Yol. 55.] ANNIVEESAET MEETING— LTELL GEOLOGICAL FUND. xlix 



Mr. Ward, — 



One half of the Balance of the Lyell Eund has been awarded 

 to you, in recognition of your long services to the Geology of 

 your district. You have devoted many years to the study of the 

 Geology of IS^orth Staffordshire, making a large collection of fossils, 

 especially Yertebrata, from the Coal Measures, including many new 

 forms, and thus aiding, with material, the researches of various 

 palaeontologists, including Sir Philip Egerton, Prof. Huxley, and 

 Dr. Traquair. 



For nearly 40 years you have contributed valuable papers to 

 local societies and to mining institutes, among which is a detailed 

 essay on the Geological Features of the North Staffordshire Coal- 

 field and its Organic Contents. You were indeed the first to 

 record a rich marine fauna in certain Coal-Measure horizons in 

 North Staffordshire. 



Your detailed and accurate knowledge of the district has always 

 been freely placed at the service of other observers. 



Mr. "Ward, in reply, said : — 

 Mr. President, — 



It is difficult for me adequately to express my appreciation of 

 the high honour conferred by the Council of the Geological Society 

 in awarding to me a moiety of the Balance of the Lyell Fund ; 

 and to yourself. Sir, my best thanks are due for the complimentary 

 terms with which you have supplemented it. 



Forty years and upwards have now passed away since I was first 

 led by the inspiring influence of an old and much revered friend, the 

 late Dr. Garner, author of the ' Natural History of the County of 

 Stafford,' to devote my leisure hours to the investigation of the 

 fossil fauna and flora of the North Staffordshire Coalfield. From 

 that time until the present I have never missed an opportunity for 

 research. 



It has been my good fortune to labour in a field of science which? 

 although local, is one that affords abundant facilities for research 

 in Carboniferous Palaeontology, and to have been led to the investi- 

 gation of a branch of our science which had previously been much 

 neglected. 



My attention has principally been directed to one special line 

 of research — the Fossil Yertebrata, of which class I have collected 



