ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 47 



the honour of knighthood before returning to his adopted country. 

 Great, however, was the grief of the numerous friends he had found 

 in this country when they learned that Sir Julius von Haast had, 

 shortly after reaching Isew Zealand, fallen a victim to heart-disease, 

 leaving a widow and several children to mourn his loss. 



Another worker in the field of colonial geology was Charles 

 Henry Wilson, who last year laid before this Society the first draft 

 of a geological map of British Honduras. Mr. Wilson was the son 

 of the Rev. E. Wilson, Yicar of Nocton, Lincolnshire, and was edu- 

 cated at Eton and at King's College, Cambridge. Subsequently he 

 studied for a time at the Royal School of Mines, and then extended 

 his practical knowledge by working as a surveyor in a colliery. 

 Mr. Wilson was elected a Eellow of this Society in 1881. He 

 undertook the work of geologist and surveyor to the settlement at 

 Rugby, Tennessee, and on the completion of his work there, accepted 

 an engagement with the Government of British Honduras to explore 

 the geography and geology of the interior of that colony — a district 

 almost unknown and very difiicult of access. All who saw what 

 Mr. Wilson had already accomplished in the face of almost over- 

 whelming difficulties, anticipated the most valuable results from his 

 further researches ; but, sad to relate, his useful career was cut 

 short by one of those diseases incident to the climate of the country 

 of his labours. He died at Belize on the 9th of September, 1887, 

 at the early age of 36. 



Mr. Alfred Morris, C.E., of West Australia, who was elected a 

 Fellow of this Society in J 882, and in the following year read a 

 paper on Australian geology, died early in the past year. 



In Mr. Robert George Bell the Society has lost a palaeon- 

 tologist of great promise, one who, in spite of ill health, was to the 

 last engaged assiduously in the prosecution of very important re- 

 searches. He w^as born in London, April 12th, 1833. His studies 

 were chiefly devoted to the Mollusca of the Crag and of recent de- 

 posits, and concerning these he had acquired a wide and accurate 

 knowledge. When the remarkable Pliocene outlier of St. Erth was 

 discovered, he seemed the man who by previous training was best 

 qualified for dealing with the remarkable assemblage of Mollusca 

 which it yielded ; and, in connexion with Mr. Kendall, he threw 

 himself into the investigation with his accustomed zeal. In the 

 spring of 1886, a preliminary paper on the subject was commu- 



