11 ANNIVERSARY MEETING. 



The Council have to announce the completion of Vol. VTI. of 

 the Quarterly Journal, and the publication of the first Part of 

 Vol. VIII. 



During the past year, Mr. Lumley, the Bookseller in Southampton 

 Street, proposed to the Council to purchase the stock of unsold Trans- 

 actions in the Society's possession. The Council, after anxious con- 

 sideration, came to the conclusion, that the best mode of putting these 

 works in circulation, and thereby difPusing a taste for geological re- 

 search, was to dispose of them to a bookseller of reputation. They 

 accordingly concluded an agreement with Mr. Lumley, under which 

 they made over to him, for the sum of 56 100, all their stock of Trans- 

 actions, with the exception of 50 copies, which the Society retains for 

 its own purposes. It was stipulated that the copper-plates should 

 continue to be the property of the Society, and that Mr. Lumley should 

 have the use of them for completing his own sets. The Council at 

 the same time ordered that of the 50 copies retained by the Society, 

 25 shall be sold to Fellows at the former reduced price. 



The Council have taken into consideration the collection of Geolo- 

 gical and general Maps in the Society's possession, with a view to 

 render them more available than their present state admits of. The 

 greater part of the maps are not mounted, and therefore cannot be 

 consulted conveniently, or without risk of injury ; and thus a very 

 valuable collection is less noticed than it deserves. They have ac- 

 cordingly ordered that the Maps and Sections of the Geological Survey, 

 presented by the Board of Ordnance, together with such other geo- 

 logical maps as may seem deserving of care, shall be mounted and 

 kept in cases. They have further resolved, that Fellows shall have 

 the privilege of borrowing maps or sections when mounted, upon 

 making application to the officers ; it being understood that the maps 

 are not to be used for field-purposes in geological excursions. The 

 Council in granting this privilege think it advisable to couple it with 

 this restriction, in which, as it is for the benefit of all, they trust the 

 Society will acquiesce. 



The Society has long felt the want of good geological maps of 

 Scotland and of Ireland on a large scale. The forthcoming map of 

 Ireland by Mr. Grifiiths will soon, it is hoped, supply one of these 

 deficiencies : for the other, the Council have purchased Lewis's Map 

 of Scotland, and have requested Mr. Greenough and Mr. Sharpe to 

 colour it geologically ; which task those gentlemen have kindly un- 

 dertaken. 



In conclusion, they have to inform the Society, that they have 

 awarded the Wollaston Palladium Medal for this year to William 

 Henry Fitton, M.D., F.R.S. and G.S., for his many valuable and 

 original contributions to geological science ; more especially for his 

 excellent and elaborate Memoir ''On the relations of the Beds between 

 the Chalk and the Purbeck Limestones in the S.E. of England," pub- 

 lished in the 4th Volume of the Transactions of the Geol. Soc. for 

 1833 ; and for " The Stratigraphical account of the Atherfield Section 

 in the Isle of Wight ; " published in the Quarterly Journal of the 

 Society for 1847. The Council have also awarded the balance of the 



