33 Presidentship of Marquess of Northampton 1840 



the glaciation of Britain, and of all the varied pile of descrip- 

 tive essays and volumes which have since appeared. The 

 geologists of this country could not for a time admit Agassiz's 

 explanation of the facts, but they gradually came to see 

 that no other explanation would account for them. We 

 may well suppose that the discussion at the Geological 

 Society's rooms formed part of the talk at the Club's dinner. 

 There was a " James Smith " present at this dinner, and 

 one would like to believe that it was " Smith of Jordan- 

 hill," who was the first to show, from the evidence of 

 shells in the clays of the Clyde basin, that the climate 

 of Scotland at a comparatively recent period was of an 

 Arctic kind. 



Among the English visitors we find the name of Lieut. - 

 Col. R. Z. Mudge of the Royal Engineers, son of the eminent 

 Director of the Ordnance Survey. He had served in the 

 Peninsular War under Wellesley and fought at Talavera. 

 Professor Miller, who dined as the guest of Herbert Mayo 

 on April i6th, was not improbably William Hallowes Miller, 

 Professor of Mineralogy in the University of Cambridge. 

 Dr. Pye Smith may have been the nonconformist minister 

 who was theological tutor at Homerton College, and author 

 of several works, among which was one on the relations 

 between Scripture and Geology which had appeared in 

 1839. Sir Astley Cooper, Bart., the well-known surgeon, 

 was the guest of the President on May 2ist. Dawson Turner, 

 the botanist, was introduced on May 7th by Charles Hat chett. 

 Murchison brought to the Club William Jory Kenwood, 

 the respected Cornish mineralogist, who only two months 

 before had been elected into the Royal Society. It was 

 fitting that in later years, after his host at the Royal Society 

 Club was no longer living, the Geological Society should 

 have conferred on him its Murchison Medal. 



1841. The Anniversary in 1841 was held on 24th June, 

 when twenty-one members were present, and Sir John 

 Barrow was chairman. 



It was reported by the Treasurer that the expenses of 

 the past year amounted to 82 I2S. 6d. and that there 



