Reports & Proceedings — Geological Society of London. 189 



the past, but to promise for the future. Confident that in this case the one 

 is a sure guarantee of the other, we ask him to receive this award in the 

 double acceptation of a tribute and an encouragement. 



Dr. Strahan replied : — 



Mr. President, — It is a great pleasure to me to receive, on behalf of my 

 colleague on the Geological Survey, this testimony of the value that the 

 Council attaches to his work. You have referred in generous terms to 

 Mr. Carruthers's contributions to our knowledge of Scottish geologjr, and 

 to his researches in pure palaeontology. His application of scientific 

 methods of investigation to corals has done much to elucidate stages of 

 evolution in those lowly organisms, and I believe that your recognition of 

 this branch of his work will be especially gratifying to him. In economic 

 geology the demands made upon the staff by the exigencies of war were 

 sudden and imperative, and no one knows better than mj'self how well 

 Mr. Carruthers and his colleagues responded to the call, and for the time 

 resisted the fascinations of abstract science. 



Mr. Carruthers, writing amid the distractions of the Western Front, tells 

 me that it is 



"almost impossible to give any adequate expression of my gratitude to the 

 Society for their award of the Medal. . . . As the bulk of my work has 

 been concerned with economic geology, the honour of this award is shared 

 equally with my comrades on the Survey. ... In the field of abstract 

 science my ventures have been little more than tentative. I hope that the 

 generous encouragement that they have always received from the Society 

 may ultimately be repaid in some degree. The obligation is, of course, 

 greatly increased by this additional proof of trust ". 



May I express the hope, for myself and for the Fellows of the Society, 

 that it will not be long before Mr. Carruthers can resume his scientific work 

 and justify the confidence that you have so gracefully expressed in his 

 promise for the future ? 



In presenting the Balance of the Proceeds of the Wollaston 

 Donation Fund to Percy George Hamnall Boswell, D.Sc, the 

 President said : — 



Dr. Boswell, — The Balance of the Proceeds of the Wollaston Donation 

 Fund has been awarded to you by the Council in recognition of your work 

 in East Anglia, by which you have added to our knowledge of the 

 subterranean as well as the superficial geology of that area. In your earlier 

 contributions you examined the origin of the existing river-system of 

 Suffolk, and also endeavoured to define the limits of extension of the Lower 

 Glacial deposits of Norfolk into the more southerly county. You have also 

 made instructive researches into the lithology and mineralogy of many of 

 the sedimentary deposits of East Anglia. In a paper read before this 

 Society two years ago you employed this method, in conjunction with 

 stratigraphical observation, in a comprehensive study of the Lower Eocene 

 strata of the area, and drew interesting conclusions concerning the 

 geography of the period and even the tectonics of the country. Your more 

 recent investigations concerning sands suitable for glass-making have 

 a direct practical application of much importance at the present time. 



Some part of your work has been the outcome of a grant from the Daniel 

 Pidgeon Fund, and the good use which you made of that opportunity 

 assures us that you will regard the present award as an incentive to new 

 enterprises in the service of Geology. 



The President then handed the Balance of the Proceeds of the 

 Murchison Geological Fund, awarded to Dr. William Mackie, to 

 Dr. W. T. Gordon, for transmission to the recipient, said : — 



Dr. Gordon, — The Balance of the Proceeds of the Murchison Geological 

 Fund has been awarded by the Council to Dr. Mackie in recognition of his 



