Xlvi PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Vol. lxxiv 



It is now being used by the American geologists (Prof. Osborn and others) 

 to define the complicated subdivisions of the Tertiaries of the New World. 

 With regard to the third, the problem remains now very much as it was in the 

 days of Prestwich, and the zeal of the antiquarians and anthropologists to dis- 

 cover the presence of Man in deposits older than the Pleistocene Period, has 

 been met by the caution of the geologists, with the net result, that the Pilt- 

 down remains stand as the oldest in the geological record of Great Britain ;. 

 and that the alleged occurrence of traces of man in the Pliocene, and older 

 strata, is put to a suspense account. 



■ I value, however, the Medal more particularly, as a mark of regard on the 

 part of the Society, to which I have been able to contribute but little for 

 many years, owing to my duties in other directions.' 



Award of the Ltell Medal. 



In presenting- the Lyell Medal to Hekby Woods, M.A.. F.R.S. r 

 the President addressed him as follows : — 



Mr. Woods, — 



The Council of the Geological Society has selected you for 

 distinction as one who ' has deserved well of the Science, 1 and I 

 think that none who has watched your career and is acquainted 

 with your work will dissent from that verdict. Your communi- 

 cation to the Society, in 1896. on the Mollusca of the Chalk 

 Eock. set a standard of skilful and accurate diagnosis and descrip- 

 tion, which has heen maintained in all your subsequent work, 

 including the important monograph on the Cretaceous Lamelli- 

 branchia, published by the Palaeon to-graphical Society. That the 

 philosophical side of Palaeontology has also engaged your study 

 is sufficiently proved by such papers as that on the evolution of 

 the genus Inoceramus ; while that dealing with the igneous rocks 

 of Builth shows that your interests are not wholly comprised 

 within one branch of our science. Your Text-book of Palaeon- 

 tology, based upon practical experience at Cambridge, is valued by 

 other teachers, and your knowledge has always been, as I am well 

 able to testify, generously placed at the disposal of fellow-workers. 



It will be, I trust, an encouragement to you, as it is certainly a 

 source of gratification to your friends, that so long a record of good 

 work, faithfully pursued for no private end, does not go unrecog- 

 nized ; and, as an old colleague, I am pleased that it falls to my 

 lot to place the Lvell Medal in your hands as a tangible mark of 

 appreciation. 



