184 Reports and Proceedings — 



may bear fruit so largely augmenting the common stock of geological knowledge. 

 There are few problems more interesting than that of the physical condition of our 

 native land during the period commonly designated the Glacial Epoch ; but for its 

 solution an exact knowledge of the distribution of erratics and an identification 

 of their points of departure is absolutely necessary. Those who, like myself, have 

 attempted to adjust the rival claims of glacier and floe, of the ice-chariot versus the 

 ice-ship, as vehicles of boulder-transport, can hardly speak too highly of the value 

 of the papers on British erratics which he has contributed to our Journal and to 

 other publications. I trust that this award may not only be gratifying to him as a 

 mark of our appreciation, but also help him in continuing his labours in a field where, 

 notwithstanding them, much still remains to be done. 



Dr. Woodward, in reply, said : — Mr. President, — The intelligence of the decision 

 of the Council has had a most cheering effect on Mr. Mackintosh, and will brighten 

 the remaining years he may have left to him. It is well known to Fellows of this 

 Society what has been the nature of Mr. Mackintosh's work, and what good and 

 careful observations he has made, extending over long years of wandering up and 

 down through England and Wales, and carefully observing wherever he went. I 

 cannot do better than read the following letter from Mr. Mackintosh, which, indeed, 

 is addressed to yourself. He says: — "In thanking you for the honour conferred 

 upon me by the Award of the Lyell Donation Fund, I may mention the fact that 

 25 years ago I was elected a Fellow of this Society, and that Sir Charles Lyell was 

 one of those who signed my certificate. I am now seventy years of age ; this is the 

 second occasion that my work has been so much honoured, for I am proud to be able 

 to state that I was presented with the Kingsley Medal of the Chester Society of 

 Natural Science iu 1881." 



The President them handed the Award from the Barlow- Jameson 

 Fund to Dr. W. T. Blanford, F.R.S., for transmission to Dr. H. J. 

 Johnston-Lavis, F.G-.S., and addressed him as follows : — 



Dr. Blanford, — I will ask you to transmit this Award to Mr. Johnston-Lavis. 

 In this country happily the volcanic fires have long ceased to glow, and the earthquake 

 seldom causes more than a transient tremor. It is otherwise on the shores of the 

 Bay of Naples, where again and again during the last eighteen centuries Vesuvius 

 has rained down ruin ; and of late years the earthquakes of Ischia have wrought 

 destruction on the works, and desolation in the homes, of men. It is true that these 

 phenomena of the darker side of nature have not been unobserved by the many illus- 

 trious men of science to whom Italy has given birth ; but " the curse of Babel" has 

 debarred some of us from access to their works. This alone gives an exceptional 

 value to the elaborate studies which Mr. Johnston-Lavis has undertaken of the various 

 eruptive-products of Vesuvius, and of the Ischian earthquakes. There is yet another 

 advantage, that natural phenomena should be studied by men of different nations, 

 diverse training, and varied habits of mind. In recognition of his past labours and 

 in furtherance of future work in the vicinity of Naples, the Council has awarded to 

 him a grant from the Barlow-Jameson Fund, which I have much pleasure in placing 

 in your hands. 



Dr. Blanford, in reply, said that the best mode of replying to the kind remarks 

 made by the President would be to read a letter which he had received from Dr. 

 Johnston-Lavis. That gentleman said: — 



" It was with a considerable amount of astonishment and pleasure that I received 

 your letter announcing the Grant from the Barlow-Jameson Fund, since the news 

 was so perfectly unexpected. The honour thus paid me for my attempts to clear up 

 some questions in vulcanology and seismology will stimulate me to further follow that 

 line of investigation, with the hope of adding something more to our knowledge of 

 those subjects. 



" My professional work at this season prevents me from having the great pleasure 

 of being present in person to receive this mark of esteem from the hands of our 

 President. Will you kindly express my deep gratitude to the Society for so 

 generously conferring such an honour upon me." 



The President then read his Anniversary Address, in which, after 

 giving obituary notices of some of the Members lost by the Society 

 during the year 1885, he referred to the principal contributions to 



