, when, all the outlines having been 

 sketched, there will remain only the verv useful, though less in- 

 teresting, work of filling in the details. The pioneer, armed with 

 a hammer and Lyell's " Principles of Geology," has retired before 

 the highly trained specialist. Geology, from being a passion, has 

 become a profession, with its ways made comparatively smooth 

 by a friendly and enlightened Government. This change was 

 inevitable, and has made for efficiency, yet sometimes one cannot 

 help regretting it, for, with the close of the heroic period, much 

 of the romance of our science has vanished. 



Our South African geologists, of the true pioneer type, like 

 Bain, Stow, and Atherstone, were late in life made geologists by 

 a process having some affinity to what is known in religious life as 

 " conversion." Geology was then a comparatively new science, 

 and the wonderful picture which it drew of the vicissitudes 

 through which the earth has passed, with its procession of old- 

 world life forms, things which to us familiarity from our school- 

 days has rendered almost comnionplace, struck the imagination 

 of these men with the force of a vision, took possession of their 

 thoughts, and kindled an unquenchable zeal to wrest for them- 

 selves from the rocks some of their secrets. The spirit in which 

 the pioneers entered on their labours, and the excitement and' 

 enthusiasm with which they greeted their first successes are fully 

 revealed in their writings, from which I shall quote two passage;. 

 The first is from a ])aper* by Andrew Geddes Bain, the 

 ■' Father of South African Geology." 



* " Reminiscences and Anecdotes connected with the History of 

 Geology in South Africa." reprinted in the Trans. Geo!. .Soc. .S.A. Vol. IT. 

 pp. 59-75- 



