part 2] ANNIVEESAEY MEETING — LYELL MEDAL. xlvii 



mountain to study the rocks as Nature made them. In my youth 

 I spent man} 7- years in the Swiss Alps : Nature in her most impres- 

 sive developments "was around me. Yet, while I revelled in the 

 heauty of that geologist's paradise, I felt with a certain regret that 

 my contact with it must be, not among the mountains, hut through 

 the work of the laboratory. 



But now, Sir, receiving this Medal and knowing that it means 

 recognition from so many eminent geologists, I ask myself whether, 

 after all, I did not do right. True, I cannot sbake off the feeling 

 that I am very ignorant of much that is known to the worker 

 in the field. But then, Sir, the approval of this great Society 

 encourages me to hope that something may remain of my poor 

 work, which others will be able to apply to the revelations of 

 Nature. 



Radioactivity, for instance, has been born in our time. I believe 

 that the day is near when the bearing of this branch of science on 

 Geology will be so far recognized that labour expended in investi- 

 gating the interaction of the two sciences will not be regarded as 

 wasted. Most ideas are, however, born to perish, some living a 

 little longer than others, but in the end being obliterated by the 

 denuding forces of Time. There are many who regard the present 

 as a period of revolution and diastrophism for our science. But 

 Ave need have no fears : new ideas will assuredly take the place 

 of the old. 



I have to thank you, Sir, and the Council and the Fellows of 

 this Society for encouragement and renewed hopefulness. 



AwAED OF THE LYELL MEDAL. 



In presenting the Lyell Medal to M. Gustaye F. Dollfus, 

 For.Memb.G.S., the Peesident addressed him as follows : — 



Monsieur Dollfus, — 



Though political frontiers may sometimes coincide with natural 

 boundaries on the surface, the deeper strata form connecting-links, 

 not only between different parts of Europe, but between our own 

 island and the neighbouring lands of France and Belgium. 

 Geologists are necessarily divided into national groups, but their 



