418 Reports and Proceedings — British Association, 



Association can this visit be more interesting or even more exciting 

 than to us ; we enter for the first time a country whose geological 

 features and history, and whose mineral productions, have long 

 aroused the keenest interest among European geologists and 

 mineralogists. 



We have followed the discoveries and discussions of South 

 African writers ; we have read your views and have become 

 familiar with your terminology : we have heard the reports of those 

 who have visited the country, either as travellers or with the special 

 object of investigating its geological problems or mineral resources ; 

 and, indeed, ever since the Geological Society of London received 

 the historic papers of Andrew Geddes Bain, the father of South 

 African geology, many of the memoirs of your own geologists have 

 been communicated to European societies and journals ; we have 

 looked from afar with yearning eyes upon this alluring country ; 

 and at length we have found ourselves upon its shores. 



It has not been given to many of us to see those great pioneers 

 of South African geology whose work was done in the days before 

 amateurs and experts could come out for a few weeks or months to 

 take a hurried survey of the country ; but their enduring labours, 

 which have laid the foundation of all subsequent work, are well 

 known to us, and it is not necessary for me to do more than 

 mention the familiar names of Bain, Wyley, Stow, Atherstone, 

 Sutherland, and Dunn. Of these only the last-named survives ; but 

 when one remembers that his maps of North Cape Colony and of 

 Orange River Colony have served as the basis of the maps now in 

 use, one is reminded how recent is the whole history of South 

 African geology, and how much was achieved in so short a time by 

 these early workers. 



It is exactly one hundred years since John Barrow wrote the 

 concluding words of his "Travels in South Africa" which first 

 directed attention to the geology of this country ; it is only fifty 

 years since Bain sent home the manuscript of the classic papers to 

 which I have already alluded. 



Since their days many have been the scientific visitors to the 

 country who have remained here for longer or shorter periods, whose 

 works have made us familiar with its problems and have contributed 

 to their solution ; the names of Cohen, Draper, Exton, Gibson, 

 Green, Griesbach, Passarge, Rubidge, Sawyer, Schenck, and Seeley 

 recall some of the most substantial scientific work which has been 

 done either by visitors or residents. Several others who, without 

 visiting the country, have by their researches in Europe helped to 

 unravel the problem of South African stratigraphy were enumerated 

 by Dr. Corstorphine in his interesting and exhaustive Presidential 

 Address last year. 



If we must regret that we never had the opportunity of seeing 

 the great pioneers and the earlier workers, we may rejoice that we 

 have been able to meet those who are now actively engaged in con- 

 tinuing their labours ; the period of cursory visits and fragmentary 

 essays is closing, and the era of deliberate and systematic surveys is 



