188 Reports & Proceedings — Geological Society of London. 



Society, have long taken rank as standard works, and he has supplemented 

 them from time to time by many other contributions dealing with the same 

 subject. Further, he has brought his palaaontological knowledge to bear 

 upon important questions of stratigraphy, and has shown that the lamelli- 

 branch faunas of different groups of rocks furnish valuable data for 

 purposes of comparison. In this way he has taken no small part in the 

 correlation of the Carboniferous strata in different areas in Britain, and has 

 further pushed his inquiries to the Continent of Europe. 



The quantity, as well as the quality, of his geological work seems the 

 more remarkable when we remember that his researches have been carried 

 out in the intervals, none too frequent, of a bus}' professional life. In con- 

 ferring upon him this mark of recognition, so well earned, we are thus 

 honouring one of those amateur workers to whom British geology has 

 always been signally indebted. In presenting it I express the hope that, 

 when happier days bring again some allowance of leisure, Dr. Hind will be 

 able to renew those investigations which have already proved so rich in 

 results. 



Dr. Smith Woodward replied in the following words : — 



Mr. President, — I shall have much pleasure in transmitting the Lyell 

 Medal to my friend Dr. Wheelton Hind, on whom it has been so worthily 

 bestowed. Geological science has always been greatly indebted to the 

 medical profession for important advances made in their brief intervals of 

 leisure, and Dr. Hind has for many years excellently maintained the old 

 tradition. Recognizing the importance of combining work in the field with 

 detailed palasontological research in the study, he soon became one of the 

 most successful exponents of the modern methods of stratigraphical 

 geology. Beginning researches on the Carboniferous roeks in his own 

 district of North Staffordshire, he has gradually extended his domain until, 

 as j^ou have well said, Sir, he has taken no small part in the correlation of 

 the Carboniferous strata of Britain. As soon as he is released from the 

 military duties which prevent his attendance at the meeting to-day, I feel 

 sure that Dr. Hind will return with renewed vigour to the geological work 

 which has so long been his recreation ; and he desires me to express his 

 best thanks to the Council of the Geological Society for the stimulating 

 award with which they have honoured him. 



In handing the Bigsby Medal, awarded to Mr. Ilobert George 

 Carruthers, to Dr. A. Strahan, Director of H.M. Geological Survey, 

 for transmission to the recipient, the President addressed him as 

 follows : — 



Dr. Strahan, — The Bigsby Medal has been awarded to Mr. Carruthers 

 by the Council as an acknowledgment of his eminent services to Scottish 

 geology. As an officer of the Geological Survey he has investigated 

 considerable areas of the ancient rocks of the Highlands, the Carboniferous 

 of the Scottish Midlands, and the Old Red Sandstone of Caithness ; and in 

 each of these fields his labours have yielded results which possess more 

 than a local interest. On the side of pure palaeontology he has made 

 important additions to our knowledge of the Corals, in particular by his 

 memoir dealing with the morpholog}' of the Rugosa ; but especially are 

 geologists indebted to him for the use which he has made of the Corals in 

 the zonal subdivision of the Carboniferous succession. Of other palseonto- 

 logical contributions having a direct stratigraphical application, I will 

 recall only his discovery of a Pendleside fauna in the Calciferous Sandstone 

 Series of Lanarkshire and his reference of the fish-fauna of Achanarras to 

 its true position in the Old Red Sandstone sequence. Among his services 

 to economic geology his revision of the memoir on the oil-shale fields of the 

 Lothians is especially worthy of mention. 



The founder of this Medal, in fixing an age limit for the recipient, made 

 clear his intention that regard should be had, not only to performance in 



