﻿Vol. 64.] ANNIVEESARY ADDEESS OF THE PRESIDENT. Hii 



Yast movement (charriage) of the rocks, and that the Coal-Measures 

 would be found to extend underneath for several kilometres to the 

 south of their recognized limit. 



It was to the study of the Chain of the French Alps that he 

 devoted most of the last years of his field-work. The death of 

 Charles Lory in 1890 had left a serious gap in the ranks of the 

 French geologists who were charged with the difficult task 

 of unravelling the complicated structure of these mountains. 

 Marcel Bertrand was accordingly selected as the fittest man to be 

 placed at the head of the band of observers who were to continue 

 the work of the Grenoble professor. He threw himself with great 

 ardour into this congenial task, and from time to time published 

 interesting reports of his progress. His theoretical opinions 

 regarding tectonic problems were always stated with great lucidity, 

 and his conclusions were given with a definiteness which indicated 

 the confidence that he felt in his methods of observation. It is 

 indeed impossible not to admire the singular breadth of view with 

 which he discussed these problems, even where one may be inclined 

 to hesitate in accepting some of the explanations which he offered. 

 There must, however, be general agreement with the justice of his 

 affirmation that * the part played by horizontal displacements is one 

 of the fundamental features in the geology of the Alps.' 



In the year 1890 the Academy of Sciences proposed as the subject 

 of the Yaillant prize, ' A study of the compressions which have 

 affected the terrestrial crust, and the role of horizontal displace- 

 ments.' Only one memoir was presented. It bore the motto, * E 

 pur si muove,' and was found to have come from the accomplished 

 Professor of Geology at the Ecole des Mines. It was so excellent 

 that the prize was unanimously awarded to him, and the essay would 

 then have been printed in the ' Memoires des Savants Etrangers,' had 

 not the author requested and obtained permission to reclaim his 

 manuscript, in order that he might revise and improve it before 

 publication. But the revision was never made. Year after year 

 passed, each too crowded with fresh original work to allow him 

 leisure enough to give to his essay that completeness which he 

 desired. Only a few unimportant alterations have been made by 

 him on the manuscript. Since his death some of his friends and 

 members of his family have resolved that this essay, of which the 

 brilliance was recognized at the time of its reception, should at last 

 be published in the precise state in which its author left it. As a 

 picture of the condition of the whole problem of mountain-structure 



