Extract

My first duty to the members of the Geological Society of Glasgow is to thank them for the honour they conferred some time ago upon me in electing me their President. I have, as they know, a keen interest in the welfare of their Society. It is now more than thirty years since my connection with them began, when one of my earliest papers was published in the first volume of their Transactions. Since that time, although I have been less frequently among them, my interest in their progress and prosperity has by no means lessened. This Society has done so much good service to the cause of geology in Scotland that when asked to become its President I felt it to be at once a privilege and a pleasure to consent. I have been unable until now to appear before you, and I am sorry to say that even now I have found it impossible to secure leisure enough for the preparation of any formal address for this occasion. I propose, therefore, to speak to you on a subject which, while it cannot fail to have some interest for you, has for myself the great advantage, that having occupied me pretty closely for the last twenty years, it is a topic on which I may venture to speak without special preparation—the story of the last volcanoes that have been in eruption in the British Isles.

You are aware that these islands of ours are specially fortunate in the wonderfully

This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract