lxXXVlii PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, [May I9OO, 



great as those with which our forerunners successfully grappled, 

 and there are many matters to which I have made no allusion, 

 including the applications of geology to various practical purposes. 



As it has been, so it will he. Fresh lines of thought, new means 

 of work, will lead the geologists of the future to researches yet 

 undreamt of, to conceptions beyond our powers. Greater accuracy 

 of detail, combined with wider knowledge of the world, will not 

 take the place of, but will be accompanied by, broader and grander 

 views of the structure of our globe. And glad am I to think that 

 it should be so, to feel that we, the older geologists of the present 

 time, will be succeeded by others better prepared for their great 

 work, better able to sustain the high reputation of this Society and 

 of English geology. 



To our younger members I say that we hand over to you an 

 improved heritage : it is for you to further improve it and so to 

 pass it on to your successors. In the same way that we have 

 reverenced the work of those who went before, so doubtless will 

 you, who follow us, look with kindly eyes upon our work. 



In vacating this chair I have the pleasure of welcoming as my 

 successor one who both by age and by work is well-fitted to preside 

 over you during the passage from one century to another : one 

 who has done much, but from whom we can expect a good deal 

 more, one who is in that safe middle way between the older and 

 the younger geologists. Taking upon myself the character of repre- 

 sentative of your older members, I may address him, after the 

 fashion of the gladiators of old, but in no doleful strain : Hail, 

 President ! Those whose work is nearing its end greet you ! 



