Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/387

Rh the summer extension of the north-water of Baffin Bay. It is not included by Dr. Bessels among the animals of Hall Land. An ancient tusk of the Narwhal was picked up by Lieut. Parr, R.N., on the shore of Grinnell Land, a little above the present sea-level, a few miles to the north of the winter-quarters of the 'Alert.'

 

as long ago as 1841, the British Association made its only previous visit to Plymouth, some of us, now amongst its oldest members, thought ourselves too young to take any part in its proceedings. If the effects of that meeting are still traceable in this district, it will be admitted, of course, that the seed then sown was of excellent quality and that it fell on good soil. Be this as it may, the hope may be cherished that thirty-six years will not again be allowed to elapse between two consecutive visits to the capital of the two south-western counties. One effect of this wide hiatus is the loss of almost all the human links whose presence on this occasion would have pleasantly connected the present with the past. A glance at the lists of Trustees and the General, Sectional and Local officers in 1841 will show that the presence of scarcely one of them can be hoped for on this occasion; and there is but little probability that any of those who prepared Reports or Papers for the last Plymouth Meeting will have done so for that which is now assembled.

Nor are these the only changes. In 1841 Section C embraced, as at the beginning, the geographers as well as the geologists; but ten years later the geographers were detached, whether to find room for themselves, or to make room for the students of an older geography, it is not necessary to inquire. Some years afterwards came an innovation which, until entering on the preparation of this Address, I always regarded as a decided improvement. The first Presidential Address to this Section was delivered at Leeds in 1858, by the late Mr. Hopkins, so well known to geologists for his able application of his great mathematical powers to sundry important problems in their science; and from that time to the  Rh