XII ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



It is highly gratifying to note the reiiiaricable progress which has 

 been achieved in geological science during the century of the existence 

 of your society. Not only in the British Tsles, but also throughout the 

 Empire, and in every quarter of the globe your example has been fol- 

 lowed and geological societies established, all of which have contributed 

 to the vast amount of knowledge acquired and gathered in publications 

 and museums for the benefit of mankind. 



In extending to you its sincere congratulations upon tlie noble 

 work which you have done in geological science throughout the world, 

 the Eoyal Society is not unmindful of the very prominent part which 

 your society has played in Canada. ^^^len the Geological Survey of 

 Canada was founded in 1842, it was on the recommendation of four of 

 the Past-Presidents of the Geological Society of London that Lord 

 Stanley, then Secretary of State for the Colonics, at the request of 

 Sir Charles Bagot, Governor-General of Canada, designated Sir William 

 E. Logan as "Provincial Geologist," or Head of the Geological Survey. 

 Nor can we forget the manner in which Sir Henry de la Beche and 

 his colleagues of Her Majesty's Geological Survey of Great Britain 

 came forward and volunteered assistance to Logan in his labours, not 

 only in the way of chemical analvsis, but also in the determination of 

 new fossils, which could not be done in Canada at that time, and without 

 which a geological survey could not be satisfactorily conducted. 



In your transactions, proceedings and quarterly journals is em- 

 bodied a large amount of useful knowledge bearing on the geology of 

 British North America, dealing with those portions of our continent 

 which now constitute the Dominion of Canada and our sister colony 

 of Newfoundland. In the writings on Canadian geology and geological 

 explorations by Bigsby, Lyell, Palliser, Rae, Baddeley, the Earl of Sel- 

 kirk, Jukes, Owen, Hector, W. B. and P. P. Carpenter, Bunbury, Richard 

 Brown, T. Rupert Jones, Robert Ettridge, Sr., Sutherland, Haugh- 

 ton, Hinde and other contributors, are to bie found a rich mine ot 

 excellent material. To you, Mr. President, and to the Fellows of the 

 Geological Society of London, Canada owes a deep debt of gratitude 

 also for the encouragement, hearty co-operation and valuable assistance 

 given by your society to Canadian geologists. In countless ways you 

 have stimulated their zeal and made them feel at home in your meetings 

 and discussions. Among the links which bind the Royal Society of 

 Canada to the Geological Society of London may be mentioned the fact 

 that Sir William Dawson, the first President of the Royal Society of 

 Canada, was for many years one of the distinguished Fellows of your 

 Society, one on whom you had repeatedly bestowed honours and dis- 

 tinctions. Among other distinguished Fellows of your Society who 



