6 Eminent Living Geologists — 



made the first journey to the South Magnetic Polar area, a journey 

 involving great physical suffering and hairbreadth escapes from 

 death. Indeed, the rescue of the small party seemed to be almost a 

 matter of chance. During his absence from Australia the 

 Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science awarded 

 to him their highest distinction, the Mueller Memorial Medal. 



"With the return of the Expedition to Australia there was aroused 

 great public interest in Antarctic exploration, due in no small 

 measure to the personality of Professor David himself, whose name 

 had literally become a household word. The urgent demand of the 

 public to see and hear him, together with the need for securing 

 funds for the publication of the Scientific Memoirs of the Expedition, 

 caused him to travel on a lecturing tour throughout th e Commonwealth . 

 Meantime, the need arose for organizing and obtaining support 

 for the Australasian Antarctic Expedition under Dr. Mawson, making 

 arrangements also in connexion with Captain Scott's last Expedition, 

 and later securing support for Shackleton's second Expedition. He 

 also arranged for the detailed study of the extensive geological 

 collections from the Antarctic by a group of workers, mostly his 

 former students, and distributed other mrterial amongst Australian 

 scientists for investigation. He was also for a second time President 

 of the Royal Society of New South Wales, and prepared as his address 

 an illuminatmg summary of the tectonics of Australia. During this 

 strenuous period his magnificent volume on Antarctic geology was 

 written in co-operation with Mr. R. E. Priestley and published in 

 1914. He received the honour of C.M.G. in 1910. 



His position as the doyen of Australasian science was acknowledged 

 in his re-election to the Presidency of the Australasian Association 

 in 1913, an especially important 2:)osition in view of the approaching 

 visit of the parent British Association in the following year. His 

 presidential address dealt with Antarctic meteorology and its 

 influence on that of Australasia. Arrangements for the visit of the 

 British Association involved much organization, together with the 

 preparation of a valuable series of articles on the geology of Australia 

 and New Guinea, for the Federal and State Handbooks to be issued 

 in connexion therewith. At the Sydney meeting of this Association 

 Professor J. T. Wilson and he first exhibited the Talgai skull, an 

 anthropological discovery of the highest importance. Shortly after 

 this he was awarded the Count Malle Brun Medal of the G-eographical 

 Society of France and the Wollaston Medal of the Gl-eological Society 

 of London. 



On the outbreak of the Great War he assisted the Government in 

 many capacities, suggested and took great part in the organization of 

 a battalion of miners, staffed largely by his own former students. This 

 he himself joined as Major, and arrived in France in May, 1916, 

 and became geological adviser to the Controller of Mining in the 

 First, Second, and Third Armies. After a narrow escape from death 

 ■ at Vimy Ridge in September, 1916, he was appointed to General 



