.Vol. 67.] ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. liii 



Society was a letter written to Sir Charles Lyell as Foreign 

 Secretary in 1834, on the delta formed by the river Kander, since 

 it was turned into a new course in 1713. This was published in 

 vol. ii of the Proceedings. 1 



John Randall was born at Broseley (Shropshire) on September 1st, 

 1810. He early attained considerable skill in the art of painting 

 on china, and, adopting this as his profession, was engaged in it 

 until in 1891 his failing eyesight compelled him to give up the 

 work. His special branch was the painting of birds, in which 

 he obtained great proficiency. Joining the Geological Society in 

 1863 and remaining a Fellow until 1877, he published one paper 

 in our Journal in conjunction with G. E. Roberts, recording 

 their joint discovery of the Upper Ludlow Bone-bed in Linley Brook, 

 near Bridgnorth. Most of his other papers were contributed to 

 the ' Colliery Guardian/ and referred to the Midland iron-ores. 

 His literary activity was considerable, and among his works the 

 4 History of Broseley,' the ' Severn Valley/ and the ' Clay Industries ' 

 contained chapters and references dealing with the geology of the 

 Shropshire Coalfield and its borders, on which he had made himself 

 an authority, mainly by his own field observations. At the 1851 

 Exhibition he received a bronze medal for his collection of minerals 

 and fossils, and in 1867 he was sent by the Society of Arts to the 

 Paris Exhibition, where he reported on the manufacture of both 

 pottery and iron. After he had passed the age of 90, he dictated 

 to his daughter the volume on the arts and industries of Shrop- 

 shire for the ' Victoria History ' of the county. On June 7th, 

 1909, the freedom of the Borough of Wenlock was conferred on 

 him in his 99th year, and it is stated that he signed the Borough 

 Roll without the aid of spectacles. He lived to celebrate his 

 hundredth birthday, but died shortly afterwards. 



Thomas Roxburgh Polwhele, M.A., whose death took place at 

 Polwhele, near Truro, on September 2nd, 1909, was born in 1831, 

 and educated at Cambridge, where his interest in geology was 

 aroused by the teachings of Sedgwick. In 1857 he joined the staff 

 of the Geological Survey under Murchison and Ramsay, and in the 

 following year became a Fellow of this Society. During his official 



1 For the particulars given in these notices I am much indebted to the 

 1 Geological Magazine,' ' Nature,' the Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological 

 Society, the ' Times/ and to eeveral newspapers. 



