Geological Society of London. 185 



Mr. Bauerman, ia reply, said: — Mr. President,— I have been asked, by telegram 

 from Mr. Derby, to represent him, as the interval since the Award was announced 

 has not been sufficient to allow of an acknowledgment by letter. I thank you heartily 

 for the recognition of the excellent work done by Mr. Derby in a country whose 

 geological structure is almost unknown, and I consider that in addition to the honour 

 conferred on the recipient, the Award is of value as likely to encourage the local 

 government in carrying on the systematic investigation of the province in the manner 

 that they have so worthily begun. 



In presenting the Balance of the proceeds of the Murchison 

 Geological Fund to Mr. Beeby Thompson, F.G.S., the President 

 addressed him as follows : — 



Mr. Beeby Thompson, — The Balance of the proceeds of the Murchison Fund has 

 been adjudged by the Council to you as a mark of its high appreciation of the 

 insight, endurance, and enthusiasm with which you have prosecuted your laborious 

 investigation of the Upper and Middle Lias of Northamptonshire. Your minute 

 tracing of the successive zones of these formations admirably shows how the Maps 

 of the Geological Survey may be made to serve as the basis for more detailed and 

 exhaustive work, such as can only be undertaken by a permanent resident in a 

 district. We hope that this Award may encourage you to persevere by showing how 

 cordially you possess the sympathies of this Society. 



Mr. Beeby Thompson, in reply, said : — Mr. President, — I feel greatly the honour 

 that has been conferred upon me by the present Award. I am a comparatively 

 young geologist, and commenced the study of the science some twelve years ago in 

 connexion with the Northamptonshire Natural History Society. My highest ambition 

 at first was to give a connected resmne of all that had been published on the local 

 geology ; but I soon found deficiencies in the record, and these I have since done my 

 best to supply. It is now one of the greatest pleasures of my life to go out into the 

 field and interrogate the rocks ; and although we frequently come to violent blows, I 

 hope we shall ever remain the best of friends. 



I thank you, Sir, for the kind and encouraging words with which you have 

 accompanied this presentation. 



The President then presented one-half of the Balance of the pro- 

 ceeds of the Lyell Geological Fund to Mr. J. W. Gregory, B.Sc, 

 F.G.S., addressing him as follows : — 



Mr. Gregory, — One moiety of the Balance of the proceeds of the Lyell Fund has 

 been assigned by the Council to you as a token of its warm appreciation of your 

 researches and as an encouragement to you to continue them. You have shown 

 yourself to be an accomplished palaeontologist and an able petrographer ; and we 

 trust that in both capacities you may live amply to fulfil the promise which you have 

 given of a brilliant career in the future. 



Mr. Gregory, in reply, said: — Mr. President, — The Fund which the Council 

 has so kindly awarded me helps me to realize more than usual the responsibility 

 of holding an appointment at the Natural History Museum, for I feel that it to the 

 opportunities afforded by its collections and libraries, and by the generous assistance 

 and encouragement of the more experienced members of the staff, that the little 

 that I have been able to do is entirely owing. You, Sir, have kindly re- 

 ferred to the fact that I have occasionally wandered from the work of descriptive 

 paleontology ; I can only offer as an excuse for thus presuming to intrude into the 

 other branch of geological work, the desire occasionally to exchange the air of the 

 museum for that of the field, as well as the wish for the training acquired in 

 pursuing the more precise method of research. 



This Award will encourage me to try to continue in the path of its founder in 

 regarding fossils not merely as the cells of a phylogenetic tree, but as the witnesses 

 from whose evidence we must learn the physical conditions and faunistic migrations 

 of the successive periods of the past. 



In presenting the other half of the Balance of the proceeds of the 

 Lyell Geological Fund to Mr. Edwin A. Walford, F.G.S., the 

 President addressed him as follows : — 



