36 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Islands and to geological literature. Your contributions to the 

 memoirs published by the Survey on various parts of England, and 

 especially on parts of Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Cumberland, 

 Cheshire, and Lancashire, are too well known to need recapitulation ; 

 and you have done good service to the cause of science by your 

 treatment of one of the principal geological and economical problems 

 presented to the Survey in your ' Coal-fields of Great Britain,' a 

 work that has deservedly passed through several editions. You have 

 aided greatly in the important series of investigations into the 

 underground distribution of the productive Coal-measur6s when 

 concealed by later unconformable deposits, and "you have applied 

 your extensive field-experience of British rocks to solve the difficult 

 question of land- distribution in past epochs, and to the elucidation 

 of the physical geography of the British Islands. For several years 

 past, whilst holding your present post at the head of the Irish Survey, 

 you have contributed in very many different parts of the country, 

 and by the investigation of many distinct rock-formations, to our 

 knowledge of Irish geology, and by your visit to Palestine you have 

 been able to throw much light on the geological structure of the 

 Holy Land. 



Prof. Hull, in reply, said : — 



Mr. President, — 



I appreciate very highly the honour which you and the Council 

 have conferred in awarding to me the Murchison Medal. The 

 gratification I feel is enhanced by the circumstance that this dis- 

 tinction is associated with the name and memory of the founder, 

 who was to me a wise and considerate chief as well as a personal 

 friend. 



You have been pleased to refer to my official work on the Geolo- 

 gical Survey of the L^nited Kingdom, as well as to that of a more 

 personal nature. It has been my lot to serve under four successive 

 chiefs, namely, De la Beche, Murchison, Eamsay, and Dr. Geikie, 

 whose names will ever be associated with the early history and pro- 

 gress of geological science ; and I may truly say that from each 

 and all I received that encouragement and support which is essential 

 to the hearty fulfilment of the duties of a public servant ; and I am 

 glad to have this opportunity of saying that in bringing the Geolo- 

 gical Survey of Ireland to its completion I have been associated 

 with colleagues in this work who have combined an earnest desire 



