Yol. 65.J ANNIVERSARY MEETING MTTRCHISON MEDAL. xliit 



Londonderry ; and in Tyrone and Donegal you found in the pheno- 

 mena of igneous intrusion an explanation of the structure of gneisses 

 which had been previously attributed to dynamometamorphic action. 



Since 1905 you have been called to direct the work of the 

 Geological Survey of Ireland, and have endeavoured to connect 

 the study of soils with the underlying drift and older rocks. 



Not the least merit of your work is the endeavour to present 

 your results in a pure and simple literary style. 



We have made many excursions together on Irish soil, and I 

 have had frequent opportunities to observe, not without admiration, 

 how keen is your interest, how untiring your enthusiasm, and how 

 ample your enjoyment when brought face to face with the knotty 

 problems of the field. 



The memory of our association in the past adds to the pleasure 

 with which I hand you the Murchison Medal. 



Prof. Cole replied in the following words : — 



Mr. President, — 



I beg to thank you and the Council of the Geological Society for 

 the generous and unexpected award made to me to-day. In your 

 friendly references to my work, you have fully appreciated the aim 

 of my petrological studies, although I fear that you have been 

 unduly kind to the performance. The illustrious founder of the 

 medal which I now receive laid stress, in common with his contem- 

 poraries, on the necessity for the comparison of geological phenomena 

 in many lands besides our own. Travel, it was urged, was one of 

 the first duties of a geologist, and this was never lost sight of in 

 the training that I received from my own revered master, Prof. Judd. 

 In my far smaller way, I have always endeavoured to realize that 

 a rock-specimen is not a mineralogical curiosity, but a portion of 

 this very vital globe on which our destinies are cast. It is an 

 especial pleasure, Mr. President, for me to receive this encourage- 

 ment from your hands, since the work so kindly recognized has 

 been mainly done in Ireland. When, eighteen years ago, I entered 

 that country as a stranger, you freely placed before me the results 

 of your own enquiries, and year by year you stimulated me by your 

 energy in research. May I venture also to think — you, Sir, have 

 opened the way for me to say it — that the Geological Survey of 

 Ireland, which has so kindly received me as a colleague, becomes 

 again to-day associated with the historic name of Murchison ? 

 — d2 



