182 Reports and Proceedings — 



Mr. Harrison's discoveries in the Platean-gravels of Kent have resulted in 

 important communications from Prof. Prestwich to this and other societies, and 

 I now heg you to convey to Mr. Harrison this Award, as a slight testimony of the 

 interest which the Council have taken in his work, and of their desire to aid him 

 therein. 



Prof. Kupert Jones, in reply, said : — Mr. President, — 



I shall have very great pleasure in conveying this Award to Mr. Benjamin 

 Harrison, and with your permission I will read the following note which I have 

 received from him : — 



"It is difficult for me to express my thanks for the honour conferred upon m.e, 

 and for the kind words of the President. 



' ' At first I carried on my geological investigations almost alone, hut was encouraged 

 hy Professor Prestwich and Sir John Evans ; and my work soon developed into 

 a systematic search for Flint Implements in the Valleys of the Shode, Medway, and 

 Darent, and more recently on the Chalk Plateau. 



' ' Some of the Stone Implements thus found, which were used by an ancient 

 Kentish people, are so rude that it is with diffidence that, by some persons, they 

 have been accepted as the handiwork of Man. But it is an evidence of the great 

 interest which they create that, while the question of their origin has been a subject 

 of doubt in some quarters, the Society has on this occasion and in this manner 

 encouraged fxirther search for these geological relics. 



" This chapter in the early history of mankind is yet very fragmentary, but I 

 confidently anticipate the discovery and careful study of further material for its 

 completion by some of the many distinguished observers who have interested 

 themselves in the subject." 



In handing the Bigsby Medal to the Hon. T. F. Bayard, Ambassador 

 of the United States, for transmission to Charles D. Walcott, Esq., 

 F.G.S., Director of the United States Geological Survey, the President 

 addressed him as follows : — Sir, — 



It was the desire of the late Dr. J. J. Bigsby, F.E.S., the founder of this Medal, 

 that it should be awarded biennially, "as an acknowledgment of eminent services in 

 any Department of Geology — irrespective of the receiver's country." 



Moreover, "the recipient must not be older than 45 years last birthday." It 

 therefore appeared to the Council of the Geological Society to be peculiarly appro- 

 priate to present it to-day to Mr. C. D. Walcott, the Director of the United States 

 Geological Survey, who is now in his 45th year. This is also the fourth occasion 

 upon Avhich this Medal has been transmitted to eminent Geologists in America, 

 where so many of Dr. Bigsby' s own researches were carried on. 



Few men have attained to a more distinguished position in Geology, or have 

 achieved a larger share of original work in twenty years, than Mr. Walcott. He 

 long held the post of Palaeontologist on the U.S. Geological Survey; then that of 

 Chief Geologist ; and lastly he has been appointed Director. 



As palaeontologist, Mr. Walcott laboured most assiduously for many years at the 

 investigation of the structure and organization of the Trilobites, and was the first 

 satisfactorily to show, by means of thin sections, the limbs and branchial appendages 

 of these Pafeozoic Crustacea. The accuracy of his work has been largely confirmed 

 hy the subsequent discoveries of Trilobites showing limbs from the Lower Silurian of 

 Eome, New York. 



As a stratigraphical geologist, Mr. Walcott has contributed many papers to 

 science, but his most exhaustive labour has resulted in the production of his great 

 Monograph on the fauna of the Lower Cambrian, or " Olenellus-zone,''^ which 

 defines most clearly a remarkable series of rocks, containing the oldest fossil fauna 

 yet discovered, and capable of being paralleled and identified by its fossils nearly aU 

 over the world. 



These ancient rocks contain no fewer than 59 genera and nearly 150 species of 

 organisms, from sponges, corals, and trilobites to mollusca ; and this assemblage of 

 genera appears to be extremely constant over widely-separated areas of the earth's 

 surface. 



Do me the favour, Sir, to convey this Medal from the Covmcil of the Geological 

 Society to Mr. Walcott, in token of the admiration with which we regard his work 



