part 1] A?^NIVERSABY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. IxVU 



July 15th, 1916, on the Western Front, and died six days later, 

 aged 26. He had already done useful Avork in the oil-fields of 

 Burma, Russia, and Western Canada. Archibald William 

 RoBERTSOX Don, Lieutenant in the Black Watch, fourth son of 

 Mr. R. B. Don, of Tealing House (Forfarshire), died in hospital 

 in Greece on September 11th, 1916, aged 25. The keen interest 

 in Geology which he had shown as an undergraduate at Cambridge 

 was not lost when he quitted the University to enter the medical 

 profession, and his researches on Farka decipiens seemed to hold 

 the promise of much good work in the future. James Cowie 

 Simpson, Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, eldest son of the 

 late Mr. Watson Simpson of Edinburgh, was killed m action on 

 December 4th, 1916, aged 31 ; and Ralph Hawtrey, also a 

 Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, son of the late Mr. Montagu 

 Hawtrey, of Shanghai, was killed in action on September 3rd, 

 1916. 



Some Aspects of I&xeous Action in Britain. 



It has often been pointed out that, for so small an area, the strati- 

 graphical record in Britain is a remarkably varied one, bearing 

 witness to many vicissitudes of physical conditions in this part of 

 the earth's surface. To this may be attributed in some measure 

 the lead which British workers- have so often taken in the develop- 

 ment of stratigraphical geology. It is equally true that the record 

 of igneous activity in our area is full and varied to an extent not to 

 be paralleled elsewhere. Whether here also we have always lived 

 up to our privileges I will not now enquire, but it will be granted 

 that in the last quarter of a century, at least, much valuable work 

 has been done in this field. In this revival of interest, shown both 

 on the Geological Survey and among individual workers, we can 

 trace especially the influence of Sir Archibald Geikie. The masterly 

 account of igneous action in Britain, Avhich he gave from this 

 Chair in 1891-92, was expanded subsequently to the compass of 

 two large volumes, but it would to-day need to be much further 

 amplified in order to include the results of later researches. I must 

 be content to choose a single aspect of this large subject, and 

 I propose to consider it from the point of view of the relation 

 between igneous action and crust-movements. The link 



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