ANNIVEKSAEY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 53 



friends have heard with regret of the gradual failure of his health, 

 and on the 22nd of December, 1887, he died at Philadelphia. He 

 will always be remembered as one of the ablest among the pioneers 

 in the study of the Geology and Palaeontology of the Western Terri- 

 tories of the United States, aud for the indomitable energy and 

 liberality of mind with which he carried on the important survey of 

 which he was placed in charge. 



August Priedeick, Count MAEscHAtL, of Burgholtzhansen and 

 Tromsdorf, was born in 1805. Interested in many branches of 

 science, he did more in the way of correlating and making widely 

 known the investigations of others, than in the prosecution of 

 original researches. He was elected a Foreign Correspondent of this 

 Society in 1863, and contributed to our Journal a great number of 

 very valuable abstracts of geological papers which had been pub- 

 lished abroad. He was the author of the ' JSTomenclator Zoologicus,' 

 which appeared in 1873, and, with Dr. A. von Pelzeln, of the ^ Ornis 

 Vindobonensis,' published in 1882. He occupied an official position 

 in Yienna, where he died 11th October, 1887. 



It is with great pleasure that I congratulate the Fellows of the 

 Society upon its great and increasing prosperity. In spite of ex- 

 ceptionally heavy losses by death, and of a slight augmentation in the 

 number of resignations (due to the steps which it has been found 

 necessary to take in order to prevent the accumulation of arrears of 

 subscription), the number of effective Members of the Society shows 

 a very satisfactory increase. 



Financially, the Society is in such a flourishing state that we 

 have been able to pay for extensive repairs and redecoration with- 

 out trenching upon the amount put aside for the purpose ; and thus 

 the funded property of the Society has been increased by the sum 

 of £500. Seeing that each year we receive a considerable amount 

 as composition for annual subscriptions, I need scarcely point out 

 that such additions to our funded property from time to time are 

 not only desirable but are actually necessary for the security and 

 stability of the Society. 



The work of redecorating and repairing the Society's house has 

 now been carried out in all parts of the premises except the Museum. 

 After careful consideration a plan was adopted for treating the walls 

 which will permit of their being cleaned from time to time, and 

 thus we hope that the next redecoration may be put off for a con- 

 siderable period. The question whether we should follow the 



