i88o PRESIDENT OF BRITISH ASSOCIA TION 347 



rocks down to the present day, * all the physical events 

 in the history of the earth have varied neither in 

 kind nor in intensity from those of which we now 

 have experience.' 



The discourse, though printed, was not read by 

 the speaker. He had a few notes before him, to 

 which he made occasional reference as he passed from 

 one division to another. His lively inflections of 

 voice, marked Scottish accent, and energetic gestures 

 as he enforced the successive points which he wished 

 the audience to comprehend were a novel and not un- 

 welcome variation from the more usual formality of 

 the presidential address. In the proceedings at the 

 close reference was made to the fact that, though the 

 President was not a Welshman, he had done his best 

 to atone for that defect by marrying a Welshwoman. 

 Ramsay in replying spoke of his love for Wales ; he 

 knew almost every mountain-top in the Principality, 

 he said, having either surveyed them with his own 

 hands, or having superintended the surveys of them 

 by others. 



Towards the end of the year two marks of recog- 

 nition of Ramsay's lifelong devotion to science were 

 received by him. At the Anniversary of the Royal 

 Society on the ist December a Royal Medal was given 

 to him ' for his long-continued and successful labours 

 in geology and physical geography.' A few days later 

 the University of Glasgow conferred on him the 

 degree of LL.D. thus towards the close of his career 

 linking him by a new tie with his native town and the 

 college with which he had so many pleasant early 

 associations. 



The second edition of the North Wales Memoir, 

 which had involved so much labour both in the field 



