div PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [March I913, 



AWAED OF THE WoLLASTOX MEDAL. 



In handing the Wollaston Medal, awarded to the E.ev. Osmond 

 Fishee, M.A., to Sir Aechibald Geikie, K.C.B., Pres. R.S., for 

 transmission to the recipient, the Pbesident addressed him as 

 follows : — . 



Sir Aechibald Geikie, — 



More than forty years ago, in my earliest struggles with the 

 elements of geology, I received much kindly encouragement from 

 my revered teacher and relative, Osmond Fisher. Twenty years 

 later it was my pleasure to follow his footsteps, and to profit by 

 the closest scrutiny of his work, in the Isle of Purbeck. It is 

 now my privilege to request you to forward to him, in accordance 

 with a unanimous vote, the highest award which it is in the power 

 of the Council of the Geological Society of London to bestow — the 

 Wollaston Medal. 



I have referred especially to his work on the Purbeck Beds, 

 because it is that with which 1 have the closest acquaintance. 

 Written as long ago as 1856, his paper on that remarkable group 

 of strata has formed the basis of all subsequent investigations ; 

 but no less masterly was his account of the Bracklesham Beds of 

 the Isle of Wight Basin, which followed in 1862. The two together 

 placed him at once in the ranks of those pioneer-geologists who, 

 self-trained in all branches of their science, laid the foundations of 

 British Stratigraphy. 



It is probable, however, that the name of Osmond Fisher will 

 dwell in the memory of posterity more especially as that of the 

 author of the ' Physics of the Earth's Crust.' First produced in 

 1881, that work was founded on geological reasoning and mathe- 

 matical proof Avhich it was within the power of few to appreciate. 

 Its value, growing in recognition during the lapse of more than 

 thirty years, is now acknowledged ; and the book has taken rank as 

 a classic, on what is perhaps the most recondite subject which a 

 geologist can be called on to investigate. 



It is needless to refer in detail to the papers on a variety of 

 other subjects with which Mr. Fisher has enriched geological 

 literature, for they have already been mentioned from this chair on 

 the occasion of the presentation to him of the Murchison Medal. 

 But to what was then said I will now add that we are rejoiced to 



