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PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [vol. lxxii r 



AWARD OF THE WOLLASTON MEDAL. 



In handing the Wollaston Medal, awarded to Dr. Alexander 

 Petroytch Karpinsky, to M. Constant™ Nabokoff, Councillor 

 of the Imperial Russian Embassy, the President addressed him 

 as follows : — 



Councillor Nabokoff, — 



The Council of the Geological Society has this 3 r ear awarded the 

 Wollaston Medal, its highest distinction, to Dr. Alexander P. 

 Karpinsky, Honorary Director of the Geological Committee of 

 Petrograd, which is responsible for the geological survey of the 

 Russian Empire. Dr. Karpinsky's activities have extended over 

 a period of more than forty years, and so long ago as 1874 he made 

 one of his most important discoveries, that of a marine formation 

 in the Ural Mountains intermediate between the Carboniferous and 

 the Permian Systems. This Artinskian Stage, as Dr. Karpinsky 

 termed it, has now been traced in Russia almost from the Arctic 

 Ocean to the Caspian Sea, besides being recognized in more remote 

 regions, as in the Salt Range of India. Its interesting fauna has 

 also been the subject of several important monographs, of which 

 one of the most valuable is that on the Ammonoids, contributed 

 by Dr. Karpinsky himself to the Imperial Academy of Sciences of 

 Petrograd in 18S9. Dr. Karpinsky has continued to take the 

 deej>est interest in the geological problems presented b} r the Urals, 

 and has treated them with remarkable versatility from every point 

 of view, whether tectonic, petrographical, or palseontological ; but 

 as official director of the surveys from 1885 to 1903 he also 

 extended his researches to many other districts, and took a pro- 

 minent part in the preparation of the beautiful geological maps 

 which were issued during his period of active service. The useful 

 Geological Map of Russia in Europe, which he edited in 1893, is 

 especially well known. All Dr. Karpinsky's work is characterized 

 by the most painstaking thoroughness, of which I need only cite 

 his two exhaustive memoirs on the Carboniferous ichtlvvolite, 

 Helicoprion, as conspicuous examples. Those who have the 

 privilege of his personal acquaintance recognize in him an un- 

 assuming and enthusiastic student, still absorbed in following and 



