lii. 



Annual Report of the Council. 



In 1858 and the following year, Prestwich, in company 

 with some of the most notable English geologists, Flower, 

 Godwin- Austen, Dr. Falconer, Lyell, Evans, and others, 

 paid the famous visits to the valley of the Somme in 

 Northern France, to investigate the evidence of the 

 antiquity of man — evidence which had been gradually 

 accumulating for 10 years or more previously under the 

 hands of the late Boucher de Perthes. Prestwich's work 

 in the valley gravels of the South of England enabled him 

 to give an authoritative opinion on the age of the similar 

 deposits of the valley of the Somme, an opinion which 

 established, after much heated controversy, the doctrine of 

 the antiquity of man and man's co-existence with an extinct 

 fauna. 



Prestwich served on the Royal Coal Commission of 

 1866 and on the Royal Commission on Water Supply of 

 1867. In 1849 he was awarded the Wollaston Medal by 

 the Geological Society for his researches at Coalbrook 

 Dale and in the London Basin. In 1853 he was elected a 

 Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1865 one of the Royal 

 Medals was awarded him for his contributions to geological 

 science. The value of his paper on " The Geological 

 Conditions affecting the Construction of a Tunnel between 

 England and France." published in 1874, was recognised 

 by the Institution of Civil Engineers awarding him a 

 Telford Medal and premium. Amongst the many honours 

 which fell to him may be mentioned the Corresponding 

 Membership of the Academie des Sciences ; the Foreign 

 Membership of the K. K. Geologische Anstalt (Vienna), 

 and of the Reale Accademia dei Lincei (Rome); whilst in 

 1888 he filled the important office of President of the fourth 

 session of the International Geological Congress, held in 

 London for the first time. He was elected an honorary 

 member of this Society on January 23, 1866, and his 

 services, both to Science and the State, were recognised 

 by the honour of knighthood being conferred on him at 

 the beginning of 1896. 



