180 Reports and Proceedings — 



announcement was made of the Council's intention to award this Medal there has 

 appeared a paper by Prof. Lindstrom in the " Transactions" of the Eoyal Swedish 

 Academy of Sciences, containing a description of a new species of fish from strata of 

 Wenlock age in Gotland, which is claimed to be not only the most ancient fish, but 

 the oldest vertebrate fossil yet discovered. 



The President then presented the Balance of the Proceeds of the 

 Murchison Geological Fund to Mr. Albert Charles Seward, M.A., 

 F.G.S., addressing him in the following words : — Mr. Seward, — 



The Council of the Geological Society have awarded to you the Balance of the 

 Proceeds of the Murchison Geological Fund, in recognition of your work on Fossil 

 Botany, and to aid you in your further researches in this field of investigation. Your 

 early training in Vegetable Biology gives you a great advantage in the study of 

 fossil plants, and your various papers during the past seven years, as well as the 

 Catalogue of Wealden Plants upon which you are now engaged, and of which the 

 first part is published, give promise of still more valuable results in the future, which 

 I trust you may live to verify. 



Mr. Seward, in reply, said : — Mr. President, — 



In expressing my heartiest thanks to the Council of the Society for the Award 

 which I have just received at your hands, I can only venture to hope that my future 

 endeavours in the study of fossil plants may, to some extent, make amends for the 

 insufiiciency of my present claim to such generous recognition. 



In the list of past recipients of the Murchison Award there are included the names 

 of some of the pioneers of Palseontological Science, and it must always be my aim, 

 as it is indeed my duty, to follow their example in the promising and rich field of 

 research in which they so successfully laboured. I should like to add. Sir, that my 

 thanks are due to you for the stimulus which you have given to my work. It was 

 through your initiative that I was enabled to undertake the task of describing our 

 Wealden flora, a work which I hope to complete with as much speed and accuracy as 

 may be. 



In handing the Lyell Medal (awarded to the Eev. J. F. Blake, 

 M.A., F.G.S.) to Prof. J. W. Judd, F.E.S., V.P.G.S., for transmission 

 to the recipient, the President addressed him as follows : — Prof. 

 Judd, — 



The Council have awarded the Lyell Medal to the Eev. J. F. Blake, in recognition 

 of the valuable services which he has rendered to Geology and Palaeontology by his 

 zealous and disinterested labours during the past quarter of a century. In that 

 important work on " The Yorkshire Lias," by Prof. Ealph Tate, F.G.S. , and 

 himself, published in 1876, he gave the first detailed account of the paleontology of 

 the successive stages of the Lias, with records of the stratigraphical characters of 

 each. He furthermore described and figured many of the organic remains, and 

 especially the Cephalopoda, which then, as in later years, attracted his attention. 



Continuing for a while to devote himself to the study of the Jurassic rocks, Mr. 

 Blake communicated to this Society papers on the Kimeridge Clay and on the 

 Portland Eocks ; and (together with Mr. "W. H. Hudleston, F.E.S.) an elaborate 

 memoir on the Coralhan Eocks of England. 



Mr. Blake's Monograph on British Fossil Cephalopoda from the Palaeozoic rocks 

 (18S2) deserves especial mention. 



In later years he has wandered in many fields among the older Palseozoic and 

 Metamorphic rocks — ever and anon seeking relief among less ancient deposits. 



In his " Annals of British Geology," of which three volumes have appeared 

 (1890-92), Mr. Blake has laboured most industriously to render further service to 

 Geological Science. 



Will you convey to Mr. Blake, with this Medal, our most sincere wishes for his 

 health and for the success of his mission to Baroda ? In India he will doubtless 

 gather fresh stores of geological knowledge, the acquisition of which has been his 

 happiest pursuit in life. 



Prof. Judd, in reply, said : — Mr. President, — 



I cannot h^t regret that the recipient of this Medal is not able to be with us this 



