184 Reports and Proceedings — Geological Society of London. 



occasion, I am glad to say that we have allowed no interval between the names, but 

 have, still more appropriately, I think, than before, coupled them together by 

 awarding a Medal to each of you. This award seems to me to go very naturally with 

 that of the Wollaston Medal to Professor Lap worth, as you have both so largely 

 helped in the detailed working-out of subjects that he brought before you. 



Mr. Peach, in reply, said : — Mr. President, — 



The honour which the Council of the Geological Society have conferred upon me 

 is highly prized by me, because it was by the advice of Sir Eoderick Murchison that 

 my thoughts were turned to Geology as a career in life. By means of his generosity 

 I was able to avail myself of the scientific training afforded by the Eoyal School of 

 Mines, and through his nomination I received an appointment on the Geological 

 Survey. 



I ask you, Mr. President, to convey my heartfelt thanks to the Council for having 

 awarded me the Murchison Medal which, for me, has such tender associations. If 

 anything could enhance the pleasure of this Award, it is the receiving it from 

 the hands of one colleague and the sharing of it with another. 



Mr. Home also replied, as follows : — Mr. President, — 



It is a source of great gratification to me that I have been deemed worthy by the 

 Council of this Society to receive the Murchison Medal jointly with my old friend and 

 colleague, Mr. Peach. For he gave me my early training in field-work, and to his 

 range of knowledge and ample experience I have owed much during my Survey 

 career. 



It is likewise a special pleasure to be linked with the great founder of this Medal, 

 whose name is so closely associated with the history of Scottish Geology. While 

 preserving a feeling of loyalty to our former chief and his successors in ofi&ce, we 

 have at the same time tried to exercise independence of judgment in dealing with 

 Scottish geological questions. In doing so, we have realized, perhaps more vividly 

 than otheis, the permanent value and brilliant power of Professor Lapworth's 

 researches in Scotland, whose reception at this anniversary of the highest honour 

 which the Council can bestow is a great pleasure to us. Regarding the Geology of 

 the North -Western Highlands, we feel that our colleagues who have worked with us 

 in that compHcated region justly share in the honour which has been conferred 

 upon us. 



In handing the balance of the proceeds of the Murchison Geo- 

 logical Fund (awarded to Mr. Jaraes Bennie, of the Geological 

 Survey of Scotland) to Sir Archibald Geikie, D.Sc, F.R.S., for 

 transmission to the recipient, the President addressed him in the 

 following words: — Sir Archibald Geikie, — 



In handing over to you the balance of the proceeds of the Murchison Fund for 

 Mr. Bennie, I have the pleasure of doing honour to one who has supplemented his 

 work for the Geological Survey by other labours. 



He began geological observations in 1850, while employed in a Glasgow ware- 

 house, by collecting fossils from the Lower Carboniferous rocks of the neighbourhood, 

 and he also examined the Glacial deposits, communicating his results to the 

 Geological Society of Glasgow. 



He joined the Survey, as fossil-collector, in 1868, and held that post until lately, 

 when he had to retire on account of age. 



In 1873 he first discovered Holothuridse in Scottish Carboniferous rocks. He 

 found new species of Blastoidea (described by Mr. R. Etheridge, jun., and Mr. 

 Carpenter) and also Brachiopoda adhering to crinoid-stems (producing pathological 

 modifications of the latter). He assisted the late H. B. Brady with specimens of 

 Carboniferous Foraminifera, for his Monograph ; wrote a paper, jointly with 

 Mr. Kidstoi], for the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh, " On the Occurrence of 

 Spores in the Carboniferous Formation of Scotland" ; and, more lately, worked 

 with great success in the collection of Arctic plants from deposits of Glacial age. 



We hope that he may still be able to continue his useful labours. 



Sir Archibald Geikie replied as follows : — Mr. President, — 



Mr. Bennie has commissioned me, on his behalf, to receive this award, and to 

 express to the Council and the Society his grateful thanks for the honour that they 



