XXIV PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



me, Sir, also to say, that the high estimate of the merits of our 

 medallist, which I have imbibed, both from a study of his own works 

 and by reference to the opinions of Lyell, De Verneuil, and Logan, 

 has been much strengthened by the animated reports of Professor 

 Ramsay, who since his return has lost no opportunity of recording 

 the deep sense he entertains of the very important services rendered 

 to Geological science by the arduous and meritorious researches of 

 James Hall. 



THE ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 



Proceeding now to the more special duty which devolves on your 

 President this day, I have once more to perform the melancholy 

 task of recalling to your memory the names of those Fellows of our 

 Society who have been removed from amongst us, by death, during 

 the year ; and it is with sorrow that I find how erroneous was the 

 hope I entertained last year, that the very magnitude of the losses 

 I then commemorated would insure me from having to dwell in the 

 present year, for any length of time, upon so sad a subject. It was 

 indeed scarcely to be expected that we should have been, as a large 

 Society, entirely exempted from the common lot of humanity; but 

 the blow has fallen most heavily upon us, and amongst our losses 

 we have to record the names of men distinguished in. almost every 

 branch of literary or scientific lore. 



The first I shall notice w^as indeed a patriarch of our science, one 

 of those illustrious men who assisted at the very birth of Geology 

 amongst us, one who was long looked up to as a sure guide in the 

 path of truth and science. You will at once perceive that I allude 

 to the late Dean Conybeaee, who last came amongst us only a very 

 short time before the summer recess, when he appeared to take as 

 lively an interest as ever in the proceedings of the Society he had 

 once cheered by his frequent attendance, and adorned by his labours ; 

 and as he was going away he assured me that it was always with 

 pleasure and satisfaction he came to meetings from which duty and 

 distant residence could alone keep him away. 



It has been justly said that he was one of a race of clergymen, 

 and those men of intellectual eminence. His grandfather was Dean 

 of Christchurch and Bishop of Bristol, the friend of Bishop* Berkely, 

 and the author of a work distinguished even in an age of deep thinkers 

 and profound theologians, and entitled ' The Defence of Revealed 

 Religion.' The Bishop's only son, Dr. William Conybeare, Rector 

 of Bishopsgate, left behind him two sons, both of whom were 

 eminent men. The elder, John Josias, Vicar of Bath Easton, was an 

 accomplished scholar, no inconsiderable chemist, a sound geologist, 

 and filled with credit the University offices of Professor of Poetry 

 and of Anglo-Saxon, as well as that of Bampton Lecturer: he pro- 

 moted the revival of Saxon literature, and left behind him, on his 

 death in early life, a volume of translations which it was his brother's 

 office to complete and edit. That brother, the second son of 

 Dr. "William Conybeare, was the illustrious object of this notice, 



