Valedictory Address by President D. Milne-Home of Milne-Graden, LL.D, V.-P. R.S.E. &c. Fellow of the Edinburgh Geological Society

Abstract

I have come here, in compliance with the request of your Council, on this the last meeting of the Winter Session, to offer for your consideration some remarks of a general character bearing on the objects and operations of the Society. Though, owing to bad health, I have not had it in my power to be present at any of the meetings during the past winter, I am aware of the nature of the papers which have come before you, and was glad to see that good work was being accomplished. It is also gratifying to learn that the number of our members has increased. The field of geological research, instead of being smaller than it was, seems to be becoming larger, so that there is the more reason for Geological Societies to make efforts to advance the science. In other branches of natural history, the field for discovery in Great Britain will soon have been thoroughly exhausted. In Botany, Ornithology, Entomology, and Meteorology, little remains to be discovered. But in Geology the case is different. Not only new facts on every side await and demand investigation, but facts hitherto known require to be restudied in order to be correctly understood. In illustration of this remark, let me advert to the subject of boulders,—those blocks of rock which are strewn over Scotland, seen not only in valleys and plains, but also on our hill sides, and occasionally perched on hill tops. The first explanation given of these was that they