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Council at the preceding Anniversary, in explanation of our motives 

 for withholding, on that occasion, the distribution of the dividends. 



"The Council have not thought it expedient to make as yet any 

 distribution of the dividends arising from this fund, but have appro- 

 priated the first year's income to the acquisition of a die for a medal 

 which is to bear the head of Dr. Wollaston : and they hope that the 

 Society will approve of this endeavour to perpetuate in the minds of 

 geologists the memory of their illustrious benefactor. The first an- 

 nual distribution, therefore, of the Wollaston Medal, as well as a cer- 

 tain sum of money, will be awarded at the next anniversary according 

 to the provision of the bequest." — (Feb. 19th, 1830.) 



Mr. Chantrey kindly undertook to carry the resolution of the 

 Council into effect ; and under his directions Mr. Wyon of the Royal 

 Mint was employed to execute a die, which we hope before long to 

 see finished. We met, therefore, in the early part of this year to act 

 upon the letter of our instructions, and we recorded our award in 

 the following Resolutions. 



Extract from the Minute-book of the Council, Jan. II, 1831. 



Resolved unanimously — 1 . " That a Medal of fine gold, bearing the 

 impress of the Head of Dr. Wollaston, and not exceeding the value 

 of ten guineas, be procured with the least possible delay." 



2. "That the first Wollaston Medal be given to Mr. William 

 Smith, in consideration of his being a great original discoverer in 

 English Geology; and especially for his having been the first, in this 

 country, to discover and to teach the identification of strata, and to 

 determine their succession by means of their imbedded fossils." 



The first gold medal struck from the die now in progress will 

 therefore be sent to Mr. Smith ; and we have added to it a purse of 

 twenty guineas, from the dividends of the " Donation Fund," which 

 it is now my duty publicly to present to him in the name of the Geo- 

 logical Society. His great and original works are known to you all ; 

 and I might well refer to them for our justification, and without any 

 further preface place the prize in his hand, offering him my hearty 

 congratulations. But since his arrival in London, within the last few 

 hours, he has given me a short account of his early discoveries, and 

 has shown me a series of documents of no ordinary interest to this 

 Society, and important to the correct history of European geology. 

 I should ill perform my present task were I to withhold this infor- 

 mation from you; I proceed therefore to communicate it with what 

 brevity and simplicity 1 can. 



Mr. William Smith was born at Churchill in Oxfordshire — a place 

 abounding in fossils, the playthings of his childhood, and the objects 

 of collection in his early youth. This is one of many instances where 

 things, in themselves inconsiderable, act powerfully on peculiar minds, 

 so as to influence the whole tenour of after-life. During his boyhood 

 his habits of observation became confirmed by lessons in practical sur- 

 veying : he remarked the alternations of argillaceous and stony strata, 

 and thence became acquainted with the origin of springs and the 



