34 PKOCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



fundamental ideas, and a deeply interested observer of its progress, 

 I have never ventured to call myself a geologist. And it is there- 

 fore a distinction which I highly value, to be the recipient of so 

 distinguished a token of appreciation on the part of those who are 

 best qualified to judge of the importance of my work in its relation 

 to geology. 



This distinction is yet more gratifying to me from its having 

 been founded by one whom I have held in the highest honour from 

 my boyhood, when (as I well remember) I heard Charles Lyell 

 spoken of as a young man who was advancing in the Geological 

 Society doctrines of a most heretical kind, but was defending them 

 so ably as to hold his own against the most weighty opponents. 

 The study of his ' Principles ' was not only the delight of my youth, 

 but a most valuable part of my scientific training; and the 

 privilege of subsequent intercourse with him through nearly forty 

 years was one which I ever highly esteemed ; for whilst it brought 

 me under the immediate influence of his philosophic spirit, it also 

 afforded me the continual stimulus of his kindly encouragement. I 

 would recall a little incident which is doubly illustrative. When, in 

 1855, 1 made my monograph of the genus Orbitolites the basis of a dis- 

 quisition on the general subject of the variability of species (a 

 doctrine early impressed on me by Dr. Prichard), I sent him a copy 

 of the memoir (published in the Philosophical Transactions), with 

 a sort of apology for having tried to make so much out of what 

 might be thought so small and trivial a subject ; he replied with a 

 most kindly approval of the object and manner of my work, adding 

 " any single point is really the universe," — a remark whose preg- 

 nancy left an impression on my mind that time has only deepened. 



I cannot but esteem it a piece of singular good fortune that my 

 association with my friend Prof. "Wyville Thomson in the ' Light- 

 ning' Expedition of 1868, which was fitted out for the biological 

 exploration of deeper sea-bottoms than had been then examined by 

 the dredge, should have brought me into contact with a physical 

 problem of the greatest interest, that of deep-sea temperature, and 

 that the subsequent Expeditions of which the elucidation of that 

 problem was a leading object have not only succeeded completely in 

 all that it was hoped that they might accomplish, but have also 

 brought back new and valuable data for the solution of one of the 

 most fundamental questions of modern geology — the antiquity of 

 the great existing distinctions between continental and oceanic 

 areas. 



In conclusion, I would assure the Geological Society that their 

 generous recognition of my past labours will serve as an additional 

 inducement to me to devote what may yet remain to me of time and 

 ability to the completion of several researches, already far advanced, 

 which will, I trust, be found to have no unimportant bearing on the 

 future of geological science. 



