144 SURVEY OF THE SNOWDON REGION CHAP, v 



his second and concluding annual address before 

 vacating the Presidency. In this discourse he 

 announced his expectation that the complicated dis- 

 trict of North Wales would be completely surveyed 

 during that year. In this hope he made rather too 

 little allowance for the excessive and difficult detail 

 which the area contained, for it was not found possible 

 to finish the region until the summer of next year. 

 He referred to the publication of the maps of Cardi- 

 ganshire and Montgomeryshire, and to the fact that 

 those of other parts of North Wales were in the hands 

 of the engraver. Dorsetshire and Derbyshire were 

 nearly completed, and the mapping of the Tertiary 

 deposits had advanced into Hampshire. 



Ramsay's account of this anniversary meeting was 

 as follows : ' Sir H.'s speechifying day the Geo- 

 logical Anniversary. Prestwich was awarded the 

 Wollaston medal. In rising to present it, Sir H. 

 upset two large oil-lamps that stood on the table 

 before him and made a prodigious smash. All the 

 house laughed, and poor P. was a trifle discomposed. 

 He has a glorious head. Sir H.'s speech was said to 

 be excellent. I was obliged to run off to lecture. 

 Went down from College to the dinner at the 

 Thatched House Tavern. I sat betwixt Playfair and 

 Captain James. Reeks, Bristow, Smyth, M'Coy, 

 Tylor, Austen, Forbes, and I were all in a lump. 

 Lyell made a poor speaker in the chair. Sedgwick 

 made a magnificent speech, the Archbishop a 

 goodish one, Van der Weyer a good one, Sir H. a 

 good one, Buckland a fair, Sir Robert Peel a splendid 

 one, Murchison an indifferent one, from trying too 

 much.' 



Ramsay continued frequently to attend the Royal 



