1 8s i THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY 177 



The Anniversary dinner of the Geological Society 

 was this year chiefly memorable for one of the most 

 wonderful exhibitions of Sedgwick's oratory. 'At 

 the dinner/ says Ramsay, 'Forbes, Wilson, Aveline, 

 Smyth, Sopwith, Captain James, Logan, and a few 

 more of us got together. Hopkins, the new President, 

 was in the chair. He was slow. Sedgwick made the 

 great speech of the evening. By turns he made us 

 cry and roar with laughter, as he willed. His pathos 

 and his wit were equally admirable. Home at twelve.' 



To the Geological Society Ramsay communicated 

 this winter his first paper on glacial phenomena. For 

 nearly three years he had been giving increased 

 attention to this subject. Not only had he met with 

 many new illustrations of the history of the glacial 

 period, but his observations, now that his eyes were 

 opened to the existence and significance of the facts, 

 led him to perceive the meaning of many scattered 

 surface-features in South Wales, to which, at the time 

 he was surveying in that region, he had paid little heed. 

 His paper was read on the 26th March 1851, and 

 was entitled, ' On the Sequence of Events during 

 the Pleistocene Period as evinced by the Superficial 

 Accumulations and Surface-markings of North Wales.' 

 His comment on the meeting of the Society runs as 

 follows : ' Read my paper at the Society. No man 

 objected but Hopkins, who said little, however, being 

 President, and he only objected to one point, and 

 praised all the rest. Sir H. made a capital speech, and 

 I think made an impression on Hopkins on that very 

 point that bothered him in my paper. Murchison, 

 Lyell, and the rest scarce ventured to criticise my 

 views, though they spoke well for the grasp and 

 importance of the paper.' 



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