186 Reports and Proceedings — 



to you in appreciation of the value of your investigations in various departments of 

 Geology, especially among the older rocks. Your researches in Caernarvonshire and 

 Anglesey formed the starting-point of those later inquiries which have done so much 

 to clear up the earlier chapters of the geological history of Wales. You have not 

 confined yourself, however, to the rocks of any one system or period, hut have 

 ranged freely from the Archaean gneiss to raised beach, hovering for a moment here 

 and resting a little there, generally critical, almost always suggestive, and with that 

 happy faculty of enthusiasm which, reacting on younger minds, ' ' allures to older 

 worlds, and leads the way." 



As I place this Medal in your hands, I cannot but recall the days of our early 

 friendship, now faded so far into the dim past of life, when, as colleagues in the 

 Geological Survey, we used to attend the meetings of this Society in Somerset House, 

 taking seats on a back row and gazing down upon the magnates of the science seated 

 beneath. Little did either of us dream that the whirligig of time would eventually 

 place us where we find ourselves to-day. It is thus no small gratification to me to 

 be called upon to present to you this Medal, which will not only serve to mark the 

 Society's appreciation of your work, but wliich will connect you by another link 

 with the memory of our friend and master, Lyell. 



Prof. Hughes, in reply, said: — Mr. President, — I feel that I have, as the senior, 

 been selected to receive this high recognition of the work being carried on by the 

 Cambridge School of Geology. I have not myself been able to offer much to the 

 Society of late, save occasional criticism, but my colleagues, Mr. Marr and Mr. 

 Harker, Fellows of the Society, whose opinions are regarded each year with increasing 

 respect, the one your Secretary, the other on your Council, have from time to time 

 contributed valuable papers, while my other colleague, Mr. Eoberts, has also laid 

 before the Society the results of important original observations made by him. The 

 Society knows that it is chiefly to the lecture -room, the museum, and the field- classes 

 that it must look for men to carry on its work in the future. But I must acknowledge 

 in this respect also that the heaviest work has fallen upon my colleagues. They 

 know, however, that in the administration of the Department, and directly and 

 indirectly in promoting the cause of Science, I help as far as I can. "We all work 

 well together, and I feel that they will rejoice with me now, will help to carry back 

 the Lyell Medal in triumph to Cambridge, and will join with me in offering to the 

 Society our warmest thanks for the honour that has been done us. We shall regard 

 it as a stimulus to follow in the steps of the great teacher whose name is com- 

 memorated on the Medal, and try always to distinguish clearly between what is 

 proved, what is disproved, and what remains, however plausible, " not proven." 



I am glad that it has fallen to my lot to receive this honour from the hands of an 

 old and valued friend, upon whom has fallen the mantle of Lyell, a mantle in which 

 the warp of science and the weft of literature are so deftly interwoven. 



The President then handed the Bigsby Medal, awarded to Dr. G. 

 M, Dawson, F.G.S., of Ottawa, to Dr. Hicks, F.R.S., for transmission 

 to the recipient, and addressed him as follows : — 



Dr. Hicks, — In asking you to transmit the Bigsby Medal to Dr. George M. 

 Dawson, I request you to convey to him at the same time an assurance of how fully 

 the Council appreciates the value of his researches into the geological structure of 

 Canada, and how cordially we hope that he may live long to prosecute the explorations 

 which have shed so much lustre on the Geological Survey of his native country. 



Dr. Hicks, in reply, read the following communication, received by him from 

 Dr. Dawson: — "Mr. President, — I have to express my high appreciation of the 

 honour which you and the Council of the Geological Society have conferred upon 

 me in the award of the Bigsby Medal. 



' ' I regret that my official duties at the present time render it impossible for me to 

 be present in person at the Anniversary Meeting to assure the Society of the high 

 esteem in which I hold this mark of recognition. 



' ' My field of geological work has laid chiefly in the further Western, and as yet 

 imperfectly known, portions of the Dominion of Canada, and much of the work 

 itself has been of an exploratory character, and only occasionally, and then to a 

 limited extent, precise or finished. Work of this class, though necessary in the 

 first instance, and possessed of the special interest attaching to any virgin field, 

 must suffer by comparison with that obtained in the investigation of smaller areas, 



