ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XXXI 



However some may at the time have been inclined to throw doubts 

 upon the deductions of 'Conybeare, the ability and accurate discrimi- 

 nation of the author were publicly recognized by the great Cuvier, 

 who hastened to advocate his admission to the French Academy as a 

 Corresponding Member for the Science of Geology; and I am sure 

 that all living palaeontologists will follow the example of the late 

 well-known, and at that time so highly respected, Mr. Clift, in recog- 

 nizing the great merits of Dean Conybeare, and considering him one 

 of the principal founders of the science in this country. 



At the present moment it would be tedious and unnecessary to pass 

 in review the whole of the long series of Mr. Conybeare's geological 

 works, nineteen in number ; and I shall point your attention therefore 

 solely to that able "Beport on the Progress, Actual State, and Ulterior 

 Prospects of Geological Science," which he presented to the British 

 Association in 1832, at its meeting in Oxford, in which he treats the 

 subject with the combined powers of the scholar and man of science, 

 pointing out the remarkable analogy in the views of Leibnitz to those 

 of many modern speculators on physical geology ; the opinions of 

 Hooke in respect to the hypothesis of the elevation of our continents by 

 volcanic agency; the masterly observations of Smith, first made known 

 in 1799, which, although not the first to originate the doctrine of a 

 regular distribution of organic remains, yet reduced to certainty and 

 order what had been before vague and conjectural ; the gradual rise 

 of the Tertiary Geology from its foundation in the admirable ' Memoir 

 on the Basin of Paris,' by Cuvier and Brongniart, published in 1811 ; 

 the establishment of the Geological Society in 1808, and the labours 

 of all the great men connected with it, including, amongst many 

 others, Greenough, Buckland, Sedgwick, Fitton, Murchison, Dela- 

 beche, Phillips, Scrope, Daubeny, and Lyell, together with those of 

 foreign geologists,' including the great Von Buch and Boue. That 

 Beport alone is sufficient to prove his masterly acquaintance with 

 the history of his favourite science, and with all its bearings, 

 whilst it marks the liberal spirit with which he entered into all 

 geological inquiries. The advance of geology since that Beport has 

 been enormous ; and, if a period of twenty years from the publica- 

 tion of Cuvier and Brongniart had done so much in raising Tertiary 

 Geology to a high position, may we not say that the result of the 

 next twenty-five years has been still more remarkable, and has 

 richly rewarded the continued and judicious researches of some of 

 our most distinguished geologists, such as Lyell, Forbes, Prestwich, 

 and Austen, whilst the elevation to which the Silurian system has 

 arrived by the persevering exertions of Murchison is a monument of 

 progress which we can scarcely hope will be equalled in that peculiar 

 branch of geology in future times. 



The zeal of Dean Conybeare for geology never forsook him ; and 

 when obliged to visit Madeira on account of the health of his young- 

 est son, he visited the Peak of Tenerifie, and studied the other vol- 

 canic phenomena of the neighbouring islands. How deeply must we 

 regret that his last days were embittered by sorrow for the death of 

 another son, from whose funeral he was returning at the time of his 



