38 PE0CEEDING8 OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



both in the Old and 'New World, and of your continued and patient 

 investigations into the organization of some of the obscurer forms 

 of life which abounded at the period of the deposition of those 

 rocks. Tour researches among the Graptolitidae, the Stromatopo- 

 ridge, the Monticuliporidae, and the Tabulate Corals have given you 

 a high place among palaeontologists ; while the difficulties which 

 surround such studies as those you have undertaken are so great 

 that geologists may well feel admiration for the courage and per- 

 severance which you have shown in steadily devoting yourself to 

 the study of such seemingly unpromising materials. The bequest 

 of Lyell could certainly not be more appropriately bestowed than 

 in recognition of labours like your own, which have been especially 

 directed to a comparison of the fossil faunas of Britain and North 

 America. 



Prof. iN'iCHOLSoN, in reply, said : — 

 Mr. Peesident, — 



It would not be easy for me to adequately express my grateful 

 sense of the very high honour which has been conferred upon me 

 by the Council and Pellows of the Society in awarding to me the 

 Lyell Medal. In common with all British workers, I regard the 

 Geological Society of London as the supreme head and source of 

 honour in matters connected with Geology and Palaeontology. 

 Under any circumstances, therefore, I should have deeply valued 

 the distinction which I have to-day received, the more so that it is 

 associated with the name of one whose memory will ever be honoured 

 by students of Geological science. To a very special degree, how- 

 ever, and in a very special sense — a sense only to be fully com- 

 prehended by those similarly placed — is there a gratification and a 

 stimulus in such an award to a worker so unfortunately isolated by 

 his geographical position as it is my lot to be, and with such limited 

 opportunities of coming in contact with his fellow-workers. The 

 pleasure I have felt has been enhanced by the friendly words of 

 encouragement and approbation in which you, Mr. President, have 

 seen fit to speak of my past work. If I cannot feel that I have 

 sufficiently deserved, by anything I have yet been able to accomplish, 

 the high honour I have to-day received, I can assure the Council 

 and Fellows that I shall do what in me lies to make myself more 

 fully worthy of it in the future. 



