270 



The Report having been read, it was Resolved: — 



1 . That this Report be received. 



2. That the thanks of the Society be given to the Rev. Professor 

 Sedgwick, retiring from the office of President. 



3. That the thanks of the Society be given to Leonard Horner, 

 Esq., and Henry Warburton, Esq., retiring from the office of Vice 

 Presidents. 



4. That the thanks of the Society be given to Roderick Impey 

 Murchison, Esq., retiring from the office of Secretary. 



5. That the thanks of the Society be given to Arthur Aikin, Esq., 

 Francis Chantrey, Esq., Sir Alexander Crichton, K.S.W. M.D., Cap- 

 tain Sir John Franklin, R.N., John Lindley, Esq., Dr. Roget, and 

 Charles Stokes, Esq., retiring from the Council. 



The President, the Rev. Professor Sedgwick, then proceeded to deliver 

 the following Address, on announcing the first award of the Wol- 

 laston Prize : — 



Before you proceed to elect the Officers and Council for the com- 

 ing year, it remains for me to announce from the Chair the adjudi- 

 cation of the Wollaston Prize. The affecting circumstances under 

 which it was founded, so short a time before the death of one of the 

 most illustrious men who have adorned our lists, the earnest wishes he 

 expressed, almost with his dying breath, for the honour and well-being 

 of this Society, and the peculiar public interest attached to a first 

 award, have thrown a more than usual responsibility upon the Coun- 

 cil. We were deeply conscious of this responsibility ; we have not 

 come to our decision lightly j and in what we have done we look for 

 your entire approbation. 



I am anxious, in the first place, to recall to your recollection the 

 powers committed to the Council, and the spirit of the instructions 

 by which they were directed in their award j and I have no means of 

 doing this so effectually as by quoting a portion of the communication, 

 in which Dr. Wollaston first informed us of his intention of establish- 

 ing the " Donation Fund." After stating that he had invested one 

 thousand pounds in the three per cent, reduced bank annuities, in 

 the joint names of himself and the Geological Society, he directed 

 that after his decease "the Society should apply the dividends in pro- 

 moting researches concerning the mineral structure of the earth, or 

 in rewarding those by whom such researches might hereafter be made ; 

 or in such manner as should appear to the Council of the said Society 

 for the time being, conducive to the interests of the Society in parti- 

 cular, or the science of geology in general," &c. And he afterwards 

 enjoined the Society " not to hoard the dividends parsimoniously, but 

 to expend them liberally, and, as far as might be, annually, in further- 

 ing the objects of the trust." 



Such, Gentlemen, was the letter of our instructions : and as we 

 were enjoined to expend the proceeds of the Donation Fund, as far 

 as might be, annually, I will read an extract from the Report of the 



