Re])orts & Proceedings — Geological Society of London. 183 



brilliant geologists emerged from that school, of whom you, Sir, v/ere one. 

 I cannot help acknowledging also the benefits of the teaching in the field which 

 I received from an Oxford man whom I have the honour of counting as 

 a friend of over forty years' standing — Mr. Tiddeman. 



I have, as you observed, for many years been myself a teacher in the 

 Cambridge School, and here again have benefited from the ardour and 

 enthusiasm of my pupils. Their cordial congratulations to me on receiving 

 this award show that they, as well as I, appreciate the honour. 



Before passing from the subject of Cambridge I must refer. Sir, to our old 

 College. It is no doubt a satisfaction to you as to me to find the names of five 

 members of St. John's enrolled in the lists of the Wollaston Medallists within 

 the last twenty-five years. 



I thank the Council most sincerely for the bestowal of this their highest 

 award. There is, however, an honour which I should rank still higher, and 

 that is the cordial approval which I feel that the Council and general body of 

 Fellows would accord to one who did his utmost to serve the interests of the 

 science and of the Geological Society to the end of his life. The desire to gain 

 this approval will surely stimulate me to work in the future. 



The President then presented the Murcliison Medal to Mr. "William 

 Augustus Edmond Ussher, F.G.S., addressing him in the following 

 words : — 



Mr. Ussher, — For more than forty years, as a member of the staff of the 

 Geological Survey, you devoted yourself whole-heartedly to the work entrusted 

 to you. Though at one time or another you were engaged in various parts of 

 England, the South- Western Counties are those with which your name is most 

 closely associated. Indeed, among the many distinguished men who have 

 laboured in Cornwall, Devon, and Somerset, you have done more than most to 

 unravel the tangle of Paleeozoic rocks and to classify the Newer Bed rocks 

 there exposed. 



So long ago as 1875 you communicated your first paper on the Trias to this 

 Society, and two years later you followe^d this up by a comparison of the 

 Triassic development of the South- West of England with those of the Midlands 

 and of Nonnandy. 



At this time also you began to publish the results of those researches on the 

 Palasozoic sequence which were destined to fill so large a part of your oflicial 

 career. Partly in association with the late A. Champernowne, and with help 

 derived from the writings of De la Beche and other early workers in the same 

 field, you proceeded with what seemed the almost hopeless task of interpreting 

 the structure of the country and defining the limits of the Carboniferous rocks 

 and of the Upper, Middle, and Lower Devonian groups. It is not possible for 

 me, on this occasion, to trace the steps by which you reached your final con- 

 clusions. I can only refer to your published accounts in the Journal of this 

 Society, in the Memoirs of the Geological Survey, and in the Transactions of 

 the Devonshire Association, and assure you that the exceptional difficulty 

 of the task which fell to you, involving as it did a bewildering complexity of 

 structure, difficult palaeontology, and for a time at least an inadequate 

 topographical basis for your work, is recognized by all geologists. The 

 Council desire to take this opportunity of testifying their appreciation of your 

 efforts, and on their behalf I beg to hand you the Murchison Medal. 



Mr. Ussher replied in the following words : — 



Mr. President, — I sincerely thank you, the Council, and the Fellows of this 

 Society for the honour thus conferred upon me and for the unanimity with 

 which it has been bestowed. The work to which. Sir, you so flatteringly refer 

 was done so long ago that this recognition is doubly grateful, as a convincing 

 proof that my researches have not been forgotten. 



My work among the New Bed rocks of the South-Western Counties, begun in 

 1870 and completed in 1880, was inspected by my old chief. Sir Andrew Ramsay, 

 who characterized it as " first-class work ", a commendation most encouraging 



