Vol. 51.] ANNIVERSARY MEETING BIGSBY MEDAL. xlvii 



Sir, — 



It was the desire of the late Dr. J. J. Bigsby, F.B.S., the 

 founder of this Medal, that it should be awarded biennially, ' as 

 an acknowledgment of eminent services in any Department of 

 Geology — irrespective of the receiver's country.' 



Moreover, ' the recipient must not be older than 45 years last 

 birthday.' It therefore appeared to the Council of the Geological 

 Society to be peculiarly appropriate to present it to-day to Mr. C. D. 

 "Walcott, the Director of the United States Geological Survey, 

 who is now in his 45th year. This is also the fourth occasion 

 upon which this Medal has been transmitted to eminent Geologists 

 in America, where so many of Dr. Bigsby's own researches were 

 carried on. 



Few men have attained to a more distinguished position in 

 Geology, or have achieved a larger share of original work in twenty 

 years, than Mr. "Walcott. He long held the post of Palaeontologist 

 on the U.S. Geological Survey ; then that of Chief Geologist ; and 

 lastly he has been appointed Director. 



As palaeontologist, Mr. Walcott laboured most assiduously for 

 many years at the investigation of the structure and organization of 

 the Trilobites, and was the first satisfactorily to show, by means of 

 thin sections, the limbs and branchial appendages of these Palaeozoic 

 Crustacea. The accuracy of his work has been largely confirmed 

 by the subsequent discoveries of Trilobites showing limbs from the 

 Lower Silurian of Borne, New York. 



As a stratigraphical geologist, Mr. Walcott has contributed 

 many papers to science, but his most exhaustive labour has resulted 

 in the production of his great monograph on the fauna of the 

 Lower Cambrian, or ' Olenettus-zone,' which defines most clearly a 

 remarkable series of rocks, containing the oldest fossil fauna yet 

 discovered, and capable of being paralleled and identified by its 

 fossils nearly all over the world. 



These ancient rocks contain no fewer than 59 genera and nearly 

 150 species of organisms, from sponges, corals, and trilobites to 

 mollusca ; and this assemblage of genera appears to be extremely 

 constant over widely-separated areas of the earth's surface. 



Do me the favour, Sir, to convey this Medal from the Council of 

 the Geological Society to Mr. Walcott, in token of the admiration 

 with which we regard his work as a geologist, and as expressive of 

 the warm sympathy and attachment existing between English and 

 American men of science to-day. 



