186 Rejiorts and Proceedings — 



Mr. Walfortl, — The Council has awarded you the other moiety of the Lyell Fund 

 in I'ecognitiou of the great merit of your studies among the Lias and Lower Oolites 

 and your contributions to our knowledge of the Tr'ujonue and Polyzoa of the Jurassic 

 rocks. We hope that you will accept this Award as an aid and stimulant to further 

 research, and that we may liave the pleasure and profit of continuing to receive the 

 results of your labours. 



Mr. Walfokd, in reply, said : — Mr. President, — I thank you for this recognition 

 of such work as I have done. My stratigraphical labours have consisted principally 

 in filling in the details of the broad outlines so well laid down by the officers of the 

 Geological Survey. In pateontology my work among the Mullusca and Bryozoa has 

 beeu done in the few intervals of leisure snatched from a busy business life. I wish 

 that I had been able to accomplish more, for what 1 have done is but evidence of 

 what I would wish to do. 



The President then handed the proceeds of the Barlow-Jameson 

 Fund, awarded to Prof. C. Mayer-Eymar of Zurich, to Dr. W. T. 

 Blanford, F.R.S., addressing him as follows : — 



Mr. Blanford, — In asking you to be so good as to transmit to Prof. Mayer-Eymar 

 a donation from the Barlow- J ameson Fund, awarded to him by the Council, 1 hope 

 that you will convey to him an expression of the interest we take in the work he is 

 now carrying on so vigorously in Egypt, and cvf our desire to aid him in it. His 

 previous training in the palpeontology of the Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks of 

 Switzerland, France, and Italy eminently qualified him for the task to which he is 

 uow devoting himself, and in which we sincerely wish him success. 



Dr. Blanford, in reply, said : — Mr. President, — I am very pleased to undertake 

 the duty of transmitting the Awai'd from the Barlow -J ameson Fund to Professor 

 Charles Mayer-Eymar. The money will be devoted to (me of the most important 

 objects for which these funds were originally founded — the payment of the travelling 

 expenses of a geologist who is engaged in investigating the structure of a distant 

 country. 



Professor Mayer-Eymar, in a letter from Cairo written on the 4th of the present 

 month, asks me to convey his thanks to the Society, expresses his warm acknowledg- 

 jnent of the assistance to his work that the present Award will give, and promises, 

 as evidence of his gratitude, to send in the course of next month, for the information 

 'of the Society, an account of his three principal stratigraphical discoveries in Egypt. 



The President then said:— Before passing from the subject of the Awards, 

 I should like to refer very briefly to the remarkable and interesting coincidence 

 that this Anniversary day of our Society is also the centenary of one of the great 

 geologists who foimded our Medals and Funds. Exactly one hundred years ago 

 (viz. on February 19th, 1792) Eoderick Impey Murchison was born. Twenty years 

 have passed away since he was removed from our midst ; and at this distance of time 

 we can better estimate the value of his work and its influence on the progress of our 

 s&ience. I do not purpose, on the present occasion, to attempt such a critical 

 estimate. I am sure, however, that I express not my own feeling only, but that of 

 every Fellow of the Society, when I say that though we have been able to correct 

 some of his observations, and discard some of his deductions, the solid work which 

 he accomplished, more especially in the establisliment of his Silurian system, stands 

 on a basis which seems even stronger and broader now than when he laid it more 

 than half a century ago. His name has become a household word in Geology, and 

 will go down to future ages as that of one of the great pioneers of the science. 



To those who knew him personally and learnt to appreciate the frank, generous, 

 and sympathetic nature that underlay the somewhat formal bearing of the old soldier, 

 this day brings many pleasing memories. That the recollection of his personal worth 

 remains yet fresh without as well as within the pale of our Society has been vividly 

 brought to my knowledge by an incident as unwonted as it is gratifying. Within 

 these few days an old friend of Murchison, who desires to remain unknown, has 

 come to me with the wish to be allowed to offer here a tribute to his memory at this 

 Anniversary of the Geological Society and centenary of his birth. As a mark of 

 sincere admiration for the man as well as the geologist, and with the view of helping 

 to encourage the cultivation of the spirit in which he laboured, I have been aisked to 

 select two geologists, by preference Scotsmen, who are disciples of Murchison, or 

 who are carrying on the kind of research to which he devoted himself. To each 



