184 Reports and Proceedings — Geological Society of London. 



Dr. Bather, in reply, said: — 



Mr. President, — I had thought of much to say on this occasion, but the 

 generous and nattering terms in which you have recounted the things that 

 I have done have made me think rather of those things that I have left undone. 

 If the little that I have done has seemed of such service to Geology as to merit 

 this high distinction, while I am proud to receive it, I cannot forget the friends 

 in all parts of the world who have so greatly facilitated my work by the loan of 

 valuable specimens. And the thought of them again reminds me of the 

 material accumulated, but still untouched. A palaeontologist at the British 

 Museum is often envied, much as Dionysius of Syracuse was envied by 

 Damocles. If any Damocles were to take my place he would see, it is true, 

 a rich feast of Cystids and Crinoids laid before him. But the chains of office 

 would perpetually hinder him from feeding, and every day he would dread the 

 fall of a sword in the shape of a peremptory letter demanding the immediate 

 return of some necessary specimen. 



It is my hope, sir, that this award by so high a tribunal may convince my 

 friends and superiors that I really have made good use of the rich material 

 entrusted to me ; certainly it will encourage me to make my own future labours 

 no less deserving of their continued patience. For these reasons and for many 

 others, which must remain unexpressed, I offer to the Council my heartfelt 

 thanks. 



The President then presented the other Lyell Medal to Dr. Arthur 

 Walton Rowe, F.G.S., addressing him as follows : — 



Dr. Bowe, — It is no small pleasure to me that it is my duty, as President of 

 the Geological Society, to ask your acceptance of the Lyell Medal which the 

 Council of the Society has awarded to you, in recognition of the great service 

 which you have rendered to British Geology by your researches on the suc- 

 cession and distribution of the zones of the English Chalk. "Using delicate and 

 refined means of your own for the development of the fossils, and collecting the 

 latter from the successive horizons with the most scrupulous care, you soon 

 convinced yourself that the key to the evolution of the Echinoids and the basis 

 for their classification was to be found in their succession in time. The first 

 important outcome of your work was the classic paper on the evolution of the 

 genus Micraster published by this Society in 1899. The lines of advance in 

 these organisms having thus been made out, you proceeded to use the 

 characteristic forms as time-indices, with the result that you were able, not 

 only to make a satisfactory subdivision of the White Chalk in Kent, but to 

 extend the zonal lines thus marked out throughout the country. In this 

 manner you carried on the work so ably begun by Professor Charles Barrois, 

 and erected a worthy superstructure upon the solid foundations laid by him. 

 The influence which your research has exerted upon other investigators in 

 stimulating them to work, either in direct association with yourself or 

 independently, but always assisted and encouraged by your active help and 

 sympathy, is a sufficient testimony to its value. 



Dr. Rowe replied in the following words : — 



Mr. President, — That every man is glad to have his work recognized is, 

 I suppose, a truism ; but, while I deeply appreciate the all too kind remarks 

 which you have just made, I cannot but feel that the recognition is on far too 

 generous a scale. Very warmly I welcome the reference which you have made 

 to my amateur colleagues in the field. We have but one common aim, and 

 that is to trace the centres of distribution of species in the Chalk, together with 

 their vertical and horizontal range, and especially to work out the fascinating- 

 problems in evolution in which that formation is so rich. And, if a certain 

 little biological indiscretion, which I had the temerity to offer to the Council in 

 the year 1899, has borne fruit in this last direction, I shall not regret the anxious 

 complications which attended its somewhat protracted parturition. 



But while I claim all praise for the amateur worker, let us not forget the 

 labours of one whose philosophical and masterly grasp of the whole Cretaceous 



