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by the most laborious pedestrian efforts, have we not seen, that as 
years rolled on and our veteran leader began to feel, that the toil of 
gaining the mountain crest must soon pass from his own limbs to 
those of younger men, he has so vigorously applied his mind to 
Paleontology as to throw new lights over this department of our 
many-headed science? No sooner did he grapple with this task, 
and that too when he had passed the meridian of life, than he dis- 
played the same originality of mind which had marked all his pre- 
vious inquiries. Subjecting the family of Ammonites to revision, 
and convinced that their innumerable species were not founded on 
true natural distinctions, he took the lines of suture as a basis, and 
thereon established a limited number of normal or typical forms, 
each characteristic of certain strata. The Terebratule, so common 
in all the secondary strata, were next passed in reyiew, and types 
were fixed upon, to which a number of slightly varying forms were 
referred, a work which our French brethren have considered so 
important, that they have republished it in the Transactions of the 
Geological Society of France. Then followed his illustration of the 
fossils of South America, collected by his great countryman Hum- 
boldt. Whilst I merely enumerate these works, I may be allowed 
to say a few words respecting his last published volume, “On the 
Fossils of Russia,” because, together with my associates, M. de Ver- 
neuil and Count Keyserling, I have had the means of forming an 
opinion of its value. Simply furnished with collections of organic 
remains from various parts of the Russian empire, M. de Buch, 
without ever visiting the country, assigned to each form he exa- 
mined its position in the geological series. As the researches of my 
friends and myself have confirmed, to a very remarkable extent, 
the aceuracy of the geological views of M. von Buch, drawn from 
such sources only, you will surely agree with me, that this work 
affords a most remarkable proof of the acumen of its author and of 
the efficacy of organic remains in identifying distant strata. 
But, Gentlemen, I haye already said more than enough to explain 
the grounds of the award of the Medal to one of the leading charac- 
ters of the age, and who has exercised a most powerful influence 
on the present state of our science. The substantial claims of 
Leopold von Buch are those of a profound and original thinker, and 
of a most enterprising field geologist, who, casting new and broad 
lights upon the history of the earth, has gloriously toiled throughout » 
life in our cause, and who, though leaded with the highest academic 
honours, is continually putting forward fresh claims upon the admi- 
ration and gratitude of his associates. 
On delivering the Wollaston Medal to the Foreign Secretary, the 
President said,— 
Mr. De ra Becus, ; 
I consign to you the Wollaston Medal awarded to M. yon Bueh, 
requesting you to convey it to that eminent man. It was the inten- 
tion of His Excellency the Prussian Minister, Chevalier Bunsen, to 
have been present on this oceasion; and whilst we must all regret 
