PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 3 



Since that date the invention of the spectroscope has enlarged 

 the range of enquiry into boundless space. We should have been 

 unacquainted with many of the theories of the atmosphere, rain, 

 rivers, glaciers, earthquakes, and volcanoes had we not been 

 familiar more or less with the groundwork upon which geological 

 investigations are based. 



By the study of Geology we obtain some idea of the changes 

 which the earth has undergone since it shook itself out of chaos. 

 Early writers noticed that the strata were arranged in layers, but 

 it was not until the year 1794 that William Smith, "the father of 

 Geology," showed that the strata followed each other in 

 succession, characterised by their fossils, and were laid down in 

 the bed of the sea, estuary, or lake. The fossil remains 

 are of the animals and plants which lived and died in them. 

 This was confirmed by Hutton soon after in his memorable 

 " Theory of the Earth." The views of Hutton are mainly known 

 to geologists through Dr. (Lord) Playfair. The third volume of 

 this great work was not published until the year 1 899, through 

 the energy of Sir Archibald Geikie. In the preface he expresses 

 a hope "that it may be the means of directing renewed atten- 

 tion to his ( Hutton' s) immortal work, which must ever remain 

 one of the great landmarks in the onward march of science." 

 De la Beche, Lyell, and Scrope confirmed the soundness of the 

 " theory," and that the changes of the earth can be interpreted. 

 The revered names of Owen, Murchison, Prestwich, Huxley, 

 Hulke, and others who have passed away, and contributed towards 

 placing the science of Geology in its present exalted position, and 

 whose labours are followed up by their successors and 

 contemporaries, O. Fisher, W. Carruthers, W. H. Hudleston, 

 Clement Reid, G. Murray, Dr. H. Woodward, H. B. Woodward, 

 A. S. Woodward, A. J. Jukes-Browne, R. Lydekker, and many 

 others, who are more or less in close relations with our club. 



Towards the latter half of the last century microbiology, 

 petrology, and the physiology of animals and plants made a 

 marked and rapid progress. Ocean-dredging has brought to our 

 knowledge many forms of life which had been unknown. 



