Vol. 65.] ANNIVERSARY MEETING— BIGSBY MEDAL. xlv 



This inspiration fanned to a glow the fire of enthusiasm for 

 Geology that is among my earliest recollections, and will, I doubt 

 not, last to the end of my life. 



I have found in Yorkshire a wide and varied field, replete with 

 problems of the highest scientific interest and economic importance, 

 which press so insistently for solution that the temptation has been 

 great to pass on from one half-solution to another. It is most 

 gratifying to find that my small measure of achievement has com- 

 mended itself to the Council of the Geological Society. 



I must not forget an acknowledgment of the debt that I owe to 

 the many enthusiastic brother-geologists in the county of my 

 adoption, who have helped and encouraged me in the field, and by 

 frank and friendly criticism have saved me from not a few 

 downright blunders. 



Award of the Bigsbt Medal. 



The President then presented the Bigsby Medal to Dr. John 

 Smith Flett, M.A., addressing him as follows : — 



Dr. Flett, — 



In a series of masterly memoirs published during the past 

 thirteen years, you have greatly extended our knowledge of the 

 geology and petrography of Great Britain, particularly of Scotland 

 and Cornwall. 



The responsible post of Petrographer to the Geological Survey 

 has brought you many opportunities, of which you have made such 

 excellent use that you have come to be generally recognized as 

 a worthy successor to Dr. Teall, and than this I know of no higher 

 praise. 



You have not confined your studies to these islands, but have 

 given us descriptions of the rocks of remote parts of the world, 

 At the call of duty and in the pursuit of Science you visited, in 

 company with Dr. Tempest Anderson, St. Vincent and Martinique, 

 and gathered your facts amidst the explosions of Mount Pele. From 

 my own experience of other active, if less ferocious, volcanoes, I 

 know something of the demands which this makes on the coolness 

 and courage of the observer. It is, therefore, with the sympathy of 

 a comrade in arms that I hand you this Medal in the name of the 

 Council. 



