xl PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETS". [vol. lxxvi, 



Award of the Wollaston Medal. 



In handing the Wollaston Medal, awarded to Prof. Baron 

 Gerard Jakob De Geer, F.M.G.S., to Count H. Wrangel, 

 Minister for Sweden, for transmission to the recipient, the Presi- 

 dent addressed him as follows : — 



Your Excellency, — 



By unanimously awarding to Prof. Gerard De Greer its highest 

 distinction, the Wollaston Medal, the Council desires to express its 

 sense of the outstanding value of his work as an investigator in geo- 

 logical science. During nearly 40 years Prof. De Geer has devoted 

 himself assiduously and successfully in man} r fields to ' researches 

 concerning the mineral structure of the earth.' The memoirs and 

 maps prepared by him for the Geological Survey of Sweden are in 

 themselves a notable achievement. The persistent energy with 

 which he has explored the geology and physiography of Spitsbergen 

 in numerous expeditions from 1882 onward, and the spirit with 

 which he has animated his assistants in the same arduous enter- 

 prise, have resulted in important additions to our knowledge of 

 that outlying territory, which, though small in extent, is great in 

 geological significance. 



Particularly by his prolonged and intensive study of the Qua- 

 ternary history of Sweden has Prof. De Geer shown how much 

 may be achieved by patient investigation. Not only has he 

 thrown fresh light upon the changes of level and the changes of 

 climate which your country has undergone since its glaciation, but 

 he has given us new methods, long desired, by which it becomes 

 possible to translate a fragment of geological time into its equi- 

 valent term of years. In describing the essence of these methods 

 in his Presidential Address to the Geological Congress at Stockholm, 

 under the title 'A Geochronology of the last 12,000 Years,' Prof. 

 De Geer showed how certain laminated sediments and small re- 

 cessional moraines had been made to yield a decipherable calendar 

 of annual occurrences. This achievement has still to reach its 

 full effect, but already it has opened up wide possibilities which 

 have stimulated research in many quarters. 



Besides his eminent service as an investigator, Prof. De Geer 

 has done much to promote geological science by the stimulus of 

 his own personal enthusiasm upon his students, and by the generous 



