part 1] ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. xHx 



KoBERT LoG-AN Jack was a geologist of distinction, one of the 

 pioneers of, and an extensive contributor to, Australian geolog}?-. 

 Born in A3a'sliire in 1845, he was educated at Edinburgh 

 TJniversit}^, and joined the Gi-eological Survey of Scotland in 1867. 

 In 1877 he was appointed Grovernment geologist for North Queens- 

 land, and in 1879 for the whole of the Colony. He surveyed and 

 reported on the Bowen-Eiver coalfield, and, in 1879-80, led the 

 first expedition to traverse the eastern portion of the Cape- York 

 Peninsula. This expedition gave him an opportunity of establish- 

 ing his reputation as an intrepid and enterprising explorer ; in spite 

 of hardship, difficult weather, lack of food, and hostility of the 

 natives, by whom he was speared through the shoulder, he carried 

 the exploration to a successful conclusion. His next important 

 exploration was of the western portion of the colony, where he 

 recognized the structural conditions, and predicted the occurrence 

 of artesian water in the plains of the arid regions, of the interior ; 

 this prediction led to successful boring, which has been extended 

 until artesian wells are now numbered by thousands. In 1899 he 

 resigned his appointment with the Queensland Grovernment to 

 undertake an exploration of the metalliferous deposits of Szechuan. 

 Here adventure again dogged his footsteps, for he was caught and 

 cut off from the coast by the Boxer rebellion, and had to make his 

 escape westwards over the mountains to Burma. In 1901 he 

 returned to London, and at the close of 1904 once more went back 

 to Australia, where, in 1911, he was appointed Eoyal Commis- 

 sioner on the Collie coalfield, and chairman of the Boyal Commission 

 to report on miners' lung diseases. Dr. Jack's published contri- 

 butions to geology comprise 145 reports, during his service as 

 Grovernment geologist, as well as numerous books published inde- 

 pendently. During the last three years of his life he was engaged 

 on a critical review and correlation of the explorations which had 

 been carried out during the last three centuries in andiaround Cape- 

 York Peninsula. He was elected a Fellow of our Societ}^ in 1870, 

 and Avas a member of the Council in 1903-1904. He died at 

 Sydney in the early part of November, 1921. 



By the death of the Earl of Ducie, P.C„ E.B.S., Avhich took 

 place on October 28th, 1921, at the age of 94, the Greological 

 Society lost a member of very long standing, who was elected in 

 1853, and served on the Council as early as 1856-58. A man of 

 varied activities and influence, having been a Member of the 



VOL. LXXVIII. d 



