182 Reports and Proceedings — 



The President then presented the balance of the proceeds of the 

 Murchison Geological Fund to Philip Lake, Esq., M.A., F.G.S., 

 addressing him in the following words : — Mr. Lake, — 



The Council of the Geological Society have awarded to you the balance of the 

 proceeds of the Murchison Geological Fund, in recognition of your work in India, 

 too soon interrupted by ill-health. Before you left, however, you had made a solid 

 contribution to the history of the origin of the remarkable Laterites of that region 

 (Mem. Geol. Surv. India, vol. xxiv, art. 3, 1890), as well as to some other Indian 

 gaological problems. You have now commenced in Wales : first, in conjunction 

 with Mr. T. T. Groom, at Corwen (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1893, vol. xlix, p. 426) ; 

 and at a later date alone, near Llangollen {ibid. 1895, vol. li, p. 9), you have given 

 the Society careful and accurate contributions on the geology of these difficult regions. 



Nor have you neglected palseontological studies, as your recent paper on Acidaxpis 

 bears testimony. It is hoped that this award may prove not only useful, but that 

 it may serve as an incentive to continued and important geological work in the near 

 future. 



Mr. Lake, in reply, said : — Mr. President, — 



I am deeply sensible of the honour which the Council have done me in making 

 this award ; for, to a labourer in the cause of science, there is no truer pleasure 

 than the appreciation of his labours by his fellow-workers. It is an additional 

 gratification that it should fall to my lot to receive the award at your bands, since of 

 late I have attempted to follow in your footsteps in the field which you have made 

 so peculiarly your own. 



1 feel, however, that the award is a recognition far beyond what my work has 

 hitherto deserved ; and I look upon it rather as an encouragement to persevere in 

 the researches which I have begun. 



In presenting the Lyell Medal to Arthur Smith Woodward, Esq., 

 F.L.S., F.G.S., the President said :— Mr. Arthur Smith Woodward, — 



The Council of the Geological Society have awarded you the Lyell Medal, because 

 it appeared to them that the palaaontological work to which you have so earnestly 

 devoted your life since you commenced your career in the British Museum in 1882 

 would have met with the cordial approval of the distinguished geologist and writer 

 who founded this medal. 



Trained at the Owens College, Manchester, you had, besides this, an innate love 

 of scientific work, and only needed the opportunity to develop into an accomplished 

 palaeontologist of the Vertebrata. 



In dealing with the whole field of Fossil Vertebrata, you wavered at first between 

 the varied groups to which your studies invited you ; but, after a few papers on 

 Mammalia and Reptilia, you turned with a steady resolve to the study of Fossil 

 Fishes, from which you have scarcely ever departed. More than one hundred papers 

 on Fossil Fishes, besides a descriptive and illustrated Catalogue of Fossil Fishes in 

 the British Museum, of which three volumes have already appeared (1889-95), and 

 two Memoirs on the Fossil Fishes of New South Wales, attest the settled life-line of 

 research to which you now stand committed. 



But we have to thank you also for a joint work with Mr. C. Davies Sherborn, 

 F„G.S., of the very greatest usefulness to palaeontologists, "A Catalogue of British 

 Fossil Vertebrata," 1890 — a most trustworthy and excellent compilation, critically 

 and carefully prepared. 



That in the space of fourteen years you should have accomplished so much good 

 work, is due to the fact that you have never wavered from the object which you had 

 set before your mind to accomplish, and even in your numerous journeys in Europe 

 and to North America you have ever kept your ichthyological researches steadily 

 in view. 



I trust that this medal, and the good wishes which accompany it from your friends 

 here, will encourage you to the completion of your labours on the Fossil Fishes, and 

 that the remaining group of the Teleosteans may enjoy the same careful ami 

 critical attention and study at your hands as you have bestowed upon the other and 

 earlier groups. 



