XX PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



of organic remains, and the accuracy with which, in every case, their 

 geological and topographical positions were noted by you. The col- 

 lection you made of Irish fossils is the finest of proofs of your suc- 

 cess, and the works descriptive of them by Professor M'Coy, issued 

 under your auspices, and distributed by your liberality, are most 

 valuable contributions to palseontological science. 



In thus addressing you I speak reverentially to one of the earliest 

 members of this Society, and to a geologist who appeared in print 

 before I was born. From the commencement of your labours the 

 economic bearings of the science were kept constantly in -view by you, 

 and your earliest memoirs are upon the coal-fields of Ireland, — that 

 on the Leinster coal-field having been published so long ago as 1814. 

 You proposed, in a letter to the Dubhn Society, to construct a geolo- 

 gical map of Ireland as long ago as 1 82 1 . I need not say, on this 

 occasion, how you have since carried out that wise proposition. Twice 

 President of the Geological Society of Ireland, joxir spirit and pre- 

 sence has done much to promote the study of our science in your 

 country. May your good influence long continue. 



Dr. Griffith replied in these words : — 



Mr. President, — I receive, with much gratification, the Wollaston 

 Medal for the present year, which has been conferred upon me by the 

 vote of the Council of the Geological Society. 



It is an honour to which I never aspired, but which, I confess, I 

 receive with pride and satisfaction, as a proof that my labours in the 

 geological field of Ireland are appreciated by those who are best able 

 to judge of their accuracy and importance. 



The construction by me of a Geological Map of Ireland is now au 

 old story, as upwards of forty years have elapsed since I commenced 

 it at the pressing instance of Mr. Greenough, one of my oldest and 

 most valued friends. It was in the summer of the year 1812 that 

 the first outline of the Geological jNIap was attempted, when, to my 

 own then limited observations, were added the hasty notes of my 

 friend Mr. Greenough. Since that period I have never lost sight of 

 the work, though public avocations have occasionally so much inter- 

 fered with its progress, that only triflmg additions to the general 

 data were made during several years. 



The meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, at Dublin, in the year 1835, gave a fresh impulse to my 

 labours, which from that time to the present have never flagged ; 

 and I have now the pleasure of presenting the result of my labours 

 in as complete a form as time and opportunity have enabled me to 

 produce. 



The Topographical Map, on which the geological boundaries have 

 been engraved, was constructed at the Ordnance Survey Office, 

 Dublin, under the superintendence of my friend INIajor Larcom, Royal 

 Engineer, in the year 1838, and is the most accurate Map of Ireland 

 that has hitherto been published. It is laid do\sra to a scale of four 

 miles to an inch, and, although on that scale it appears in many 

 parts to be crowded with geological details, yet, even in those places. 



