3 8 PKOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



THE ANNIYEESAEY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT, 

 Sir Akchibald Geikie, D.Sc, LL.D., E.E.S. 



Gentlemen-, — 



Among the losses which this Society has suffered in the year 

 that has passed since our last Anniversary, there is none that 

 awakens a keener feeling of regret than the death of our friend and 

 associate Sir Andrew Ceombie Ramsay. Por more than five and 

 thirty years he was one of the most prominent of our Eellows, 

 taking an unceasing and active interest in the prosperity of the 

 Society, serving it as Member of Council, as Yice-President, and as 

 President, receiving its highest award, and contributing fresh lustre 

 to its reputation by his own researches. 



He was born in Glasgow on 30th January, 1814. Prom his 

 father, a chemist of note in his day, who had invented several 

 processes wherein the applications of chemistry were turned to 

 practical use in industrial manufactures, he inherited a love of 

 science, and though for a time this love seemed quenched in the 

 commercial pursuits to which, as a young man, he had to devote 

 himself, it eventually asserted itself with such force as to turn him 

 wholly into the cultivation of Geology as the master-passion and 

 occupation of his life. While still engaged in business he profited 

 much b}'- intercourse with Professor Mchol, of Glasgow University, 

 the eloquent writer on Astronomy, who directed his reading and 

 encouraged him to persevere in the cultivation of Geology. Deli- 

 cacy of health in the end required him to leave Glasgow for a time, 

 and he betook himself to the Island of Arran — a delightful training- 

 ground, where he not only recovered his health, but laid the foun- 

 dations of his fame as one of the ablest stratigraphical geologists of 

 his day. With every peak and corrie, every glen and rivulet, every 

 bay and reef in this fascinating island he made himself familiar, 

 mapping the whole on the scale of two inches to a mile, and making 

 a model of it of the same size. 



In the year 1840 the meeting of the British Association was held 

 at Glasgow, and proved to be the turning-point in Sir Andrew's 

 career. His map and model of Arran were exhibited to the mem- 

 bers of the Association, and attracted special notice from the 

 geologists, particularly from Murchison. The author of the ' Silu- 

 rian System ' was at that time planning an expedition to America, 



