﻿180 Reports and Proceedings — 



That any contributions of mine towards this object have met with the approbation 

 of the Society, is in itself a great reward ; coupled, howcTcr, with the honour you 

 have to-day paid me, it becomes a source of much higher gratification. 



The President next handed the Miirchison Medal to Mr. Warington W. Smyth, for 

 transmission to the Rev. William Branwhite Clarke, M.A., F.R.S., F.6.S., and 

 spoke as follows : — 



Mr. Warington Smyth,— The Council of the Society has awarded the Murchison 

 Medal and a portion of the Murchison Fund to the Rev. William Branwhite Clarke, 

 F.R,S., of Sydney, Australia, in recognition of his remarkable services in the 

 investigation of the older rocks of New South Wales, services which have led to a 

 correct knowledge of the succession of the formations in that great country, and which 

 have been of great value to the community. 



Mr. Clarke's labours date back nearly half a century, and he had contributed 

 several interesting essays on points of British Geology before he commenced his 

 arduous work amongst the Coal-bearing strata of his adopted country- Influenced by 

 the love of scientific investigation, and aided by a self-reliant and independent 

 character, he surveyed those great de23ths of rock which brought the local names of 

 Hawksbury, Wianamatta, and Newcastle before the geological world as land-marks 

 in an apparently anomalous series of strata. His survey, the result of years of patient 

 labour, was so exact, that, in spite of former unsparing criticism, it is now universally 

 recognized as correct; and his deductions as to the relative value of marine and 

 plant-bearing strata in estimating the ages of formations, though disbelieved in former 

 years, have been proved to be consistent with facts since observed in Africa, India, 

 and North America. 



Mr. Clarke discovered that there were strata of marine limestones containing Carboni- 

 ferous Spiriferi and Froducti^ and with which were intercalated beds of coal which 

 presented a mixture of forms of plants. He noticed that there was no bi'cak in this 

 great series of deposits, and that Sigillaria, Calamites and Coniferfe, were associated 

 with Glossopteris and other genera of Filices, which, had they been found in the 

 typical area of England, would have denoted a Mesozoic horizon. Subsequent research 

 by other observers in Queensland has produced corresponding results ; and science 

 therefore owes much to Mr. Clarke for the consistent and persistent manner in which 

 he has upheld his opinions regarding the age of these Australian Carboniferous series. 

 Laboui'ing amongst the strata below the Carboniferous, Mr. Clarke discovered the 

 presence of Silurian rocks by the existence in them of characteristic Trilobites and 

 Corals, and noticed the unconform ability of the Carboniferous to the underlying 

 group ; and even in those early days of his work he grasped the important idea that 

 the geology of the typical area of Europe was not exactly comparable with that of 

 Australia. 



From his knowledge of the country and of the physical development of the 

 Australian Cordillera, Mr. Clarke was able to enlarge upon the relations of the 

 sedimentary and intrusive rocks, and this led to his discovery of the auriferous 

 quarlzites and detrital accumulations of the mountains within sixty or eighty miles of 

 Sydney. Subsequently the possibility of the great north and south range of New 

 South Wales bting highly auriferous, was impressed upon him by his comparing these 

 mountains with the details of the Oural, the result of the labours of the great geologist, 

 donor of this Medal, and Keyserling and De Verneuil. 



Mr. Clarke's last work on the Sedimentary Formation of New South Wales 

 appeared in 1,875, and in it the veteran geologist had the satisfaction of repeating 

 those acknowledged truths which he had elaborated thirty years since. 



In asking you to forward this Medal to the Rev. AVilliam B. Clarke, I know that I 

 am requiring a pleasant task at your hands, especially when I desire you to express to 

 him the appreciation in which his labours are held by this Society. 



Mr. "Warington W. Smyth replied: — Mr. President, — It is with much satisfaction 

 that I receive this Medal, to be forwarded to the Rev. Mr. Clarke, one among the 

 oldest Felliiws of the Society, who joined its ranks upwards of fifty years ago, and has 

 since that time to the present continued his labours in the field of science. Although 

 not personally acquainted with Mr. Clarke, I have had the opportunity, from his 

 being a constant and valued correspondent of our late friend Sir Roderick Murchison, 

 to hear much of the laborious researches carried on by our M edallist in New South 

 Wales. I feel assured that the award of this honour will be duly appreciated in the 

 colony, the Geology of which has been so much advanced by Mr. Clarke, and trust 



