Yol. 55.] ANNIVEESARY ADDEESS OP THE PRESIDENT. Iv 



62 years. At first he seemed more interested in stratigraphical work; 

 but in 1843 he was made State Palaeontologist, and as such wrote 

 or edited thirteen large quarto volumes on the palaeontology of the 

 State from 1847 to 1894, besides many memoirs and papers in 

 the Annual Reports of the State Museum and in the Eeports of the 

 State Geologist. He also wrote much for various learned societies 

 and scientific journals. 



In 1855 he became State Geologist of Iowa, and in 1857 of 

 Wisconsin, in the Reports of which Surveys, as well as in those of 

 other States, he made many additions to American Palaeontology, 

 as also in the Reports of various Expeditions or Commissions. The 

 Canadian Geological Survey also profited by his help in the descrip- 

 tion of Graptolites. 



His descriptions of Palaeozoic invertebrata have been the founda- 

 tion for like work in other States and by other observers ; and his 

 correlation of the Palaeozoic formations of New York with those of 

 the Mississippi Yalley and of Europe is of great importance. 



He also took up broad questions of stratigraphical geology, and 

 was the first to note the connexion of the elevation of mountain- 

 chains with previous subsidence and accumulation of sedimentary 

 deposits. 



Hall was President of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science at the Montreal Meeting in 1857, and first President 

 of the Geological Society of America in 1859. In 1842 he became 

 M.A. of Union College, in 1862 LL.D. of Hamilton University 

 (Canada), and in 1884 received the same honour from McGill 

 University, Montreal. N'otwithstanding his great age (then 

 nearly 86), he took part in 1897 in the Excursion of the International 

 Geological Congress to the Ural Mountains, and he continued 

 his palaeontological work to the last. 



The foregoing particulars are taken chiefly from notices of his career 

 in an English and in an American journal,^ from the latter of which 

 we may quote the following remarks, partly as illustrating the 

 political difficulties that sometimes beset the official man of science 

 in the United States, difficulties from which we are happily 

 free in this country: — 'Extreme longevity combined with per- 

 sistent continuity of purpose, and the vast resources of the State of 

 IS'ew York, must be accounted as a leading factor in any considera- 

 tion of the scientific monument which this man erected for himself, 

 and for which, in addition to personal work, contributions were 



' Geol. Mag. 1898, pp. 431, 432 ; Amer. Journ. Sci. ser. 4, vol. vi (1898) 

 pp. 437, 438. 



VOL. LV. e 



