Yol. 65.] ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. lvii 



career, when he communicated to that Society a paper on ' The 

 Formation of Valleys, & on the Modern & Ancient River-Action 

 in the Neighbourhood of Sheffield,' in 1847, down to 1900, few 

 years were allowed to pass without some contribution to its 

 Proceedings. The Society, in celebrating the jubilee of his con- 

 nexion with it, presented him with his portrait. 



During our celebration of the Centenary of the Geological Society 

 a congratulatory message was sent by the petrographers who were 

 assembled on that occasion, addressed to Sorby as ' The Father of 

 Microscopical Petrography.' The pleasure this gave him was deep 

 as it was touching. 



Sorby was beloved by all who knew him. The visitor was sure 

 to carry away a sunny memory of his genial and cheerful presence. 

 His fellow-townsmen were proud of him, those who were his 

 associates in the religious and intellectual life of the city almost 

 idolized him. He was the most unaffected and warm-hearted of 

 men, keeping to the end the freshness and fun of a boy. Though 

 kind, his kindness was tempered with shrewdness. His cheerfulness 

 was unlimited : after breaking his leg in bed, he congratulated 

 himself that the accident had occurred under such comfortable 

 circumstances. He had a fund of anecdote, and was never unwilling 

 to talk about his own work to an interested listener. He was 

 genuinely pleased that the work was his, openly glad to hear it 

 well spoken of, and yet without a trace of vanity. ' In all my 

 acquaintance with him,' remarks his friend Prof. W. M. Hicks, 

 * I never heard him utter an unkind criticism of any one.' 



Sorby, like Darwin, was an amateur ; professors he helped to 

 make, and part of his fortune was bequeathed to the University of 

 Sheffield for the endowment of a chair of Geology. 



In this great enquiring spirit our Science has lost one of her 

 most devoted and most distinguished sons. 



Note. — For additional information, reference may be made to an 

 article signed F. S. in the ' Naturalist ' for 1906, where also a list 

 of Sorby's papers, revised by himself, will be found ; to an obituary 

 notice by Sir Archibald Geikie in the Proceedings of the Royal 

 Society, 1908, vol. lxxx ; to articles in the ' Geological Magazine' 

 1908, vol. v, and in the ' Mineralogical Magazine' 1908, vol. xv, 

 by Prof. Judd ; ' Fifty Years of Scientific Research ' in the Proc. 

 Sheffield Lit. & Phil. Soc. 1897, by Sorby himself; and an article by 



VOL. lxv. e 



