Presentation of the JFotlaston Medal for 1840. 381: 



the landed proprietors, and persons practically interested in 

 the operations and products of the coal mines. The Geologi- 

 cal Tribunal of Brussels, including the highly distinguished 

 geologist Omalius d'Halloy, at once appreciated duly, and re- 

 warded as they deserved, these brilliant discoveries ; but the 

 phenomena, represented on M. Dumont's map and sections, 

 were so unusually complicated, and apparently impossible, 

 that the geologists of England could not but forbear to admit 

 their reality, until it was fully confirmed by our personal 

 examination, with the aid of that new light which M. Du- 

 mont's discoveries had thrown upon them. The result of such 

 inquiry has been a full corroboration of M. Dumont's repre- 

 sentations; and at this late hour we come forward to ren- 

 der him the homage of our tardy but sincere acknowledg- 

 ments, a duty too long delayed from the exercise of precau- 

 tion in its administration, but for this very reason now be- 

 come more urgent when the grounds for conscientiously dis- 

 charging it have passed the ordeal of severe and critical inves- 

 tigation. It is for this great work, then, on the geological 

 constitution of the province of Liege, such as in 1832 it issued 

 from the hands of a yoimg, and then unknown, individual, and 

 apart from any more recent attempts to identify the Belgian 

 formations with those of England, that our Society has awarded 

 to M. Andre Hubert Dumont their gold Wollaston Medal for 

 the present year, in testimony of their admiration of the al- 

 most precocious talents then displayed by him, and of their 

 sense of his worthiness to fill the distinguished scientific posi- 

 tion to which he is now advanced, as professor of mineralogy 

 and geology in the College of Liege." 



On presenting the year's proceeds awarded to Mr Sowerby, 

 Dr Buckland said : — 



" It is with no small pleasure that I rise to perform the 

 duty of placing into your hands the award that has been made 

 to you, by the Council of this Society, of one year's interest of 

 the Wollaston Fund, in order to facilitate the continuation of 

 your researches in mineral conchology. The services are great 

 which have been rendered to geology by the extremely useful 

 and well-timed work on fossil shells, which was many years 

 ago begun by your excellent father, and continued by him to 



VOL. XXVIII. NO. LVf. APaJL 1840. cc 



