no PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



India, between seven and eight years ago, I never anticipated that 

 I should be called upon to occupy the position in which you have 

 done me the honour of placing me. I have, I fear, often fallen 

 short of my predecessors ; a life passed in great measure away 

 from Europe has left rae very imperfectly acquainted with the 

 details of British geology, and it is to those details that this Society, 

 which has done so much for the study of our science at home and 

 abroad, must be mainly devoted. 



I can only express my sincere thanks for the kindness with which 

 I have been treated, and for the ready and kindly assistance that I 

 have received from the Officers, Council, and Fellows of the Society, 

 throughout my period of office. I do not think, too, that I should 

 retire from this Chair without expressing my great obligations to 

 the salaried Officers of the Society. Lastly, I have to congratulate 

 you in having selected as your next President a geologist in whose 

 hands, I feel sure, the position and reputation of this Society will 

 sujQPer no abatement, and who is peculiarly fitted to occupy a Chair 

 that has been filled by all of his predecessors in the high official 

 position that he now occupies. 



