48 PKCCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



THE AI^NIYEESAKY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT, 

 A. Geikie, LL.D., r.ii.s. 



Gentlemen, — 



Erom recounting the successful labours of those who are our 

 living fellow-workers, and whom we are delighted to-day to honour, 

 we have on this anniversary occasion to turn to the sadder task of 

 noting how far our ranks have been thinned by death during the 

 year that is past. Our losses have been numerous and heavy, for 

 they include distinguished leaders both abroad and at home. 



Foremost among the names which now disappear from our list of 

 Foreign Members stands that of Edmond Hebekt. The son of an old 

 soldier who cultivated a small farm, he was born in 1812 at Yille- 

 fargeau, a village on the outskirts of Auxerre, in Burgundy. His 

 school career at the College of Auxerre proved to be so remarkably 

 brilliant, that instead of being bred as a farmer, he was allowed 

 to make his way to the Ecole Normale. Coming up to Paris for this 

 purpose, he found it needful to teach Latin, and even for a time to 

 turn schoolmaster, in order to provide himself with funds for con- 

 tinuing his education. At the Ecole Normale he rose by sheer 

 talent to the position of influence for which his abilities marked 

 him out, becoming sub-director of scientific studies and lecturer on 

 geology. Afterwards he was appointed to the Chair of Geology at 

 the Sorbonne, where he had ample scope for the development of his 

 rare gift of attracting and interesting others in his own field of 

 study. 



In two distinct and important ways, Hebert conferred lasting 

 benefits on the science of his time. In the first place, as a brilliant 

 and enthusiastic teacher, he gathered around him a school of ener- 

 getic and able geologists, whom by his encouragement and example 

 he stimulated to investigation in France and in foreign countries. 

 His pupils are to be found filling Chairs of Geology all over France, 

 and carrying on the traditions and the spirit of the geological 

 department of the Sorbonne. 



In the second place, as an accurate observer and clear writer, he 

 has enriched geological literature with a series of luminous memoirs, 

 which will remain his most fitting and enduring monument. Among 

 these essays we recall with pleasure that in which he recorded the 

 results of his visit to the Isle of Wight in 1851, and correlated the 



