Geological Society of London. 187 
Hybocystites,” are models of clearness and an excellent earnest of future work. The 
Council hopes that this award may aid you in continuing those lines of research in 
which you have already achieved signal success. 
Mr. Carpenter, in reply, said:—Mr. President,—It was with very great grati- 
fication that I heard from my valued friend and former teacher, Prof. Bonney, of the 
honour done me by the Council of the Geological Society in awarding me a portion 
of the Lyell Fund; and I am greatly indebted to you, Sir, for the kind way in 
which you have referred to my paleontological work. It has been done as a kind 
of recreation from the duties of a busy schoolmaster’s life, and from the highly 
interesting but lengthy business of preparing the Reports on the ‘‘ Challenger”’ 
Crinoids. But I have always found that the few days which I have devoted to 
fossils during my holidays have sent me back to schoolwork and to recent Crinoids 
with renewed vigour, and often with fresh ideas. I have the strongest conviction 
(and many mistakes would be avoided were it a universal one) that the only way to 
understand fossils properly is to gain a thorough knowledge of the morphology of 
their living representatives. These, on the other hand, seem to me incompletely 
known if no account is taken of the life-forms which have preceded them. I have 
thus been led to carry on the two lines of work simultaneously ; and I am happy to 
think that, in the opinion of those best qualified to judge, I have been able to throw 
some light upon the study of the fossil Pelmatozoa. In two respects I have been 
more than usually fortunate. My artist friends thoroughly understand their work, 
and the Council of the Society have always treated me with the utmost liberality in 
the very important matter of illustrations. For this and for many other acts of 
individual kindness on the part of the Fellows, I gladly take this opportunity of 
expressing my warmest thanks to the Society. 
The Presipent then handed the second moiety of the balance of the Lyell 
Donation Fund to Prof. Seeley, F.R.S., F.G.S., for transmission to M. HE. Rigaux, 
of Boulogne, and said :—Professor Seeley, —In conferring upon M. Rigaux a portion 
of the balance of the proceeds of the Lyell Donation Fund, the Council of the 
Geological Society desires to signify its estimation of the value it places on his 
researches in the Jurassic formations of the Boulonnais and their contained fossils. 
In asking you to transmit to him this cheque, I would desire you to convey to him 
with it our hopes that he may continue those lines of inquiry in prosecuting which he 
has attained so great success. 
Professor SEELEY, in reply, said :—Mr. President,—I feel that M. Rigaux deserves. 
recognition for excellent stratigraphical work on the Primary and Secondary rocks of 
the country round Boulogne, and for careful descriptions of their fossils. But he is 
one of those modest men whose published writings represent but a small fraction of 
his knowledge, and who is far readier to deposit his collections in the public museum, 
and to impart knowledge to scientific friends, than to print his work. There can be 
but few geologists of our time who have visited the Boulogne country without bemg 
under obligations to M. Rigaux; and although, in a letter received from him, he 
speaks of this honour as being undeserved and unexpected, it is one for which he 
offers you his sincere thanks, and which will stimulate him to carry on those 
researches which have secured our esteem. 
The Presipenr finally presented the Bigsby Gold Medal to Dr. Henry Hicks, 
F.G.S., and addressed him in the following words: —Dr. Hicks,—The Council, in 
conferring on you the Bigsby Medal as a mark of their appreciation of your labours 
amongst the oldest fossiliferous and the Archean rocks of Great Britain and Ireland, 
feels, in your community of interests, a peculiar fitness in associating you with the 
memory of the founder of this distinction. Your numerous communications, begin- 
ning with one ‘‘On the genus Anopolenus,’”’ written in 1865, and culminating in 
that which you read at our last meeting, show to what good purpose you have 
employed the hore subsecive of a busy professional life in prosecuting those researches 
which have had a distinct effect on geological thought. In handing to you this 
Medal, I would express the wish that you will continue to prosecute the line of 
inquiry to which you have so long and so successfully devoted your leisure hours. 
Dr. Hicxs, in reply, said: Mr. President, I feel exceedingly grateful to the Council 
of the Geological Society for the great honour they have done me in selecting me to 
receive the Bigsby Medal, for I cannot fail to recognize in this award a recognition, 
by those whose opinion I most value, that work which has long been to me a means 
of recreation and of much intellectual enjoyment has also yielded something towards 
the advancement of that science to which I am so deeply attached. I must also 
