184 Reports, and Proceedings — 



appreciated and deemed worthy of this high recognition. The pleasure is grea:tly 

 enhanced by the fact that I have never considered my scieutitic work of sufficient 

 importance to deserve any recognition — the acquisition of scientific knowledge and 

 the happiness of communicating it to others having, in my own case, been its own 

 reward. I shall now feel it to be my duty as well as my ambition to render myself 

 more worthy of the distinction you have this day conferred upon me— one which has 

 also an especial significance to a servant of that great National Institution for which 

 Sir Roderick Murchison so long and beneficially acted as a Trustee. 



The President then delivered to Prof. Ansted, F.R.S., For. Sec, for transmission 

 to Prof. Oswald Heer, of Ziirich, the balance of the Murchison Fund, and spoke as 

 follows : — 



Mr. Secretary, — The labours of Prof. Heer in Fossil Botany and Entomology have 

 this year been recognized by this Council in the vote of the Murchison Fund. No 

 branch of Palaeontology requires more minute research, more careful comparison, 

 more circumspect conclusions, — and there are none, I may add, which, when so con- 

 ducted, are richer in suggestions on the history of geological change. The frag- 

 mentary character which generally belongs to terrestrial and especially to botanical 

 remains, places the study of them under special difficulties, difficulties which have 

 been met with special skill by Prof. Heer. The remains of the Miocene flora are 

 connected with some of the most perplexing problems of our science, and the light 

 which has been thrown upon them by Prof. Heer more than deserves the recognition 

 which I have now the pleasure of delivering into your hands for transmission to that 

 distinguished man. This is the second mark of recognition which this Society has 

 given to Prof. Heer, the WoUaston Donation Fund having been voted to him in 1862. 



Prof. Ansted having suggested that Sir Charles Lyell, as a particular friend of 

 Prof. Heer's, might very appropriately speak in his name. Sir Charles Lyell, in reply, 

 referred briefly to the nature of Prof. Heer's work, and said he was sure that gentle- 

 man would appreciate highly this renewed expression of the interest taken by the 

 Geological Society in his pursuits. Sir Charles Lyell remarked, further, that he was 

 particularly gratified that this award had been made at the present time, as Prof. 

 Heer was well advanced in years and in an exceedingly infirm state of health, so that 

 perhaps another opportunity of showing him respect and sympathy might not occur. 



The President then proceeded to read his Anniversary Address, in which he dis- 

 cussed the phenomena of denudation, referring especially to the influence of sub- 

 terranean and other movements of the crust of the earth upon the denudation of its 

 surface, and disputing the greatness of the denuding effects of glacial action. The 

 Address was prefaced by biographical notices of deceased Fellows, including Prof. 

 Sedgwick, Dr. Kelaart, Mr. Augustus Smith, Mr. N. Beardmore, and Prof. Pictet. 



The Ballot for the Council and Officers was taken, and the following were duly 

 elected for the ensuing ^-B&r:— President : The Duke of Argyll, K.T., D.C.L., F.E.S. 

 Vice-Presidents : Prof. P. Martin Duncan, M.B., F.E.S. ; R. A. C. Godwin-Austen. 

 Esq., F.E.S. ; Joseph Prestwich, Esq., F.E.S. ; Prof A. C. Eamsay, LL.D., F.E.S, 

 Secretaries : John Evans, Esq., F.E.S. ; David Forbes, Esq., F.E.S. Foreign Secre- 

 tary : "Warington "W. Smyth, Esq., M.A., F.E.S. Treasurer: J. Gwyn Jeflfreys, 

 Esq., F.E.S. Council: Prof. D. T. Ansted, M.A., F.E.S.; The Duke of Argyll, 

 K.T., D.C.L., F.E.S. ; William Carruthers, Esq., F.E.S. ; Prof. P. Martin Duncan, 

 M.B,, F.E.S.; Sir P. de M. G. Egerton, Bart., M.P., F.E.S. ; E. Etheridge. Esq., 

 F.E.S. ; John Evans, Esq., F.R.S., F.S.A.; J. Wickham Flower, Esq.; David Forbes, 

 Esq., F.E.S. ; Capt. Douglas Galton, C.B., F.R.S.; R. A. C. Godwin-Austen, Esq , 

 F.E.S.; J. Whitaker Hulke, Esq., F.E.S.; J. Gwyn Jeffreys, Esq, F.E.S.; Sir 

 Charles Lyell, Bart., D.C.L., F.E.S. ; C. J. A. Meyer, Esq. ; J. Carrick Moore, Esq., 

 M.A., F.R.S. ; Joseph Prestwich, Esq., F.E.S. ; Prof. A. C. Eamsay, LL.D., F.E.S. ; 

 E. H. Scott, Esq., M. A., F.R.S. ; Warington W. Smyth, Esq., M.A., F.R.S. ; Prof. 

 J. Tennant, F.C.S. ; W. Whitaker, Esq., B.A. ; Rev. T. Wiltshire, M.A., F.L.S. 



II.— February 26th, 1873.— Prof. Eamsay, F.E.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. 

 — The following communications were read: — 1. "On the Jurassic Eocks of Syke 

 and Raasay." By James Bryce, M.A., LL.D., F.G.S. 



In this paper the author described numerous sections of Jurassic rocks exposed 

 chiefly in the sea-cliffs of Skye and Raasa, indicating the presence in those islands 

 of a complete series of beds ascending from the Lower Lias to the middle of the 

 Middle Oolite. He noticed the occurrence in these sections of fossils belonging to the 

 zones of Ammonites angulatus and A. Bucklandi in the Lower Lias, to the zones of 



