ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XXXV 



At the early age of twenty-one Mr. De la Beche entered the 

 Geological Society in 1817. But far different was the position 

 of the Society at that time from that which it has acquired in these 

 palmy days. Scarcely ten years in existence it was still struggling 

 against the attacks of two opposite parties, and was still in danger of 

 collapsing from the rude efforts of two opposing forces. Churchmen 

 oil the one hand, with a short-sightedness which we can now scarcely 

 credit, dreaded the effects of the unanswerable truths it put forth, 

 while philosophers on the other hand looked down upon the young 

 but energetic band as deserters from the parent body, setting a dan- 

 gerous example to those inquiring minds who dared to believe that 

 science required an ampler field than the apartments of the Royal 

 Society. But time wore on, and Henry De la Beche was one of 

 the most ardent promoters of the rising Society, which has shown 

 that true religion has nothing to fear from the investigation of truth, 

 and that science can best prosper by the establishment of new 

 institutions specially devoted to the pursuit of separate branches of 

 scientific inquiry. 



From this period Mr. De la Beche was a constant frequenter of 

 the Meetings of this Society, taking an active share in its discussions 

 and visiting with advantage and observation different portions of the 

 continent of Europe. He resided for some time in Switzerland and 

 parts of France, cultivating the acquaintance of the most distin- 

 guished scientific men of those countries, and sedulously applying 

 himself to the study of the natural phaenomena so grandly exhibited 

 in the Alps. Some of his observations on the depth and tempera- 

 ture of the Lake of Geneva were pnblished in the " Bibliotheque 

 Universelle " for 1819, and in the "Edinburgh Philosophical 

 Journal" for 1820, together with much valuable information respect- 

 ing the transport and deposit of detritus in seas and lakes. In 1824 

 he visited his paternal estate in Jamaica, and while attending with 

 exemplary zeal to the management and improvement of his property 

 he neglected no opportunity of collecting geological information, the 

 result of which was the publication in our " Transactions " of that 

 able memoir containing the first information we had received respect- 

 ing the geological structure and formations of that island. Nor 

 must it be forgotten that while cultivating Geology in its more 

 attractive forms Mr. De la Beche was one of the few geologists of 

 our country who pursued with equal zeal the study of Mineralogy. 

 He was a first-rate mineralogist, and owed no doubt in a great mea- 

 sure to this circumstance much of that success which, in another 

 sphere, distinguished his subsequent career. 



Having already alluded on a former occasion to the valuable con- 

 tributions to our " Transactions " from the pen of Sir Henry De la 

 Beche, I will now only briefly recapitulate the titles of those memoirs. 

 1. *'0n the Geology of Southern Pembrokeshire." 2. "On the 

 Lias of the Coast in the vicinity of Lyme Regis, Dorsetshire. 

 3. "On the Chalk and Greensand in the vicinity of Lyme Regis, 

 Dorsetshire, and Beer, Devonshire." 4. "Remarks on the Geology 

 of Jamaica." 5. "On the Geology of Tor and Babbacombe Bays, 



