Geological Society, 295 



days are opening upon us j and that those who are employed in the 

 various departments of our foreign service, will universally feel, that 

 where such frequent opportunities of advancing useful knowledge are 

 likely to occur, an acquaintance with branches of science not imme- 

 diately essential to professional duty, is strictly accordant with the 

 dignity of the naval and military character. 



Among the donations of foreign specimens to our cabinets, there is 

 one of very peculiar interest ; — the rich collection of fossil bones and 

 shells presented to us by Mr. Crawfurd from Ava : which has the 

 greater value, as it is one of the first collections of this description, 

 that has made its way into England from our extensive empire in 

 the East, or the adjoining territories. These specimens afford some 

 very striking novelties, both to the Geologist and Zoologist j an ac- 

 count of which, I trust, will soon be laid before you by competent 

 describers. 



The last year has produced some valuable publications on the Geo- 

 logy of Volcanoes, which, though not emanating immediately from this 

 Society, are the work of our own members. We are indebted to Dr. 

 Daubeny for a judicious volume, in which he has combined what had 

 been previously published on volcanoes, with much valuable obser- 

 vation of his own. The productions of Mr. Scrope, though his 

 speculative views are not free from objection, are full of originality 

 and talent. — To that especially, which describes the extraordinary 

 volcanic region in the centre of France, illustrated with such effect as 

 to render the task of comparison with other districts easy and inviting, 

 I should have had pleasure in alluding more fully ; if an eloquent ac- 

 count of it, in one of our leading journals, were not familiar to us 

 all * : and this, also I believe I do not err in ascribing to an active 

 member of our Institution. 



In the speculative department of Geology, nothing has been of 

 late more remarkable, with reference to its history in this country, 

 than the universal adoption of a modified Volcanic theory, and the 

 complete subsidence, or almost oblivion, of the Wernerian and 

 Neptunian hypotheses ; — so that what, but a few years since, it 

 was by some considered as hardihood to propose in the form of con- 

 jecture, seems now to be established nearly with the evidence of fact. 

 It is no longer denied, that volcanic power has been active during all 

 the revolutions which the surface of the globe has undergone, and has 

 probably been itself the cause of many of them j — and that our continents 

 have not merely been shaken by some mighty subterraneous force, 

 but that strata, originally horizontal, have thus been raised, shattered, 

 and contorted, and traversed, perhaps repeatedly, by veins of fluid mat- 

 ter j — operations which have produced phenomena, so nearly resem- 

 bling those of recent volcanic agency, that to have so long disputed the 

 identity of their cause, is one of the most remarkable proofs in the an- 

 nals of philosophic history, of the power of hypothesis in distorting or 

 concealing truth. Whatever, therefore, be the fate of the Huttonian 

 theory in general, it must be admitted, that many of its leading pro- 

 * Quarterly Review, Vol. xxxv. page 447, &c. 



positions 



