﻿Vol. 64.] AI^NI7ERSAEY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. Ixxxix 



Tertiary formations, which culminated in the admirable detailed 

 Memoirs on the correlation of the Lower Tertiary series of England 

 with that of Prance.^ Having worked out these older members of 

 the Tertiary formations, he afterwards devoted himself with no less 

 enthusiasm to the elucidation of the newer groups, and communi- 

 cated to the Society a series of papers on the Crag of Norfolk and 

 Suffolk.- To him chiefly, in early association with Hugh Falconer 

 and with our accomplished associate Sir John Evans, we owe the 

 recognition of the significance of the discoveries of Boucher de 

 Perthes in the implement-bearing gravels of the Somme valley, and 

 the initiation of the researches which established the antiquity of 

 the human race in this island. Prestwich was ever loyal to the 

 Geological Society. Nearly all his scientific papers were presented 

 to it, and were printed in its publications. 



Probably no one now living has acquired such an intimate 

 acquaintance with the Eocene deposits of the London Basin as 

 our friend Mr. Whitaker, but the results of his long years of observa- 

 tion have been chiefly consigned, as was proper, to the Memoirs 

 of the Geological Survey. To two other members of the staff of 

 the Survey, Mr. Clement Eeid and Mr. E. T. Newton, we are 

 largely indebted for their contributions to the Pliocene geology of 

 this country ; but, in their case also, their writings have chiefly 

 appeared as official memoirs. Our Pliocene deposits, and their 

 relations to those of Holland and Belgium, have been lately 

 discussed in. a series of papers by Mr. E. W. Harmer." The 

 Tertiary volcanic series of the West of Scotland and the North 

 of Ireland has been the subject of many communications to the 

 Society. The sequence of eruptions and the petrography of the 

 rocks have been discussed by Prof. Judd and Mr. Harker, while 

 the interesting terrestrial flora contained in the intercalated leaf- 

 beds has been dealt with by Mr. J. Starkie Gardner. 



Hardly any portion of the contributions of our Society to the 

 literature of geology has surpassed in interest and importance 

 that which relates to the history of the Glacial Period. It was 

 the appearance of a group of papers in the third volume of 

 our Proceedings that started the modern development of this 

 branch of the science along the path which it has since so success- 

 fully followed. Nearly a century ago Sir James Hall first called 



^ Q. J. xi (1855) 206 & xiii (1857) 89. 



2 Q. J. xxvii (1871) 115, 325, 452. 



^^ Q. J. Hi (1896) 748; liv (1898) 308; & Ivi (1900) 705. 



VOL. LXIV. (J 



