308 Geological Society*, — Anniversary Address. 



of the Province of Liege, published in 1832 ; and one year's interest 

 of the Wollaston Fund has been presented to Mr. James De Carle 

 Sowerby, to facilitate the continuation of his researches in Mineral 

 Conchology. 



More than a quarter of a century has now elapsed since I became 

 a Member of this Society ; and fifteen years have passed since I was 

 first placed, by your kindness, in the honourable position of filling 

 this Chair, at that important period of our history when we received 

 the national recognition of a Royal Charter. I shall never cease 

 to consider it one of the brightest rewards of my labours in geology, 

 that my name is enrolled in that charter, as the first President of the 

 Society in its corporate capacity. 



Since that important epoch, our chartered body has received from 

 the Government of the country the valuable sanction and advantage 

 of an establishment in the very convenient apartments of Somerset 

 House, which we now occupy. The number and character of the 

 scientific labourers who have joined our ranks, and the volumes 

 added to our Transactions, since these events, show that such en- 

 couragements have not been conferred on a society disposed to 

 slumber under the sunshine of prosperity ; but that, aided by these 

 advantages, we have endeavoured to maintain a steadily progressive 

 course, in the great work of illustrating the physical structure of the 

 earth. 



It is not my duty, on the present occasion, to notice geological 

 memoirs or subjects which belong to years preceding that wherein I 

 entered upon my present office. The usual practice rather con- 

 fines me to the most remarkable events of the last twelve months, 

 during which I have had the honour to fill this chair. 



MUSEUM OF (ECONOMIC GEOLOGY. 



Among the most important of these events, we recognise with 

 gratitude, and confident anticipation of great advantage, both to 

 science and the arts, the establishment, by Her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment, of an institution hitherto unknown in England, namely, a 

 Museum of CEconomic Geology. This is to be freely accessible 

 to the public at stated periods, in the Department of Her Ma- 

 jesty's Woods and Forests, and Public Works, for the express object 

 of exhibiting the practical application of geology to the useful pur- 

 poses of life. In this Museum a large store of valuable materials 

 has already been collected and arranged, chiefly by the exertions, 

 and under the direction of Mr. De la Beche. In it will be exhi- 

 bited examples of Metallic Ores, Ornamental Marbles, Building- 

 stones and Limestones, Granites, Porphyries, Slates, Clays, 

 Marls, Brickearths, and Minerals of every kind produced in this 

 country, that are of pecuniary value, and applicable to the arts of 

 life. Information upon such subjects, thus readily and gratui- 

 tously accessible, will be of the utmost practical importance to the 

 miner and the mechanic, the builder and the architect, the en- 

 gineer, the whole mining interest, and the landed proprietors. The 

 establishment will contain also examples of the results of Metallur- 



