XXI 



PROCEEDINGS 



AT THE 



ANNUx\L GENERAL MEETING, 



16th FEBRUARY, 1855. 



Award of the Wollaston Medal and Donation Fund. 



After the Reports of the Council had been read, the President, 

 W. J. Hamilton, Esq., on delivering to Sir Roderick I. Murchison 

 the Wollaston Medal, awarded to Sir Henry T. De la Beche, addressed 

 him as follows : — 



Sir Roderick Murchison, — In the absence of Sir Henry De la 

 Beche I address myself to you for the purpose of saying that it is 

 with much pleasure that I now proceed to give effect to the resolu- 

 tion of the Council already announced, awarding the Wollaston 

 Palladium Medal for this year to our old associate and fellow-labourer. 

 Sir Henry De la Beche. In requesting you to undertake the task 

 of conveying to him this mark of the high opinion entertained by the 

 Council of his labours, I trust you will inform him how sincerely we 

 regret that he should be prevented by indisposition from being 

 personally present amongst us to-day, and that you will also com- 

 municate to him the considerations bv which the Council of the Geo- 

 logical Society have been influenced in making this award. 



The necessary brevity of a resolution did not admit of our entering 

 fully into the details of these considerations ; I will therefore now 

 state that, in the first place, the Council desire to record their opinion 

 of the merit of those communications which, as a private independent 

 geologist. Sir Henry De la Beche has for a period of more than thirty- 

 five years made to this Society, and which, printed in our Transac- 

 tions, will ever remain a monument of his zeal, his energy, and his 

 perseverance. The very earliest volumes of our Transactions show 

 that since the year 1819 we have been chiefly indebted to him for 

 the careful examination of the secondary formations of our southern 

 coasts, particularly that of Dorsetshire, and for a description of the 

 geology of the vicinity of Bridport, Lyme Regis, and Weymouth. It 

 is difficult at the present day to estimate the effect of those commu- 

 nications, which at the time gave such a stimulus to the study of our 

 science. The nature and the abundance of the fossils contained in 

 these beds gave them in those days an importance and an interest 

 which has now been, in a great measure, transferred to the more 

 ancient deposits of the Palaeozoic formations. 



In addition to these papers, which left but little remaining for 

 future explorers, and in some of which he was assisted by Dr. Buck- 

 land, we are indebted to Sir Henry De la Beche for a valuable paper 



VOL. XI. 6 



