Yol. 55.] AISTNIYERSAKT MEETING — WOLLA.STON MEDAL. XXXIX 



AWAED OE THE WoLLASTON MeDAL. 



In presenting the Wollaston Medal to Prof. Chaeles Lapwoeth, 

 LL.D., F.E-.S., the Peesident addressed him as follows : — 



Professor Lapwoeth, — 



On four occasions has the Council of this Society already delighted 

 to do you honour, with the Murchison Eund in 1878, with the 

 Lyell Fund in 1882 and 1884, and with the Bigsby Medal in 1887. 

 Our Funds are usually awarded with the desire of helping observers 

 and of stimulating them to further efforts, and from this point of 

 view the Funds awarded to you have certainly been most profitable 

 investments. Nor could the Bigsby Medal, with its age-limit, have 

 been better bestowed than on one who had done so much and such 

 good work before reaching the age of 45. 



At that time, however, the effect of your work could hardly be 

 appreciated to the full. I believe that the appreciation of it will 

 increase as time goes on, and I am glad to know that in an elaborate 

 Memoir on the Silurian Hocks of Scotland, shortly to be published, 

 the officers of the Geological Survey do full justice to your series of 

 papers on those rocks in the South of Scotland, saying that you 

 have furnished a complete solution of the stratigraphical and palae- 

 ontological difficulties of the subject, and have discovered the key to 

 the complicated stratigraphy of the region. The summary, at the 

 end of the Chapter on Previous Eesearches, is written ' to place 

 clearly on record the distinctive features of Prof. Lapworth's 

 achievements, .... which resulted in establishing the true order of 

 succession of the strata.' 



We hardly know, indeed, which to admire most, the brilliance of 

 your work or the single-mindedness with which it has been done ; 

 not only in the Scottish Uplands, but also in the still more re- 

 markable region of the North-western Highlands, where the officers 

 of the Geological Survey have now worked out in detail that most 

 comi3licated structure which you so justly appreciated. 



In establishing the Ordovician System, too, you have done your 

 best to promote harmony between the rival claimants for Cambrian 

 and for Silurian. 



Since the Bigsby Medal was awarded to you your labours in various 

 branches of Geology have been continued, notably in further working 

 out the structure of the Southern Uplands of Scotland, in the 

 discovery of the Engli.sh Olenellus-rocka, and in additions to our 

 knowledge of the Olenellus-fauna, and its geological relations. Your 



VOL. LV. d 



