Vol. 60.] ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. xlix 



THE ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS DELIVERED BY 



Sir Archibald Geikie, Sc.D., D.C.L., LL.D., Sec.R.S., 

 Vice-Presidext. 



I propose, first of all, to refer to the most conspicuous losses which 

 our ranks have sustained during the past year. 



J. P. Lesley, one of the most distinguished and loveable men 

 of science in the United States, was born at Philadelphia on 

 September 17th, 1819. His grandfather was a cabinet-maker in 

 Aberdeenshire, whence he had emigrated to America, carrying with 

 him and transmitting to his descendants his Scottish strength of 

 character, energy, industry, and uprightness. His father, who 

 followed the same trade, taught his children to draw even before 

 they learnt to write, and trained their observing faculties by re- 

 quiring from them accurate descriptions of what they had seen or 

 heard, illustrated with sketches which he criticized. In this way, 

 and by practice in his father's workshop, Lesley acquired that 

 accuracy of eye and deftness of hand which afterwards became 

 such notable gifts in his qualifications as a geologist. He was 

 christened Peter after his father and grandfather, and at first 

 wrote his name ' Peter Lesley Jr.,' but disliking the Christian 

 appellation that had been given to him, he eventually transformed 

 his signature by putting the J of 'Junior' at the beginning, followed 

 by only the first letter of ' Peter.' Hence arose the familiar signature 

 of ' J. P. Lesley.' 



His parents, recognizing the promise of his boyhood and youth, 

 educated him for the ministry, and he took the degree of A.B. at 

 the University of Pennsylvania in 1838. But his application to 

 his studies, combined with his neglect of bodily exercise and training, 

 so told upon his health that he was unable to go on immediately with 

 the theological training which had been planned. Fortunately for 

 him, and not less so for the science of geology in the United States, 

 it happened that the infant Geological Survey of Pennsylvania was 

 then attracting attention, under its able chief H. D. Rogers, and 

 the place of sub-assistant on the staff was offered to young Lesley. 

 Accepting this appointment, he began his geological career at the 

 age of nineteen in the Pottsville anthracite-field, under Wherpley, 

 who was in later years described by Lesley himself as ' the first 



