﻿Yol. 64.] ANNIVEESAEY ADDRESS OF THE PEESIDENT. 1x1 



was a fitting recognition of his eminence in this branch of science 

 that in 1883 h^ was appointed Chairman of the Meteorological 

 Council, an office which he continued to hold up to the reorganiza- 

 tion of the institution in 1905. He served repeatedly on the 

 Council of the Eoyal Society, and was selected as a member of 

 most of its Committees that deal with physical science in any form. 

 Sir Richard married in 1859 a Highland lady, daughter of his 

 old chief Sir John Peter Grant, and had five sons and five daughters. 

 Advancing years had latterly confined him for the most part to his 

 home in Hampstead, where he died on the morning of the 12th of 

 February, 1908, in the 91st year of his age. 



Sir James Hectoe, son of Alexander Hector, Writer to the Signet, 

 was born in Edinburgh in 1834. He studied medicine at the 

 Edinburgh University, and took the degree of M.D. in 1856. 

 Through the teaching of Edward Eorbes, his interest had been 

 aroused in subjects of natural history, and especially in geology; 

 and in 1857 he was chosen, through the influence of Sir Eoderick 

 Murchison, as surgeon, geologist, and naturalist to accompany the 

 Government Exploring Expedition, under Captain John Palliser, to 

 parts of British North America, from Lakes Superior and Winnipeg 

 to Vancouver Island. On that journey he made important ethno- 

 logical and geographical observations, discovered the pass by which 

 the Canadian Pacific Railway now crosses the Rocky Mountains, 

 and afterwards brought before this Society an important paper on 

 the geology of the region he had examined. In 1861, by Murchison's 

 recommendation, he was appointed geologist to the Provincial 

 Government of Otago, JS'ew Zealand, and thenceforth devoted his 

 energies to that colony. He became Director of the Geological 

 Survey of 'New Zealand in 1865, and held the post until 1903. 

 Subsequently he was appointed Director also of the New Zealand 

 Institute and of the Colonial Museum at Wellington ; and at the 

 time of his death he was Chancellor of the New Zealand University. 

 He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1866, and was 

 created K.C.M.G. in 1887. As a geologist, his principal works 

 include Reports on the Coal-Deposits, on the Geology of Otago and 

 other parts of New Zealand, and a geological sketch-map of the 

 Islands, accompanied in 1886 by ' Outlines of New Zealand 

 Geology.' The volcanic phenomena and thermal springs, the 

 fossil birds and reptiles, the recent zoology and botany, and the 

 meteorology of New Zealand likewise engaged his attention. He 

 was awarded the Lyell Medal by the Council of the Geological 



