lii PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [May I906, 



THE ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 

 John Edward Marr, Sc.D., E.R.S. 



I now proceed to give short accounts of those whom the hand of 

 death has removed from among us in the course of the year. I 

 have again to offer thanks to those who have been good enough to 

 assist me in this task. They are Dr. C. W. Andrews, Prof. J. W. 

 Gregory, Mr. R. S. Herries, Mr. R. Lydekker, and Mr. H. B. 

 Woodward. 



No loss is so heavy to us as that of William Thomas Blaneord. 

 A notice of Dr. Blanford by one who knew him long and well 

 appears below, but I feel that I should not be doing my duty as 

 one who has served on the Council with him for many years if I 

 did not myself refer to the good work which he has done for our 

 Society. He acted as Secretary from 1884 to 1888, occupied the 

 Presidential Chair during the years 1888-1890, and was Treasurer 

 from 1895 up to the time of his death last year. 



The amount of work which he did for us in connexion with the 

 Council and Committees was very great, but it was done so quietly, 

 and was so complete when submitted to the various bodies, that 

 only the Officers were aware of its extent, and even they could but 

 approximately gauge it. He knew the geology of the world, and 

 when any doubt would otherwise have arisen as to who was to be 

 asked to consider the publication of a paper, Dr. Blanford was sure 

 to be requested to peruse it, and I remember no case where he 

 declined to do so, however great might be his stress of work. The 

 smoothness which characterised his doings for us was due, not only 

 to the completeness and quietness of his work, but in a very high 

 degree to his unfailing kindness and courtesy to all with whom he 

 came into contact. He was indeed one of those of whom the poet 



sings that — 



' Lives of great men all remind us 

 We can make our lires sublime, 

 And, departing, leave behind us 

 Footprints on the sands of time.' 



Ferdinand Paul Wilhelm, Baron von Richthofen might in 

 1860 have been mourned as a deserter from geology; but now 

 geologists rejoice in the path that he chose, and mourn him in 

 gratitude for his deep and beneficial influence on the study of 

 structural geography. 



