Yol. 52.] ANNIVERSARr ADDRESS OE THE PRESIDENT. Hx 



Eobert Pitch, F.S.A. — Geology, like other branches of Natural 

 History, has owed much of its progress to the zeal of collectors. 

 Of these, one of the most painstaking and successful was the late 

 Robert Fitch, who, in addition to a most valuable collection of 

 antiquities, had gathered together a very fine series of fossils from 

 the Crag and Chalk of Norfolk. He was born at Ipswich, on 

 October 21st, 1802, educated at the Grammar School, and appren- 

 ticed to a chemist and druggist in the town. Pursuing this 

 occupation he settled at Norwich, in 1827, in partnership with 

 Mr. Sheriff Chambers, and continued until he was over 90 years of 

 age to take an active interest in business. From an early date 

 he took great pleasure in fossils, and his specimens were always at 

 the service of those engaged in palaeontological studies. 



He seldom wrote on geological subjects, his chief literary con- 

 tributions being to the 'Transactions of the Norfolk Archaeological 

 Society.' In 1836, however, he communicated to the Geological 

 Society an account of the discovery of the tooth of a Mastodon in 

 the Crag at Thorpe, near Norwich ; and in 1840 he sent to the 

 1 Magazine of Natural History ' a ' Notice of the existence of a 

 distinct Tube within the hollows of the Paramoudra.' In later 

 years he announced before the Norwich Geological Society the 

 finding of Deer's antlers in re-deposited Chalk at Hartford Bridges, 

 near Norwich ; and also the discoveries of Mint Implements in the 

 valley of the Little Ouse. 



His fine collection is placed in a special room in the new Museum 

 buildings at Norwich Castle. He died on April 5th, 1895, in the 

 93rd year of his age. 



James Dwight Dana was born in Utica, New York, on February 

 12th, 1813, and was educated at Yale College, where he graduated 

 in 1833. On leaving Yale, he entered the service of the United 

 States Navy as teacher of mathematics to midshipmen. In this 

 capacity he visited, on board the 'Delaware' and the 'United 

 States,' a number of the seaports of France, Italy, Greece, and 

 Turkey, the cruise lasting fifteen months. 



In 1836 he became assistant to Prof. Benjamin Silliman, the 

 mineralogist, and in 1837 he published his ' System of Mineralogy/ 

 a work which obtained a worldwide reputation, and which ran 

 through numerous editions, of which the last was issued in 1892. 

 Dana was next appointed Geologist to the Wilkes Exploring 

 Expedition, which sailed in 1838, and returned in 1842. The 



