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



On the death of Sedgwick in 1873 he left Cambridge and returned 

 to London, where he engaged for a time in private tuition. 



In 1876 he was appointed Professor of Geography in King's 

 College, London, and succeeded in making geography interesting 

 by providing its facts with geological explanations. In the same 

 year he became Professor of Geography and Geology in Queen's 

 College, London. In 1890 he was appointed Lecturer in Geology 

 and Mineralogy in the Royal Indian Engineering College at Coopers 

 Hill, and succeeded Martin Duncan as Professor in 1891, a post 

 which he held until the College was closed in 1905. In 1896 

 he succeeded "Wiltshire as Professor of Geology and Mineralogy at 

 King's College, London. 



In 1885 he founded the London Geological Field Class, to which 

 he acted as leader for 21 years. In connexion with this he wrote 

 a very useful handbook on the geology of the London district, 

 published in 1891. 



Seeley possessed a wide knowledge of Geology, and was keenly 

 interested in its principles ; but his special study, and that on which 

 his reputation will depend, was the fossil Reptilia. In order to gain 

 a knowledge of these at first hand, he visited nearly all the principal 

 museums in Europe, examined Permian remains in Russia, and the 

 reptilian deposits of the Karroo in South Africa. The reptiles of 

 the Karroo were subsequently described in a series of masterly 

 memoirs, which were published in the ' Transactions ' of the Royal 

 Society between the years 1889 and 1895. Parieiasaurus and 

 Cynognathus will always remain associated with his name. His 

 contributions to our Journal are numerous and important ; the first 

 appeared in 1863, the last in 1900. Seeley was the author of 

 numerous books ; the first volume of Phillips's ' Manual of Geology ' 

 was revised and almost entirely rewritten by him : the revised 

 edition was published in 1884. He wrote ' The Freshwater Fishes 

 of Europe' (1886), 'Factors in Life' (S.P.C.K., 1887), 'Fossil 

 Reptiles' (1887), ' Story of the Earth in Past Ages' (1895), and 

 ' Dragons of the Air ' (1901) : in the last-named he expressed his 

 mature views on the flying reptiles which had first engaged his 

 attention 30 years before. 



He was elected a Fellow of this Society in 1862, served several 

 terms on the Council (1879-84, 1886-90, 1898^1904), and was 

 Vice-President in 1900-1902. He received an award from the 

 Murchison Fund in 1875 and the Lyell Medal in 1885. He was 



